Potsdam is well known for it’s parks, castles and palaces. And of course every royal park and garden needs to be garnished with statues. Statues of former kings, queens, generals and other nobility. Statues of ancient statesmen and scholars, of mythological and religious figures. And, of course, statues of women with bared breasts. Because why not? Even the upper crust of military Prussia did a lot of fucking around…they had enough time and opportunity.
When you enter Park Sanssouci your are greeted by several statues depicting African people called the “Moor’s Rondelle”. “Moor (Mohr)” being an outdated German term for black people. For modern sensibilities, being currently in a renewed wave of political correctness and statue toppling, this was no longer tenable. Some activists argued that the statues ought to be removed as they also depict an African woman with bare breasts. This is supposed to be demeaning to black people today. What these activists seemingly failed to see was that the whole park is full of statues of naked women, most of them decidedly European looking.
A compromise was found. The statues could stay and the whole arrangement of busts was renamed to “First Rondelle” with a plaque describing the history and change of names. In fact this new name was supposed to be the original one. Nevertheless here is the offending statue and a whole lot of other bare breasted statues as well. Enjoy!
