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Stuttgart

I went from the airport at Frankfurt to Stuttgart by train and spent the first few days of the trip there. Mowgli and I went to a variety of places, including Killesberg Hill Park and vicinity, the downtown area, Königsbau and the shopping/restaurant areas downtown, the city library (cooler than it sounds), Uhlandshöhe Park at dusk, and more.

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The Arrival: Downtown Stuttgart

I took the high speed train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. It was mid to late afternoon the first day when we got in, so we walked around the downtown area a little, had dinner, and didn't do much else. I hadn't slept on the plane and wanted to stay awake until 9 or 10pm which I did. I slept pretty solidly and felt pretty normal the next day.

And now a story about two sculptures. A couple nights before my flight, I saw a news article about a college and something in the thumbnail image caught my eye. I clicked on the article and saw it was about the University of Michigan and the stock photo was an old stone building in the background across the street and in the foreground sat a big, red, odd, girder/stick-like statue as people walked by it on the sidewalk. I spent about 30 mintues on Google Streetview trying to find where it was, which included getting distracted and trying to find familiar locations like the apartment where I used to live. At some point I discovered the building was the student union and I spent 3 years living across the street from it and the sculpture would be kitty-corner or diagonal from that. I might have looked it up and found out it was installed almost a decade after I had graduated from there which was partly why I had no idea where that picture (I should have recognized the student union). OK, it was interesting to know but then I moved on to other ways to avoid packing for the trip.

The first morning in Stuttgart, we're walking to downtown and across the street I see a sculpture (picture 002). It doesn't look like the same one I had seen about 48 hours earlier, but it was big and red and odd, and built from stick-like girders. It was a sort of deja vu feeling, but...not quite. I hesitated and then realized I needed to take its picture so I could remember what it was and look into it.

I had to take a bigger picture of it since I didn't have a wide-angle lens, I took a 3x3 matrix of pictures and figured I'd stitch it togther in post-production, which I did when I got home (picture 003). But I also did some digging into what in the hell that sculpture was.

The statue in front of the the University of Michigan Museum of Art is called Orion and was created by Mark di Suvero. It was made in 2006, was on a loan to UM in 2008, and in 2019 they purchased it for permanent display. OK, cool.

The one in Stuttgart was more difficult to identify. I wasn't quite sure where it was but I could see from a street sign that one road was Fritz-Elsas-Strasse, and looking at the buildings across the street, there was a bar named Mos Eisley (German Star Wars nerds!). Yes, the big sign that said Rotebühlplatz was also a clue, but sometimes I spot the trees before the forest. Anyway, I found a web page that described the sculpture, named Lobotchevsky, though it's in German and its sculpture was indeed Mark Di Suvero! Yay me! And I also learned its name and that this "copy" of the one in Ann Arbor was made in 1987-1988, almost 20 years before its "predecessor" (in my mind). Here's a rough computer translation of the description:

The title of Mark di Suvero's sculpture Lobotchevsky refers to the Russian mathematician Nicolai Ivanovich Lobotchevsky (1793-1856). Inspired by his work, Suvero associates a three-dimensional sculpture whose directions of movement are reminiscent of mathematical diagrams. An abstract, cubic-constructivist sculpture usually does not have a main view. However, the installation between the busy Rotebühlplatz and the building of the Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz creates the impression from behind and in front.

And yes, to tie-in Lobotchevsky, I was listenting to Tom Leher's some "Plagarize" fairly recently too.

I was also a bit jet lagged when I got home and started looking all this stuff up and "all the pieces started to fall into place...yeeeesssss, eeeeeeeexcellent..."

Killesberg Hill Park

Killesbergpark (Höhenpark Killesberg) is a public park on the north side of Stuttgart. The park has some gardens, paths to walk on, it's own little train that circles the park, a large observation tower that's 40m/130ft high, some ponds, a restaurant, and an area where a small circus performs 9 months out of the year.

