A claque, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, was a group of people who were paid to applaud certain singers or actors, and to boo others.
This group of four statues, called The Claque, was created in 1987 by Guido Messer. The statues are now located by the Enz River in Pforzheim at Waisenhausplatz (Orphanage Square), by a pedestrian bridge called the Nonnenmühlsteg (Nuns Mill Bridge). Appropriately, this is not far from the Pforzheim City Theater.
Guido Messner is a German sculptor who was born in 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From 1958 to 1961 he did an apprenticeship as a goldsmith in Pforzheim, after which he stayed in Pforzheim to study at the Kunst -und Werkschule Pforzheim (Art and Craft School). He later studied at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Stuttgart and at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris.
For more sculptures by Guido Messner, see my post Sculptures in Weikersheim.
The Rassler were 19th century commuters who lived in the outlying villages and came into Pforzheim every day to work in the jewelry factories. Originally they walked in every day, often long distances, but those who could afford it later came in by train after the railroads were built.
Rassler is now also the name of a football (soccer) club in Pforzheim.
This pavilion and statue on the Auer Bridge, where the Enz and Nagold Rivers come together, was created by Rob und Leon Krier to commemorate the rafters (Flößer) who used to transport goods on the rivers before the coming of the railroads in the nineteenth century.
My photos in this post are from 2007. I revised the text in 2021.