Group of Deer

History of the work

By a small seating area south of the residential building at Brünnenstrasse 79 in the Stapfenacker district stands a fountain with a group of roe deer in stone. The City of Bern lists the sculpture as 'Rehgruppe' (Group of Deer) by Walter Schnegg, carved from limestone from the Fricktal, and dates it to 1944 to 1946. On Wikimedia Commons and in the list of Schnegg's works on Wikipedia the ensemble is called the Rehbrunnen (deer fountain) and dated 1946.

Commons describes the location more precisely: opposite the cantonal building at Brünnenstrasse 66. There the fountain is classed as a drinking fountain with a rectangular basin, operated by Energie Wasser Bern. The Stapfenacker school with its mosaic fountain is about 200 metres away.

Schnegg was born in Köniz on 7 November 1903 and died in Bern on 20 June 1990. According to Wikipedia he first served an apprenticeship in a metalworking trade, then a second one as a sculptor. Courses at the school of applied arts in Bern followed, a period as a volunteer at a stonemason's firm, studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva and at two academies in Paris, and study trips to Stuttgart, Munich and Italy. The artists' lexicon SIKART describes him as a sculptor, modeller and painter and names nudes, animals and fountain figures as his subjects.

The deer belong to a series of animal fountains he made for Bern. Wikipedia lists, among others, an ornamental fountain of 1950 in front of the Schönau pumping station on the Aare with a bronze fish and frog, and the fox fountain in Weissenbühl of 1954. He also made figures such as 'Mutter mit Säugling' (Mother with Infant) of 1936 in the Spitalacker district and the 'Erdbeer-Mareili' (Strawberry Mareili) of 1946 in Breitfeld. As early as 1940 the magazine 'Die Berner Woche' published a piece about him.

On site it is worth looking at the material: the pale limestone shows the traces of carving clearly, and from the seating area you can see the group at close range.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Walter Schnegg · Wikipedia (de): Walter Schnegg · Wikimedia Commons: Rehbrunnen (Rehgruppe – Walter Schnegg 1946)