page_title: Lorelei Fountain
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Lorelei Fountain / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Ernst Herter &#160;(1846&#8211;1917)&#160;&#160;DescriptionGerman sculptorDate of birth/death 14 May 1846 19 December 1917Location of birth/death Berlin BerlinWork location BerlinAuthority control : Q871262 VIAF:&#8201;77111692 ISNI:&#8201;0000 0001 2102 5176 ULAN:&#8201;500267506 LCCN:&#8201;n87129740 GND:&#8201;118774247 WorldCat creator QS:P170,Q871262 English: Ernst Herter's Lorelei Fountain in Joyce Kilmer Park overlooking en:Yankee Stadium. I took this photo myself.
context_page_description: The Lorelei Fountain, also known as the Heinrich Heine Memorial, is located on East 161st Street in the Concourse section of the Bronx, New York City, near the Bronx County Courthouse. It is a white marble fountain dedicated to the memory of the German poet and writer Heinrich Heine. Heine had once written a poem devoted to the Lorelei, a feminine water spirit much like a mermaid that is associated with the Lorelei rock in St. Goarshausen, Germany. The monument was originally to be placed in Heine's hometown of Düsseldorf, but antisemitism and nationalist propaganda in the German Empire precluded the completion of the monument on Heine's 100th birthday in 1897. Instead, it was unveiled on July 8, 1899 in the presence of the sculptor, Ernst Herter, in the Bronx.
context_section_description: In the autumn of 1887, a committee for the establishment of a Heine Memorial was formed in Düsseldorf. The aim of the initiative was to unveil the monument to the 100th birthday of the poet, in 1897. The Munich-based poet Paul Heyse participated in a call to the committee, and, among other things, wrote to the Düsseldorf Gazette on November 2, 1887 in Düsseldorf Gazette. Following Düsseldorf's lead, other German cities formed committees to support the project. Even in New York there was interest in the project. The Austro-Hungarian Empress and Heine admirer,  Elisabeth, also joined the Düsseldorf committee, and sent 50,000 marks toward the construction of the monument under the condition that the Berlin sculptor Ernst Herter would build it. In December 1887, Herter provided some designs for the monument.
  The efforts of the Düsseldorf city council made progress. On March 6, 1888, the Düsseldorf City Council decided to build a Heine monument at a tie of eleven to eleven votes, including the vote of the Mayor Heinrich Ernst Lindemann, who was also a member of the Memorial Committee. The City Council was thus as divided as the German public, since the announcement of the monument plans sparked fierce debate. At the time of the vote, Herter already had a first plan for the monument, in that it was to contain a canopy. Since the Empress did not like this design, in May 1888 two further proposals came about: one depicting Heine sitting on a pedestal, the other with the current Lorelei fountain. The designs were submitted on June 30, 1888. While Elisabeth preferred the Heine-figure, Düsseldorf preferred the Lorelei Fountain.
  Opposition to the monument formed almost immediately after the plans were released in the autumn of 1887. That year, two pamphlets were published, directed against Heine. In addition, several writers and newspapers wrote pieces defaming Heine. However, among some German journalists and writers, Heine was still popular and his plan was still supported.
  By January 1889, the Empress withdrew her support. The project was thus temporarily shelved because public donations netted only 15,000 marks. However, since Herter had estimated a cost of 32 to 40,000 marks to build the monument, the artist now began to collect donations for the monument in its own right, but his efforts were unsuccessful. Important supporters also resigned from the Düsseldorf Memorial Committee, including Paul Heyse and Mayor Lindemann. Due to limited funding, the Committee decided to grant Herter the contract for another draft. In December 1892, the Committee and sculptor signed a contract for the pedestal.
caption: The monument with the former Yankee Stadium in the background, 2007
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