The Magdeburger Reiter is the most famous monument in our collection and, together with his two accompanying figures, is one of the most important sculptures of European Gothic art in the 13th century. The rider is thought to depict Emperor Otto the Great (ruled 936-973) as the ideal youthful Staufer ruler. He is accompanied by a shield-bearer and a banner-bearer. The group of figures probably shows the ruler’s festive arrival in the city, known as the Adventus.
The Magdeburger Reiter was originally located in a tall tabernacle on the Alter Markt, in the heart of the city. Statues of honour have adorned public squares in cities since ancient times. However, this custom came to a halt in the Middle Ages. We do not know who in Magdeburg around 1240/50 had the idea to revive this tradition. Was it one of the archbishops of Magdeburg at the time who knew Italy and had seen ancient equestrian statues there? Was it one of their learned advisors? Or was it one of the widely travelled sculptors employed in the newer sculptor’s workshop at the cathedral? In any case, according to all we know, the Magdeburger Reiter is the first three-dimensional, free-standing equestrian monument of the Middle Ages.
He is the first in a long line of equestrian statues that were erected in public spaces in the city, in bronze or stone, well into the 20th century. The original monument was moved to the museum in 1961 for its own protection. A bronze copy made by the sculptor Heinrich Apel now stands in its original place. When the central hall of the Museum of Cultural History was restored to its original form of 1906 in 2000/2001, the Magdeburger Reiter was finally installed in the lower chapel at the front of the hall.
From 2011 to 2014, a conservation survey of the monument was carried out with the financial support of the Friends of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States and the Magdeburg Museums Association. The monument has been part of the city’s fortunes, good and bad, on the market square for many centuries and has suffered and been restored numerous times during this period.
The statue was fully restored between 2014 and 2015. Together with the three-part mural by Arthur Kampf (1864-1950) depicting scenes from the life of Otto the Great, which was uncovered during the restoration of the hall, the Magdeburger Reiter commemorates Emperor Otto the Great, to whom Magdeburg owes its rise to a metropolis in the Middle Ages.
In a room to the right of the Magdeburger Reiter, you will also find a Tyrolean nativity scene.
In an ensemble with a large mural by Arthur Kampf and other precious objects, this room, which is one of the most beautiful in the state capital Magdeburg, becomes a place of remembrance of Otto I, who brings to life the time of the Ottonian Empire through the centuries.
