Martin Mayer died: Thousands of Munich residents walk past his most famous work every day
Created: 01/25/2022, 17:36
By Phillip Plesch
The sculpture Olympia Triumphans with its round shapes is in the west of the Olympic Park.
© imago stock
No event shaped Munich after the Second World War more than the Olympic Games in 1972. In a series to mark the 50th anniversary, our newspaper reports on life back then, explains developments and presents eyewitnesses.
Today we remember the recently deceased sculptor Martin Mayer.
Munich – The strong woman balances on a ball in a handstand. The arms are stretched out, the legs are spread.
The body appears powerful – right down to the tips of your toes.
The large bronze sculpture Olympia Triumphans in the west of the Olympic Park is more than five meters high.
It was erected for the 1972 Olympic Games, first shown to the international public in the Haus der Kunst and then set up in the Olympic Park.
It was created by the Munich sculptor Martin Mayer.
He passed away on Tuesday last week, two days after his 91st birthday.
Olympia Triumphans was certainly not the only work by Martin Mayer - nor the best known.
Because that is probably in the Munich pedestrian zone.
The seated wild boar in front of the Hunting and Fishing Museum was also made by the sculptor.
Munich: Sculptor created well-known works - now he died at the age of 91
It was important to Mayer to be called a sculptor and not an artist.
"Everyone calls themselves an artist these days," he said in an interview with our newspaper on the occasion of his 85th birthday.
It also bothered him to be reduced to just the bronze boar.
Mayer has created more and much of it can still be seen in Munich.
Martin Mayer was born in Berlin in 1931, his family was of Palatinate origin.
He never wanted to be anything other than a sculptor.
His parents, both graphic designers, were very interested in art.
Nevertheless, they would have preferred their son to have taken up a secure profession.
"But that wasn't the case for me," Mayer said.
He seemed stubborn.
And unwavering.
When asked if he was never afraid of not finding a willing audience as an artist, he said: "Fear is a condition that I do not know."
Around 30 bronze sculptures by the late Martin Mayer are in public space.
© Marcus sleep
Mayer came to Munich at the age of 15.
As a student of the sculptor Theodor Georgii.
The abbot of Ettal Abbey had recommended him.
His parents wanted to send him to boarding school there in the hope of improving his academic performance.
However, the abbot quickly realized that mathematics and Latin were not the strengths of young Mayer.
But his artistic talent.
At Georgii's side, talent became ability.
Mayer later studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.
Location for Olympia Triumphans planned with centimeter precision
Craftsmanship was important to him.
"Today, art consists essentially of coincidences, but in art there are no coincidences," he once said.
Mayer's works are well thought out.
The Olympia Triumphans, for example, is a precise answer to the architecture in the Olympic Park.
Her muscular legs take up the supports of the stadium, her round bottom cheeks the shapes of the now demolished cycling stadium.
Mayer had planned the location with centimeter precision.
Art historians had described Mayer as a Bavarian Rodin during his lifetime.
Because he was one of the last representatives of classical modern sculpture in the tradition of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.
Martin Mayer worked as long as he could.
Work was a part of him, he once said himself.
A job for eternity.
