02.12.2011
Bode-Museum
On 1 December 2011, the historical, restored sculpture 'Frederick the Great' by Johann Gottfried Schadow was unveiled in an official ceremony in the Bode Museum. The unveiling was attended by the ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Marek Prawda, as well as the director of the National Museum in Szczecin, Lech Karwowski.
Johann Gottfried Schadow's marble monument 'Frederick the Great' is a loan, presented by the National Museum Szczecin to the Sculpture Collection and Museum of Byzantine Art, to be housed in the Bode Museum for a period of several years (probably until 2015). The piece of sculpture, some 2.30 metres in height, was first erected in 1793 in front of the Anklamer Tor (or Anklam Gate) in the city of Szczecin, at the time a Prussian territory known by its German name: Stettin. In 1877 it was replaced by a bronze cast. For a long time the Marble original was believed lost, until it emerged that besides two of the three pedestal relief panels, the marble statue itself - badly damaged and fragmented - was also stored in a Szczecin depot. The small cupola of the Bode Museum is the ideal place in which to display the work. The room's upper floor houses the Frederician generals and a copy of this selfsame monument, commissioned by Wilhelm von Bode in 1902 for this very site, and executed by the Berlin sculptor, Franz Tübbecke. The restored monument of Frederick the Great is now on show in celebration of the 300th anniversary of his birth. The display of the loan has been conceived to also coincide with the 250th anniversary of Johann Gottfried Schadow's birth on 20 May 2014.
The restoration was made possible by the National Museum, Szczecin, and the Schadow-Gesellschaft Berlin. In their efforts, the Schadow-Gesellschaft Berlin received support, both financial and non-material, from other foundations, members of the Lions Club in the Berlin borrough of Grunewald and scores of individual donations from private individuals.