Goldener Rathausmann, Dresden

The Golden Town Hall Man is a sculpture on the tower of the New Town Hall in Dresden. He symbolizes Hercules, who pours out his cornucopia with one hand and points to the beauties of the city at his feet with the raised hand.

The sculpture was designed by the Dresden sculptor Richard Guhr. A full-size sculpture of 2,300 kilograms of plaster mass is molded in the ivory and plaster figurine factory of the Italian Raffael Pellicci. On April 12, 1908, the figure is placed on the tower of the New Town Hall. The figure is 5.05 meters high from the base to the crown, weighs 1750 kg and is made entirely of copper. Originally it was gilded with 100 grams of gold leaf directly on the copper. Ewald Redam, who was the reigning Saxon heavyweight and octogenarian champion in 1907, was the model for the design.

Because of the posture of the approximately 2.10 m long right arm of the sculpture, which is reminiscent of the Hitler salute, there were some discussions after the Second World War, especially from outsiders, but unsuccessful, about removing the sculpture.

In 1963, the sculpture was restored directly on site and an oil ground gilding was applied. In view of the 800th anniversary of the city in the summer of 2006 and due to heavy rusting of the inner frame of the figure, it was removed from the city hall tower on August 20, 2004 for a complete restoration. Haber & Brandner did the restoration at their Berlin location. 520 grams of 23.75-carat gold leaf worth 10,000 euros, so-called quadruple gold, were applied in the process. In addition, a new inner frame made of stainless steel was installed, broken parts were replaced, and dents and 19 bullet holes from wartime were removed. The entire restoration cost the city of Dresden 230,000 euros. The Town Hall Man was placed back on the tower of the New Town Hall on July 1, 2006 after being displayed at ground level for several days.