The fountain of Zähringen was completely destroyed by bombers during a British airstrike on November 27, 1944. The offer of the sculptor Hugo Knittel to make a replica of the old figure for free was turned down by Joseph Schlippe who was responsible for the reconstruction for he wanted to construct a “timeless” fountain. Knittel’s draft was based partly on prewar pictures made by the spouse of the company Annemarie Brenzinger.