Richard-Wagner-Denkmal, Bronze statue of Richard Wagner on a marble base in the Innenstadt, Leipzig, Germany

The Richard-Wagner-Denkmal stands on a wide staircase at the Goerdelerring, on the northwest edge of Leipzig's inner city. The white marble block, two metres square and 2.9 metres high, was designed by Max Klinger and carries over-life-size reliefs on three sides. On it stands a 1.8-metre painted bronze of the young Wagner in everyday clothes, backed by a four-metre black bronze plate showing the older composer's silhouette.

A committee formed in 1883, months after Wagner's death, to raise funds for a Leipzig monument. In 1903 Max Klinger took on the project; his 1911 plan placed a 5.3-metre figure on a relief-carved marble block on the stairway between Fleischerplatz and Matthäikirchhof, and the foundation stone was laid in 1913. War, money problems and Klinger's death in 1920 halted work; the base stood in the Klingerhain for over 80 years. Stephan Balkenhol's design won the 2011 competition and was unveiled on 22 May 2013, Wagner's 200th birthday.

The base's three relief sides pair the naked Rhine maidens with music, poetry and acting, Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk ideal; Siegfried, Mime and the slain dragon appear left, Parsifal and Kundry right. The marble cube, two metres wide and 2.9 metres tall, was designed by Max Klinger and long stood in the Klingerhain, nicknamed the "porn cube" for its nude figures.

The monument sits on the wide staircase on the northwest side of the inner city, in the green strip along the Goerdelerring, where the Fleischerplatz steps once led up to the Matthäikirchhof. The staircase was rebuilt in 2010 after its demolition in the 1970s, and the Klinger base was set into it. Approach from the Ring, and walk around the base to see the reliefs on three sides.

The four-metre black bronze plate behind the figure quotes Max Klinger's never-built design for a Wagner statue, and the sculptor Stephan Balkenhol called his own work a paraphrase of Klinger. The monument was largely financed by Balkenhol himself, who sold 25 small bronze replicas of it.