Brückenmännchen, Sandstone relief figure on Augustusbrücke in Dresden, Germany

The Brückenmännchen is a sandstone relief figure on the Altstadt land pier of Dresden's Augustusbrücke, at the Terrassenufer. It shows a crouching man with arms braced and a cap pulled low, wearing a close-fitting buttoned coat, padded breeches, boots and a cap, with shoulder-length curly hair. It faces downstream.

The sandstone relief on the Altstadt abutment of the Augustusbrücke is first documented in the early 18th century, though tradition links it to the Italian master builder Matteo Foccio. In 1813 the bridge was blown up and the figure buried; Christian Gottlieb Kühn made a copy in 1814, and the damaged original was later found in the rubble. The sculpture was restored during the 1907–1910 rebuild and recreated in its present form in 1967.

From the Baroque period into the 19th century, Dresdeners called the figure "Matz-Fotze" after the supposed builder Matteo Foccio; Goethe gives a "Matz Fotz von Dresden" a role in his farce Hanswursts Hochzeit. The name also became proverbial for a sneak, and phrases like "ein Brückenmännchen machen" were 19th-century euphemisms for urgently needing the toilet. Since 1973 a Kulturpalast series was named after it.

The relief is set into the land pier on the Altstadt side of the Augustusbrücke, at the Terrassenufer, facing downstream. It is small and easily missed, so look at the bridge abutment rather than the roadway. A copy of the figure stands at Kotzschweg 12 in Loschwitz, on a house once owned by architect Hermann Klette.

The sandstone relief on the old-town abutment at Terrassenufer is a 1967 re-creation; the 1814 replacement by Christian Gottlieb Kühn was fitted into the bridge half a year before the damaged original was found in the rubble. The original was then walled in near the Italienisches Dörfchen and weathered badly.