Friederike Stolz, Dwarf with Frog, Linz Grottenbahn on the Pöstlingberg, 1972

Terracotta, painted in colour; frog with inserted glass eyes, height approx. 425 mm

Collection Nordico Museum Linz, Inv. Nr. O 1024

A trip to the Grottenbahn on the Pöstlingberg is colloqueally called ​“snouting a dwarf” (“Zwergerl schnäuzen”). The sculptor and ceramist Friederike Stolz is responsible for the design of the fairytale world. After the destruction of the tower by an aerial bomb in 1945, she was commissioned by the Elektrizitäts-Straßenbahn Gesellschaft Linz (today Linz AG; the then ESG had been the owner since 1887) to redesign the building with the protagonists of the Grimm’s world. The reopening took place in 1950. The Linz main square was recreated in Malistab 1:7 and 105 ceramic gnomes and 16 fairy-tale groups were designed and created.

Photo: Thomas Hackl