Fountain of Life

History of the work

On the western side of the Grosse Schanze, in front of the university's main building, stands the 'Lebensbrunnen' (Fountain of Life) by Max Fueter, a fountain with bronze. The sources give different dates: the City of Bern gives 1970, Wikipedia 1972, and the artists' lexicon SIKART 1968 to 1972.

The fountain belongs to the most recent form of the Schanze. After the fortifications were levelled, the municipality laid out a park with promenades here in 1890/91, and the university's main building went up from 1900 to 1903. Between 1957 and 1967 the slope was heavily dug away for the new railway installations; the old park was replaced by new gardens and wide terraces looking out over the old town. Fueter's fountain was made in the following years on the new Schanze terrace.

Max Fueter was born on 6 March 1898; the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland gives Konolfingen as his birthplace, SIKART Bern. He grew up in the Burgerliches Waisenhaus, an orphanage of Bern's burgher community, passed his school-leaving exam at the Literargymnasium and in 1918 began modelling at the trade school together with his friend Karl Geiser. After years in Berlin (1926 to 1929) and Rome (1929/30) he lived in Wabern until 1955. From 1950 to 1954 he sat on the city's art commission. He died in Bern on 29 September 1983.

Fueter's subject was the human figure, mostly after young models and following classical ideals. In Bern his works include the flute player in the arcade of Rathausgasse, for which he won a city competition in 1938, the fountain in the courtyard of the town hall and the large Pan at the Marzili. In 1975 Max Huggler published a book on Fueter's fountains in Bern. From the terrace you can take in the fountain together with the view over the rooftops of the old town.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Max Fueter (Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher) · HLS: Fueter, Max (Tapan Bhattacharya) · Wikipedia (de): Max Fueter · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Grosse Schanze · Wikimedia Commons: Lebensbrunnen