Germany
* June 20, 1924 Würzburg
† February 22, 2017 Ganslberg
Fritz Koenig was one of the most internationally important German sculptors of the 20th century. Recurring motifs in his sculptures are highly reduced geometric forms that stylize the human body. The spherical heads often sit on top of slender columns or steles; bodies and limbs appear cylindrical. The majority of his sculptures are cast in bronze.
Among the most important works of Koenig, who, particularly after World War II, dealt intensively with transience, mourning and remembrance, are the memorial for the Mauthausen concentration camp and the memorial to the victims of the attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
Koenig’s main and most famous work is the 20-ton, almost eight-meter-high “Large Spherical Caryatid”, which stood in front of the World Trade Center in New York until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The sculpture was the only remaining work of art to be recovered largely intact from the ruins of the collapsed twin towers. Known to Americans as “The Sphere”, the world’s largest bronze sculpture of modern times with its damages deliberately left unrepaired, now stands in Manhattan’s Liberty Park next to the newly built World Trade Center. Thus, it has been transformed from a piece of art into a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attack.
