Frankfurter Märchenbrunnen, Art Nouveau fountain in Untermainanlage, Germany

The Frankfurter Märchenbrunnen is a fountain located in Untermainanlage that centers on a white marble nymph surrounded by bronze animals including fish and lizards. The entire structure rises to about eight meters and displays detailed craftsmanship from its original period.

The fountain was created in 1910 through the patronage of a Frankfurt art patron and placed near the city's theatre as a public artwork. After wartime destruction, the bronze figures were reconstructed in the early 2000s.

The nymph is popularly called the "Mainweibchen". The model was Margarete Endres, a laundress from Niederrad, then 19, who posed for professor Friedrich Hausmann in 1906 at the house of the von Weinberg family. She was the daughter of a rubber-mixing master from Lower Franconia, not a baker as often wrongly reported.

The fountain stands in the Untermainanlage, west of the Oper Frankfurt and beside the Städtische Bühnen, a short walk from Willy-Brandt-Platz. It was temporarily removed for a underground car park extension and has stood fully reconstructed since May 2006. Approach from the opera side to see the nymph facing the basin.

The bronze figures were reconstructed by North Korean artists using 1920s photographs after wartime damage destroyed the originals. This surprising international collaboration brought the artwork back to life in a completely new era.