"If I stay here, no one will come!" - August Felten is considered a Schwerin original. Since 2013, "Oll Felten" - as the Schweriners called their street sweeper - has stood as a bronze figure in Marienplatz. In one hand, he holds his self-made twig broom, and in the other, a penny he picked up. It seems as if he is mingling with the people, shouting one of his pithy sayings at them.
August Felten was born in 1858 and died in 1931. He was known to be energetic, rough-humored, quick-witted, and self-assured. He didn't hold back - not against the city's authorities nor against the fine lady with her dog - the "mutt that dirties everything again."
He did his work very precisely and meticulously. The people of Schwerin laughed about him because they knew: "Oll Felten" was lovable at heart and had a good core. In 1924, he even became a postcard motif. When he died in 1931 after a life of poverty yet full of dignity, everyone in Schwerin knew him.
What's special about the bronze figure is that it's a true portrait. But the artist wasn't satisfied with just the figure alone. He also tried to work out symbolism and another reference to the present time from it. August Felten thus became the bearer of many post-Wende fates: Many unemployed people found themselves far away from their actual professions, similar to holding a broom or a rake. Some of the measures that the employment offices provided for them seemed cynical and demeaning to the artist. Therefore, he stamped catchwords from the authorities' catalog of measures partly on the coat of old Felten. They are meant to provoke thought. Irony is the found penny with the saying: "Moving brings blessings." As if a street sweeper had ever made it to any blessing. Quite different for all those who make even more money with money and interest - as in the bank building behind August Felten.
Bernd StreiterThe artist Bernd Streiter was born in Havelberg in 1962. He studied Art Education and German at the Humboldt University in Berlin and later painting and graphic arts in Leipzig. He claims of himself: „The zeitgeist can slide down my hump. I follow my enthusiasm, the light of my life.“
In doing so, he looks for the magic behind ordinary things and sticks to the „classically eternal“, as he says. His materials should be able to last a long time. He made Bertha Klingberg in bronze in 2010.
