A visit to Berlin includes the Brandenburg Gate, the TV Tower, the Reichstag and of course the Spree. Especially in the photos of the river in the capital, a large statue keeps appearing in the background: the Molecule Man. TRAVELBOOK reveals the meaning of the statue.
On the Berlin Spree there is a work of art not to be missed. It shows the silhouette of three men meeting at a 120 degree angle. The figures were cut out of metal discs riddled with numerous circular holes. You can hardly miss them, they are thirty meters high. We are talking about the statue entitled “Molecule Man”.
The meaning of the Molecule Man
While technically three men, the character is named after only one “man” rather than multiple “men”. Because the men of the statue literally merge with each other. Thus his arms merge into those of the opposite figure. This fusion of the figures is not accidental: the sculpture is meant to symbolize the reunification of Berlin and Germany.
If you look at the statue on Google Maps, for example, you’ll notice that it is located exactly at the crossroads of the districts of Kreuzberg, Treptow and Friedrichshain. On his website writes the American artist Jonathan Borofsky, who created Molecule Man, about the artwork on the Berlin Spree: “For me, this aluminum sculpture doesn’t just refer to the lightness of our solid bodies. The figures that connect in the center they represent the molecules of all human beings who come together to create our existence.
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Very few visitors are likely to know the true meaning of the sculpture. But if you go to the end of the boom, which allows for a closer look at the Molecule Man from Berlin’s Spree promenade, you can read the story on an information board.
The Molecule Man doesn’t just exist on the Spree in Berlin
Incidentally, the Molecule Man on the Spree in Berlin is not the only version of the sculpture. There is another example in the United States, which, at just over nine meters high, is considerably smaller than the one in Berlin. The 1991 specimen can be viewed by vacationers in the Los Angeles Civic Center.
