Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen

Stand in the middle of the Römerberg and you are standing at the fountain. Lady Justice on her column, the Römer city hall on one side, the half-timbered houses on the other: this is the single most reproduced view of Frankfurt, and German news broadcasts use it as the standard backdrop for court reporting, which gives the sculpture a second life most fountains never get.

Frankfurt's Old Town sat on a high water table, so wells were easy to sink, and the city had them from the 13th century on. In 1542 the council decided to build one at the center of the Römerberg. The pipework and a provisional drain came first, then the fountain itself, finished in August 1543, and its dedication drew attention well beyond the city.

That first fountain was working infrastructure, not decoration. The octagonal basin stood nearly 2.5 meters tall, about 8 feet, considerably larger than what you see today, because it supplied drinking water to a good share of the population. A vertical pipe with four openings let several people draw water at once.

It needed a major overhaul by 1594, when the original fir-wood water pipe rotted through. During that work the fountain picked up new decoration, including a figure of Samson with the defeated lion. In the 17th century the council decided the Römerberg deserved something grander, kept the basin, and added the stone column, statues and the figure of Justitia that define it now.

The 19th century was hard on it. As the Old Town declined, frost, weather and vandalism wore the fountain down, and with no money for a proper restoration the city hid the damaged Justitia under flower arrangements, then removed the column and statue entirely and covered the basin with boards for decades. A donation from a well-known Frankfurt wine merchant funded a real restoration in 1887, and this time Justitia and the columns were recast in bronze to survive the weather.

Remarkably, the fountain came through the air raids that flattened the Old Town nearly undamaged. After the war Allied forces removed the Justitia figure and adopted her as the emblem of their Frankfurt headquarters. She returned to the Römerberg a few years later. Restorations followed in the 1970s and again in late 2007, when wooden fragments found beneath the basin allowed researchers to date the original fountain precisely.

One thing visitors notice and often dislike: a protective railing now rings the fountain about a meter out, added after years of climbing, litter and vandalism. It drew sharp criticism from residents and tourists alike and is now broadly accepted. During Advent the fountain sits inside the Christmas market, the basin covered for protection and the rest decorated for the season.