Back in the WWII-era the park was a place where Germans were sorted and separated, with the Jews going to the Concentration Camps. It had not been discussed much for the first decade after the war, but in the late 50s/early 60s, several groups decided to change that. There are now markers and memorials and signs that explain its history.

Overlooks on the Way Back Down

Chinese Garden of Beautiful Melodies

Its name is the Qingyin-Garten or Garten der schönen Melodie in German, which is the Garden of Beautiful Melody. It is a Chinese garden about halfway up the hill to Killesberg Park. It is small but has some nice features. A sign at the front says it's open until dusk daily, advises parents should keep an eye on their children, that professional recording requires permission, and people not obeying the rules will be asked to leave, and if necessary the police will be called.

It's a small area but things are tucked away. The entrance is through a gate that looks like it's from a martial arts movie. There's pagoda, some water with a small waterfall, a pond with fish an a bridge to cross it, lanterns, a "Hall of Friendship" (which I think was not open), a view of the city, and more.

It also has graffiti in various places, including paint as well as things carved into the wood of some of the buildings, which gives it a slightly less peaceful, more sketchy feel. Here's a web site with a lot of information on the Garden (in German, I used Google Translate to get some information from it).

Continuing Down the Hill

After visiting the Chinese Garden of Beautiful Melody, we continued down the hill to the central downtoan area. We passed a fountain with a tile mosaic on it. It's called Koppentalbrunnen (Koppental well) and the image represents "the life force of water and people's belief in its healing properties" (translated from the German on a plaque). The well has existed since at least the 1500s. A new fountain was designed in 1905 which included a pastel-like fresco painting. It did not last long and was replaced by the class mosaic in 1926. It was damaged in WWII and repaired once again in 1950. The fountain system was partially dismanted in 2007 to protect it from hospital construction nearby and was restored on June 8, 2015.

The University of Stuttgart

The University of Stuttgart was closer to the hotel where we stayed. Unfortunately, Mowgli's friend there was not around. We walked through it on the way to and from various places.

Back Downtown Again

We walked by this plaza a number of times. It's where the Stuttgart stock exchange (Börsenplatz) is located. There were a couple of sculptures plus a freaky looking tree that resembles a dendrite in a nerve cell.

Königsbau and Vicinity

The Königsbau (King's Building) was built between 1856-1860 for King Wilhelm I of Württemberg, with the King giving permission in 1858 for it to be named Königsbau. As was much in the area, it was badly damaged by bombing in WWII. In 1958-1959 it was rebuilt. The Suttgart Stock Exchange was there between 1991 and 2020 before moving to Börsenstrasse. Between 2004 and 2006 it was updated and is now a large shopping mall with 5 stories of office space above.

Because it's basically a large, crowded mall, we didn't go to close to it, let alone inside.

Schillerplatz and Altes Schloss (Old Castle)

Friedrich Schiller an 18th century poet, philosopher, physician, and playright. The square is surrounded by the Stiftskirche (Collegiate Church), the Fruchtkasten building, the Prinzenbau (which has the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice), the Alte Kanzlei (Old Chancellery) and Altes Schloss (the Old Castle).

The Old Castle (Altes Schloss) was originally a "water fortress" (surrounded by water) to protect a horse stud garden, which was what the city was known for ("Stud garden" → "stut garten" → "Stuttgart"). It was the residence for counts of Wuerttemberg in the 14th century and the castle was enlarged for that in 1325, adding the the Dürnitz building. In the mid 16th century, it was further enlarged, creating the quadrangular inner court, including columns with a older Corinthian look. In 1746 Duke Carl Eugen commissioned the New Castle to be built and the old one was relegated to secondary use and storage of antiquities. The Dürnitz building and two towers were destroyed in a fire in 1931 and before the repairs were complete, the rest was severely damaged in WWII by bombing in 1944. Restoration began in 1946 and was finished in 1962. The Wuerttemberg State Museum (Landesmuseum Württemberg) has been in the Old Castle since 1948.

