Flügelauto, Public art sculpture in Cologne, Germany
Der Goldene Vogel is a gold-painted 1989 Ford Fiesta mounted on the octagonal stair tower of the Zeughaus in Cologne's Old Town. The car is hollowed out, weighted with 1.2 tonnes of railway rails in the engine bay and lined with epoxy resin; its two 800-kilogram wings are moulded from glass-fibre-reinforced polyester resin 10 cm thick. The whole object measures 6.20 m long, 10 m wide and 3.50 m high and weighs four tonnes without its substructure.
The Golden Bird emerged from HA Schult and Elke Koska's two-week action Fetisch Auto in April 1989, when Ford Fiestas were staged across Cologne for the company's 60th site anniversary. A crane placed the winged car on the Stapelhaus tower on 13/14 April 1989; in 1991 Ford gave it to the friends' association of the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum, and it was mounted on the Zeughaus staircase tower on 25 April 1991. Regierungspräsident Franz-Josef Antwerpes fought the unapproved installation for years, calling it a Cologne farce.
Cologne residents took the winged car to heart after the 1989 action, prompting Ford to donate it to the friends' association of the Kölnisches Stadtmuseum in 1991. From 1993 the city used its image in its own advertising, and in 1994 the 1111th day since its "landing" on the tower was celebrated with a documentation volume.
The sculpture stands on the octagonal stair tower of the Zeughaus, more than 23 metres above the street in Cologne's Old Town. It is best seen from the opposite side of the street, where the Regierungspräsident's former office faced the tower, or from the square around the building. The tower itself is not open for climbing to the sculpture.
The tower was reinforced through two floors with a one-tonne steel brace, called a "Königsstuhl", to carry the sculpture. The whole object measures 6.20 m long, 10 m wide and 3.50 m high and weighs four tonnes without its substructure.
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