Goethe–Schiller Monument, Bronze memorial statue in Washington Park, Milwaukee, United States
The Goethe-Schiller Monument is a bronze statue in Washington Park in Milwaukee, showing the two German writers standing side by side on a tall granite base. Passages from their works are inscribed on the base, and the figures face outward toward the surrounding park.
The monument was funded by German-American organizations in Milwaukee in the early 20th century, as a tribute to two writers who mattered deeply to that community. It was cast from the same model as Ernst Rietschel's original sculpture, which had been completed in Weimar in 1857.
The monument shows Goethe and Schiller standing side by side, a pairing that reflects how German-speaking communities saw these two writers as inseparable. For Milwaukee's German-descended residents, placing this monument in a public park was a way of claiming a visible presence in the city.
The monument stands in an open area of Washington Park and can be visited at any time without charge. Parking is available nearby, and the surrounding park is easy to walk through, so it is simple to combine a stop here with a longer stroll.
The Milwaukee casting is one of several copies made from Ernst Rietschel's original model, with another copy standing in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. This means the same design can be seen in two very different American cities, each placed there by a local German-American community.
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