Again a small historical review is necessary to appreciate what is at stake. The Porta Sancti Martini is Freiburg's oldest and most picturesque gate. It was first mentioned in 1238 in a document, although the gate is much older. The following postcard shows the building in 1905, where on the inner side in 1851, Wilhelm Dürr the older painted the famous scene with the Roman soldier Martin cutting his cloak and handing one half to a naked beggar.
The following photo I shot in 2004. Two changes are clearly visible: the Restaurant Zum Martinsthor became a McDonald's fast food, and Dürr's painting on the gate disappeared. It had become necessary to take it off in 1968 when pieces of the degraded picture started to fall unto pedestrians. The face was plastered white and had been without decoration since then.
From last Friday's Badische Zeitung we citizens learned that a new painting shall decorate the Martinstor that actually is a rather old one:
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Photo BZ |
Are we already fixed when Freiburg's finance minister - although he will not contribute one cent to an operation that should be privately sponsored - stated: Either Göser's picture or a white surface. On the internet the BZ already published a photo where Göser's painting is virtually mounted at the gate:
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Photo BZ |
I had a friend who was a well known professor in Freiburg. I remember being quite shocked by the big Macdonald's sign on this building.
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