A curious Case of Cultural Misappropriation?
 

Checking some facts using Richard Hough and Denis Richards The Battle of Britain Jubilee History Hodder and Stoughton 1990 edition I was struck by a photograph showing the German Aviation monument erected in Berlin in 1935. There is no accreditation for the photo, the sculpture however is a ringer for being the long lost identical twin of Mr Gormleys Angel of The North! Has anyone a clearer photograph of this monument?

Prangster,

Was it this monument to Otto Lillienthal with a sculpture of Icarus?


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....27b29a87f8.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Breuer

The description sounds like it, though it was built in 1914, not 1935.

The Gateshead Flasher is a bit more monumental in my unbiased opinion, although the German effort is more anatomically accurate.

jensdad,

I had never heard it called the Gateshead Flasher. As I read that, the Geordie pronunciation of it ran through my mind!

I understand you are still looking for a photo of the 1935 German aviation monument?

i found this one via Getty images
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....06342af73.jpeg
1935 Doberitz (east of Berlin)

SLB

Read the thread.

The photo may be from 1935, but the monument isn't.

And if it's taken at Döberitz, the monument must have moved 25 km to Berlin-Lichterfelde subsequently, which seems a tad unlikely.

Hmmm. There appear to be differences between the two photographs - unless camera angle can be blamed.

Hmmm, indeed.

You're not wrong - the Getty photo is Albert Speer's "Icarus", which was indeed commissioned by Hitler in 1935. No relation to the 1914 Lilienthal memorial in the original photo.

Cultural misappropriation?
 

Thanks for the heads up guys I was being ever so slightly ironic

There were comparisons made at the time Gormley's Angel was installed between it and Speer's Icarus, both in terms of plagiarism and also some rather fanciful suggestions that erecting a "copy" of a Nazi statute was offensive to the Jewish population in the Northeast:


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b63bbf9294.jpg

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-42426028

I may be wrong, but I can't find any evidence that the Speer statue is extant. Can anyone confirm ?

Was Gormley aware of the Luftwaffe monument or just curious coincidence?

There's no evidence that he was.