Krokodil, Ole Meinecke, 2001

"Please do not feed" reads a sign on the railing of the Gewerbekanal in Gerberau. This refers to the crocodile, or more precisely its approximately one-meter-long granite head, one of Freiburg's most popular postcard motifs. The tourist attraction with its impressive teeth has been a must at every Freiburg city rally since it found its place in the current of the canal in 2002. The sculpture was created by stonemason Ole Meinecke a year earlier as part of a semester project at the Weinbrenner Gewerbeschule. The Himmelsbach family, whose dry cleaners the crocodile looks up to today, purchased the work for 3,500 euros and invested a further 300 euros in the fee for the water permit for its installation in the Gewerbekanal, from which the Freiburg gutters are fed with water.