Lessing monument

Around 25 years after the formation of a prominent committee, the Lessing monument on Judenplatz in the 1st district was unveiled for the first time on June 15, 1935. The Viennese sculptor Siegfried Charoux was responsible for the bronze sculpture on a cubic stone plinth, also known for the Suttner monument at the courtyard of the same name and other monuments, often in municipal buildings.

Just four years later, the monument to the famous playwright and representative of the German Enlightenment, which probably also commemorates his main work „Nathan the Wise“, was dismantled by the Nazis and melted down for armaments. In May 1968, a new sculpture was unveiled by the artist, who had returned home from emigration in the meantime, before it was unveiled again at its current location in October 1981.

The reminder of the Ring Parable with its appeal to the idea of tolerance, directly opposite the entrance to the Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial, could not be more topical.