The Goethedenkmal is a monument in honor of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Vienna and is located on the corner of Opernring / Goethegasse in the 1st district Innere Stadt . Designed by Edmund von Hellmer , the monument was unveiled on December 15, 1900. On the opposite side of the ring road is the Schiller monument, which was built in 1876 on Schillerplatz .
For the design of the monument, a competition was launched in 1889, but no final decision was taken by the Commission. Victor Tilgner and Edmund von Hellmer, whose designs were the most popular, were asked to submit new designs. However, after Tilgner's draft did not meet the prescribed proportions, he was "excluded for technical reasons," which was the order to Edmund von Hellmer.
The Goethedenkmal was built at the expense of the Vienna Goethe-Verein, founded by the Goethe-scholar Karl Julius Schröer on 4 January 1878. The model was completed in 1895 and the cast then took place in the Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik .
The poet is seated in a bronze ornate chair, standing on a three-tiered Italian granite pedestal arched outwards . This pedestal was again built on a wide, flat, three-tiered pedestal. The monument is 5.55 m high, with the base 2.62 m and the poet figure with chair 2.93 m.