GWH Revises City Coat of Arms in the “Glass City”
A small correction with great symbolic significance: The city coat of arms in the “Gläserne Stadt” glass mosaic on Friedrich-Ebert-Straße once again shows the correct flow direction of the Fulda River. Following the restoration and reconstruction of the artwork in 2019, the coat of arms had been accidentally installed in a mirror-reversed orientation—meaning that Kassel’s “Fulle” was, so to speak, flowing in the wrong direction. After nearly six years, this minor flaw has now been professionally corrected by GWH.
The “Gläserne Stadt” is one of the most striking works of art in Kassel’s public spaces. The relief, made of glass and concrete and measuring approximately 14 meters in length, was created in 1968 by Kassel artist Dieter von Andrian and depicts a stylized city map—stretching from Herkules, along Wilhelmshöher Allee, to the Fulda River and into Unterneustadt. The artwork was originally installed in the pedestrian underpass at Kassel’s main train station, but after the underpass closed, it was not accessible to the public for many years.
GWH was committed to preserving this special piece of Kassel’s city history. Between 2018 and 2019, the company had the mosaic removed, extensively restored, and reinstalled at its current location on Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. The preservation of this artwork was particularly meaningful to GWH because its creator, Dieter von Andrian, had already been closely associated with the company decades earlier: In the 1950s and 1960s, he designed artwork and playgrounds for GWH’s legal predecessors and provided artistic direction for their properties.
The full press release is attached for download as a PDF.