In Berlin, Moabit, the entrepreneurial spirit is impersonated by a charmingly quirky phantom. Near the Gotzkowsky Bridge over the Spree, look out for an absurdist pair: a ghost walking his ghost dog near a weeping willow. The odd couple is actually a rater witty pun, since the German word for both “spirit” and “ghost” is Geist.
The public work refers to the entrepreneurial spirit of Friedrich Gehbauer, who was a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. As Inges Idee, the Berlin art collective behind the piece puts it, he “created an empire in the 19th century by bleaching and mangling textiles.” It seems only fitting then that the likeness of two bleached sheets, like those used for ghosts of Halloween costumes past, should represent him.
Over the past two decades, Berlin has developed a reputation as Berlin’s start-up hub. Gründergeist refers to a “founding spirit” and this little spirit serves as a playful nod to entrepreneurs in the Hauptstadt. It’s just one of Inges Idee’s deliberately funny art pieces around the globe, which include bent basketball courts, a football field with a river running through or a dancing electric pole.
