Bertha Klingberg sculpture
📍 Schwerin Ostorf
An old lady cast in bronze sits smiling on the former entrance square to Buga 2009, with a bouquet of flowers in her lap and a watering can next to her. This is how the people of Schwerin knew her, their Bertha Klingberg, who was made an honorary citizen of the Mecklenburg state capital in 2002.
Bertha Klingberg was born in Hamburg in 1898, but grew up in Bützow with her grandparents. She was often in Schwerin at this time. Her love of flowers and nature also took the then ten-year-old to the castle gardens in Schwerin, where she met the Grand Duke. He was taken with the little girl and allowed her to visit the palace garden whenever she wanted. She later moved to Schwerin completely.
Today, she sits smiling on the wall on the shore of the castle lake and looks out over the square named after her, as if she had guessed that she would one day receive so much honor. For decades, Bertha Klingberg had done nothing but sell flowers in Schwerin's old town. She always did this in the traditional Rehna costume. When she launched the petition "Our Schwerin must become the state capital" in 1990 at the age of 91, she had not only won the hearts of the 17,000 signatories. She had long been regarded as a Schwerin original because of her appearance. She died in 2005 at the age of 107. Her greatest wish, to open the 2009 Federal Garden Show, was no longer fulfilled. Instead, a life-size monument was erected to her in June 2010 - a bronze sculpture by sculptor Bernd Streiter.