Since it was towards the end of the day, we just walked around the outside of the buildings and into the Old Castle's inner court. The courtyard has a bronce statue of Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg sculpted in 1859. The entrance to the museum is in the courtyard as well. The place looks like some "classic" European location and I expected there to be some single, high-end car there, with two people getting in very fancy, formal wear, and realize they were all part of a car commerical being filmed. But alas, the area was empty except for the occasional other rube tourists. In the courtyard is a bronze statue of Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg mounted on a horse. He lived from 1445 to 1496 and was known as Count Everhard V from 1459-1495. The last year of his life, in 1495, he became the Duke of Württemberg, Eberhard im Bart (Eberhard the Bearded). Among his deeds were founding the University of Tübingen in 1477 and expelling all Jews living in Württemberg, and unifying the two halves of the Württemberg (Württemberg-Urach and Württemberg-Stuttgart) in 1482. So a mixed bag.

Neues Schloss (New Castle)

The New Palace was commissioned by Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg to replace the Old Castle in 1744. It's construction began in 1746 and either construction or repairs continued for another century. It was almost burned to the ground in WWII in 1944 by Allied bombs, leaving just the facade standing. Reconstruction started in 1958. It now houses some state government offices and is open to the public through guided tours.

We were there late in the day on a weekend and just took a few pictures from the outside.

By the Operahouse and Theater

In June 2021, a strong storm damaged the palace gardens and tore the copper roof of the opera house. The remains were put in the Eckensee Lake next to it (for now) as a reminder of the realities and costs of climate change.

Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart (Stuttgart City Library)

The Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart (Stuttgart City Library) moved to its current location in 2011. While very cube-like, it was intended to combine avant-garde and older notions. Really, it feels like something designed to be the most German library possible. It is white. SO WHITE. Blindingly so. People are not required to wear all black while inside because the white walls, floors, ceilings, lights, and air pull any color out of everything and consume it. It's 9 stories tall with 2 more underground and lots of windows that might only be visible from the outside (or maybe offices if they have them around the outside of the building). There's a room that's a 4 story high cube with nothing, absolutely nothing in it but white. The floors, the walls, the celing, the air and the bo-- actually, there are no books in that white space. The 4 story room that consumes a bit less than half of the building is devoid of all books and anything (probably because they were not really white, too many colors on the cover, and the ink isn't white).

The 5 stories above that does have books, but mostly along the outside walls. The inside of the space is filled with...white! There are skylights that let in more white light. And, surprisingly, there is a secret magic staircase labeled "Terrace" (Terrasse, in German) that provides access to the roof where people can wander around and look at the area from 10 floors up. The library also has a sort of 1970s-ish feel like what they thought the 1990s would be like.

It's also reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges' short story, "The Library of Babel" though it's much cleaner and whiter and only has up and down, is not infinite, and the books aren't filled with gibberish (well, I don't speak German, but I'm assuming the books that are there are legitimate). So it's really quite different.

What it seems to be is something that attacts people to take pictures of themselves, presumably to post online. There was someone in the lower cube room who was standing in a corner, wearing a semi-skimpy top, having someone take pictures of her for the few minutes I was in that room waiting for Mowgli. And I've seen pictures similar to the two big ones that I took used elsewhere on web sites. But it is a cool building, and the roof and its view are cool too.

Stuttgart at Night

We went to the Uhlandshöhe Park overlook (Aussichtspunkt Uhlandshöhe). There's a little observation deck (Ruine Uhlandshöhe) that has a nice view of the downtown area. We were there at dusk, then walked around a bit to the observatory that's a short walk away, then eventually back so I could get some night pictures of downtown Stuttgart. That was nice. Unfortuantely there's a lot of graffiti defacing a lot of the buildings and the statue in the park.

There's a sculpture in the park called Eve, created by Bernd Stöcker. Unfortunately, it's a bit defaced by graffiti. Created in 1984, it was stolen and probably destroyed. Stöcker recreated it in 2011 and it was re-erected in the park. Fragments of the stolen scuplture were seized by the Polish polie shortly after the robbery. (According to the wiki page on Stöcker (in German). Also see this for information on the statue.)

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