THE MIRRORED WORLD OF BERLIN-PRENZLAUER BERG

The Secret of the Senefeld Memorial

Senefelderplatz with the Senefeld memorial in 1907. Photo by Max Missmann, from the collection of Musuem Pankow. Image in public domain.

Have you ever noticed this curious little thing on the 1892 Alois Senefelder memorial in Berlin’s old borough (now locality) of Prenzlauer Berg? When you come up closer to the statue, you are bound to see it: Senefelder's name was spelled backwards.

The reason for it was Senefelder’s career as the inventor of lithography, a much less expensive printing technique which requires carving letters, patterns or images into stone as flipped - in what is known as “mirror writing”. The artist Rudolf Pohle used this clever trick to commemorate his discovery.

Alois Senefelder's name appears right (not flipped) only in the small mirror held by one of the two cherubim at his feet.

The piece of cloth you can see next to his foot is a symbolic celebration of his other achievement: printing patterns on fabric.

The statue, made of Carrara marble, was unveiled on 6 November 1892.

You will find the monument between Schönhauser Allee and Kollwitzstraße (old Weißenburger Straße) on - what else? - Senefelderplatz (former Thusneldaplatz) in Prenzlauer Berg.

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