Jürgen Ponto Fountain

During the 1970s the Red Army Faction, also known as the RAF, assassinated and kidnapped a number of important figures in West Germany.  They also set of a number of bombs at major buildings and U.S. bases.

On 30th July, 1977, they attempted to kidnap Jürgen Ponto, the chairman of the Dresdner Bank board of directors.  The attempt when wrong and instead he was shot in his own home in Oberursel.

The fountain between the Rathaus and the Stadthalle is dedicated to him.  The designer, Claus Bury, wanted to depict how he was torn away from his family, leaving a gap in their lives.  Hence the steps which have been carved out of the main piece of stone and placed some distance away.

Juergen Ponto Fountain - 30th July 2017The fountain was dry on the 40th anniversary, Sunday, 30th July, 2017.

Juergen Ponto Fountain - dedication plaqueThe dedication plaque in front of the fountain

Juergen Ponto Fountain - 16th May 2015 with Marion UngerMarion Unger explaining the relevance of the steps during a tour of the town’s fountains on 16th May 2015

 

 

 

About Graham Tappenden

Graham Tappenden is a British ex-pat who first came to Oberursel in 1993 and returned with his family to live there in 2003. He has been writing for AllThingsGerman.net since 2006. When not writing blog posts or freelancing for the Oberurseler Woche he works as a self-employed IT consultant solving computer problems and designing websites. In 2016 he gained German citizenship.

Speak Your Mind

*

Please click on ACCEPT to give us permission to set cookies [more information]

This website uses cookies to give you the best browsing experience possible. Cookies are small text files that are stored by the web browser on your computer. Most of the cookies that we use are so-called “Session cookies”. These are automatically deleted after your visit. The cookies do not damage your computer system or contain viruses. Please read our privacy information page for more details or to revoke permission.

Close