Großer trauernder Mann

The Großer trauernder Mann, or Great Mourning Man, sits as a bronze figure huddled in the Georgenbau courtyard. Ernst Barlach cast this somber silhouette in nineteen twenty-five, originally intending it for a war memorial in Magdeburg. When the National Socialists rose to power, they declared the sculpture degenerate art and removed it from public view. It survived the subsequent air raids and the decades of German division by remaining tucked away in private hands, eventually finding its home here in Dresden.