The Kiss

After "The Thinker," Paul Rodin's most famous work,
"The Kiss" is one of his most popular.
The "Le Baiser" in Carrara marble can be admired in Paris
at the Musée Rodin (©Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/Wikipedia).
Between 1898 and 1903, the master authorized the
Barbedienne foundry in Paris to cast a few reduced bronzes.

It was late; my father always came home late. There he was, the big strong man, standing in the passage between the dining room and the living room. In his hands, he held Auguste Rodin's bronze casting, The Kiss.

We boys looked incredulous, and our mother, as so often, was concerned. She had been concerned about the family all her life and looked concerned.

It was said that a customer could not pay his bill and had offered my father The Kiss as a ransom. It must have been in 1957.

Three years later, my father died, overworked from a heart attack.

The question that arose in 1957 was where to place The Kiss. Finally, a corner was found in the living room by the garden window.

The problem: a three-dimensional art object is thus reduced to two dimensions; it can only be viewed from one side.

©Museum für Neue Kunst

I, therefore, found it refreshing that the invitation to today's vernissage showed the equally beautiful backs of the actors.

Hamburg 1957

The kiss stood in my mother's home in Hamburg until her death. She lived to be 90 and was a widow longer than she was married, but whenever we spent the vacations with our children at Grandma's in Hamburg or she visited us in Geneva, her ceterum censeo was, "Children, it could be the last time."

Then in 1974, she wrote her last will bequeathing me The Kiss.

After my mother's death, The Kiss made the long journey to Geneva, but even there, it had only a niche existence.

Freiburg 2021

Since my move to Freiburg in 2001, I carried myself with the thought of redeeming those lovers who are constantly squeezed into corners.

A first attempt with the Museum für Neue Kunst (MNK, Contemporary Art) came to nothing, but after my wife's death, I actively took care of the transfer.

Mr. Zipperlen from the Badische Zeitung asked me, "Why do you bequeath The Kiss to Freiburg and not to your hometown?"

Once again, a statement by Martin Heidegger came painfully to my mind. Towards the end of his life, his Black Forest home meant everything to him, more than his entire philosophy. I have often asked myself: Where is my homeland?

I was born in the Ruhr district, moved to all the German Gaue (regions) during the war, spent nine high school years in Hamburg, studied in Tübingen, Göttingen, and Munich, and finally spent 32 years in Geneva. Where is my homeland?

My wife is buried in Freiburg, and I will stay here too. May I consider the city that has grown so close to my heart as my hometown?

MNK Freiburg, October 6, 2022

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