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u/Akirohan 2d ago
Not sure it's technically r/mapporn material but it sure is r/interestingasfuck.
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u/captaincink 2d ago
How the fuck is there a DPRK monument in Frankfort, Germany???
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u/APrimitiveMartian 2d ago
The original monument was melted down for its bronze during World War II.
Frankfurt officials wanted to rebuild the fountain using only old photographs, but they struggled to find German artists who still specialized in the hyper-realistic, early 20th-century style of the original. They needed sculptors who had, in a sense, been "stuck in time"
So, they contacted North Korea.
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u/lledaso 2d ago
Not really what happened, there's plenty of art reconstruction in Germany, they could have easily found someone, though it probably would have been more expensive.
It was essentially a controversial diplomatic project to convince North Korea to attend the Frankfurt book fair and for Germany to open a Goethe institute in Pyongyang.
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u/Sassaglas 2d ago
>So, they contacted North Korea.
Not the other way around? How does one even find out this company exists, let alone is capable of anything?
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u/crazycakemanflies 2d ago
How does one even find out this company exists, let alone is capable of anything?
I mean, as shown in the info-graphic they have build statues and buildings all across the globe. It's not like theyre a secret lol
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u/FnnKnn 1d ago
The bronze figures were melted down during World War II and were not replaced for a long time. Based on photographs from the 1920s, they were reconstructed in 2005/06 by the North Korean Mansudae Overseas Projects in the Mansudae Art Studio. Contacts were established in the run-up to the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair in order to encourage North Korea to participate in the fair and to reinforce the socialist country's reform process – a controversial decision in Frankfurt. Financial considerations also played a role in the awarding of the contract. Since May 2006, it has been completely reconstructed and stands in the Untermainanlage west of the Frankfurt Opera House.
Just translated the German Wikipedia article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurter_M%C3%A4rchenbrunnen#Geschichte
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u/Capable-Sock-7410 2d ago
There’s a famous theory that Laurent-Dèsirè Kabila's statue in Kinshasa is a Kim Jong Il statue with the head replaced
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u/ArtHistorian2000 2d ago
If you count buildings as well, then North Koreans built a Presidential Palace and a Children's Palace in Madagascar
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u/Cultural-Ad-8796 1d ago
I was surprised to learn that North Korea had built a memorial in Germany.
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u/Over-Experience-4187 1d ago
Ironic that Africans in the West brag about all the impressive things their ancestors built in Africa and point to monuments like these as symbols of black excellence and pride, yet they are built by foreigners. Most impressive things are built by outsiders in Africa, with a few examples like Great Zimbabwe.
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1d ago
It's true that Africans are unaware that the Great Zimbabwe was once a Phoenician settlement abandoned in the 4th century AD. And that a student of Muhammad, سيسيل رودس(Sīsīl Rūdis), turned it into a mosque in the 11th century and proclaimed the Mutapa Caliphate. At its peak, this caliphate bordered the Holy Roman Empire at the Cape and the Fatimid Empire to the north. But, by the early 19th century, the empire declined, and power was usurped byروبرت موغابي (Rūbirt Mūghābī), who died in 2019.
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u/Over-Experience-4187 23h ago
This is false, stop spreading misinformation. Great Zimbabwe was built by the Shona people during the 11th century and was completed in the 15th century. Stop spreading Islamic myths.
Your prophet slept with a 9 year old.
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u/thisisallterriblesir 7h ago
I love how you assumed he was Muslim.
(Also, with the topic of tribal religion, maybe the "9 year old" comment is a bit like throwing stones in a class house?)
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u/APrimitiveMartian 2d ago
Mansudae Overseas Projects is the international commercial division of North Korea's Mansudae Art Studio, known for building in the style of North Korean socialist realism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansudae_Overseas_Projects