Fliegende Kraniche / Cranes in Flight

The group of five stylised cranes seems to rise weightlessly into the air. The artist effectively achieves this impression by a skilful composition of the birds’ bodies whose wing tips touch. The lower bird in the group, which fans out in several directions, is mounted on a stone plinth, the rest are strung together in a sweeping arc. The individual bronze elements are abstract interpretations of the basic shape of a bird’s body and can also be perceived as an almost abstract series. Erich Fritz Reuter, a professor at Technische Universität Berlin who created numerous works in architectural contexts in public spaces, did mostly figural work, but in his later years also created entirely abstract forms. “Fliegende Kraniche” was created in 1959 for a fountain on Gontermannstraße in Berlin Tempelhof. The work was also produced as a small-scale sculpture. This commission for the City of Hilden, Holterhöfchen Park, came about in 1964 through the architect Peter Poelzig, who knew the artist from TU Berlin.

More about this: http://www.erich-fritz-reuter.de/pdfs/nr79.pdf