Born in Timisoara, Romania, Peter Szaif could justifiably be described as Wolfsburg's fountain specialist par excellence -__-0000-__- In the 1960s, the artist designed no fewer than six large fountain installations, for example on the steps to the Heinrich Nordhoff comprehensive school or on Detmerode market square at the entrance to Alvar Aalto's St. Stephen's Church. The second work of this kind, previously the artist had already realized the fountain with the sculpture Mother with Child on Brandenburger Platz, is the fountain installation on Dunantplatz in Eichelkamp (Fig. 1). In the course of a competition organized by the city of Wolfsburg in 1959/60, Szaif's design was awarded the contract for implementation. The founding member of the Wolfsburg artists' collective Schloßstraße 8 prevailed against a large number of competitors - including Joseph Beuys, -__-0001-__- who was able to realize his first major public works at that time and was soon to become one of the most important contemporary German artists.

For the design of Dunantplatz, the administration had proposed "a loosened-up pattern of smaller and larger circles, to be paved with different colored artificial stones, mosaics and clinker bricks. -__-0001-__- As sculptural decoration is also being considered, the art committee is to be asked to select the sculptor," -__-0002-__- according to a report by the building committee from the summer of 1959. While the city's department heads initially debated a direct request from the artists Peter Szaif and Jochen Kramer, the recent winner of the Wolfsburg Sculpture Prize in the Junge stadt sieht junge kunst competition, -__-0003-__- the stakeholders ultimately decided in favor of a larger competition between selected artists, all of whom were male.
A brief report from the city's press office reveals that in addition to local artists Paul Kurt Bartzsch, Horus Engels, Hans Hirschler, Maximilian Stark and Peter Szaif, Josef Beuys, Günter Haese and Georg Hartje were also invited to submit designs.-__-0004-__- Neither Beuys nor Haese were already established artists at the time, which shows the city's good instinct and willingness to recognize and support young artists before their breakthrough. Each of the sculptors accepted. The artists Beuys, Haese and Hartje, who had traveled from various parts of Germany, were accommodated in the Magdeburger Hof on Porschestraße for the competition.-__-0005-__- Competition participants and members of the city administration - city planning officer Peter Koller and the head of the press office, Bernhard Gericke - met on March 17, 1960 for an inspection of the site to be designed on Dunantplatz. -__-0006-__- Mayor and art patron Dr. Uwe-Jens Nissen also joined them a little later to answer individual questions. And so the competition began.
The artists quickly produced models, which were discussed intensively in the Art Committee in July of the same year. However, a decision was not to be made until after the "council vacations" in August,-__-0007-__- as the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Only Horus Engels announced that he had not been able to complete a convincing design and would not be taking part: -__-0008-__- "I am sorry that I did not receive the Musenkuss this time. Maybe I'll have better luck with another project," -__-0009-__- the artist apologized in a letter to the Wolfsburg press office.
The other artists were obviously luckier: Josef Beuys, for example, pursued the idea of a "tubular form with a flat, disc-shaped base", -__-0010-__- which was to be held up by rod-like columns. Georg Hartje, on the other hand, planned a 2.5 meter high bronze "water harp". -__-0011-__- However, only Peter Szaif's design for a fountain with a concrete surface and metal pipes that playfully transport the bubbling water was convincing (Fig. 2). Complemented by round metal basins, the fountain looks almost like an artistic adaptation of a barbell bar with weight plates. In a note dated July 21, 1960, Wolfgang Hesse, head of the city council, gave the following assessment:
"In my opinion, this design best expresses the experience of water play, because the water in the bowls and in the basin is constantly and visibly in motion. The design of the square seems successful to me. The fountain is not sensitive, and on hot summer days it would do no harm if children were to use it as a paddling pool."-__-0012-__-

However, the final realization was delayed due to a miscalculation of the budget funds.-__-0000-__- In the spring of 1962, construction work could finally begin. In collaboration with the renowned sculpture foundry of the Berliner Wilhelm Füssel and the local company Naturstein Billen, Peter Szaif realized his design for a metal fountain sculpture on Dunantplatz (Fig. 3). After further delays, the fountain was finally completed in 1963. But before the fountain was even put into operation, the fountain scaffolding was already being misused: construction workers occasionally used the fountain pipes as coat hooks and bicycle racks, as the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported. -__-0001-__- Just how popular the fountain was almost fifty years after it was installed is demonstrated by the 200,000 euros in refurbishment money that residents of Eichelkamp and the local council of Mitte-West obtained in 2009 to restore the fountain technology and the dilapidated sculpture. -__-0002-__-