The Carnival Fountain (Fastnachtsbrunnen) is almost nine meters high. It was completed in 1967 and illustrates over 200 bronze figures, including Till Eulenspiegel, Father Rhine, and Hans Wurst, which embody the spirit and myth of Mainz Carnival. Of course, there is also the famous "Weck, Worscht und Woi," which is cherished by the people of Mainz. The fountain is located in Schillerplatz. On November 11th, the great figures of Mainz Carnival gather on the balcony of the Osteiner Hof, which overlooks the square, to officially open the Carnival season.
Although the city is known far beyond the borders of Germany for its merry fifth season, it had long been without a single monument reflecting Mainz Carnival. This only changed in the 1960s. In late autumn 1963, the city fathers presented their request to a small group of industrialists to erect a Carnival fountain at the southern end of Schillerplatz. The well-known beverage company Eckes from Nieder-Olm agreed to sponsor the Carnival fountain and announced a competition that was ultimately won by Professor Blasius Spreng from Munich and Helmut Gräf, an architect from Mainz.
In the midst of the fountain basin created by Gräf, made of red sandstone, rises a nearly nine-meter-high bronze tower, populated by over 200 individual figures. What the eye can discover here is mysterious, grotesque, and familiar all at once. Father Rhine, the monk, the man with a board in front of his head, the cat, Till Eulenspiegel, and the city goddess Mogontia, the sack washer, or the legal eagle: all these are examples of the diversity of fantastic motifs that populate the Carnival Fountain. They express not only the unique essence of Mainz Carnival but also the spirit of the traditional city of Mainz in an unparalleled way.
