Bavaria Statue - History - Construction

Construction

The bronze statue was sand-cast using a process resulting in four major parts (head, bust, hips, lower half with lion) and a number of smaller pieces which were attached later.

Klenze proposed that the huge statue be cast in bronze. Ever since Classical Antiquity this alloy had been an esteemed material, valued for its long-lasting qualities, and Ludwig, who wanted to create an enduring legacy, strongly favored bronze. The king therefore supported the Munich metal founder Johann Baptist Stiglmaier and his nephew Ferdinand von Miller and revived the long tradition of bronze casting in Munich by setting up a new foundry, the Royal Metal Foundry (Königliche Erzgießerei), which went into operation on Munich’s Nymphenburger Strasse in 1825.

From the end of 1839 on, Schwanthaler and numerous assistants were engaged in producing a full-sized plaster model of the Bavaria statue. In 1844 an initial, four meter high auxiliary model had been completed. In late summer 1843 the finished full-size model could be dismantled in preparation for using the pieces as models for the castings. Stiglmaier died before this work could begin in 1844 and Miller took over leadership of the project. On September 11, 1844 the head of the Bavaria statue was cast using metal from bronze Turkish cannon salvaged from the 1827 naval Battle of Navarino (modern-day Pylos on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula). These cannon had been sold in Europe as recycling material under the then Greek King Otto, son of Ludwig I, and a number of them had reached Bavaria. In January and March 1845 the arms were cast and on October 11, 1845 the bust. The hip section was cast the following year and in July 1848 the entire upper portion of the statue was finished. The last major casting, for the lower section, took place on December 1, 1849.

On March 20, 1848 Ludwig I was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his son Maximilian, which had consequences for the continuation of the monument project since the Bavaria statue and the Hall of Honor, as with all of Ludwig’s national monuments, were carried out and financed privately. Although Maximilian obligated himself to continue the project, only 9,000 gulders per year were allocated for it in his budget, which was completely inadequate. Miller, who had advanced the costs for the casting from his own resources, got into serious financial difficulties. Only when Ludwig agreed to privately finance the completion of the Bavaria statue could it be finished. In all, the Hall of Fame cost the king 614,000 guilders, the Bavaria statue 286,346 guilders and the property on which they stood 13,784 guilders. Miller was never recompensed for part of the costs, but the beneficial advertising effects for the foundry turned out to be so great that his expenses could be more than recovered from the many orders the company subsequently received, and the later privatized foundry remained in business until up into the 1930s. Over one hundred other major bronze works of art located worldwide were produced in this foundry, including Klenze’s obelisk on Munich’s Karolinenplatz, Bertel Thorvaldsen’s statue of Friedrich Schiller on Stuttgart’s Schillerplatz, and Christian Daniel Rauch’s statue of Maximilian I of Bavaria in front of the National Theater in Munich.