He can hardly be overlooked: from afar you can see and recognize a gigantic, proud and powerful knight over six meters tall next to the terrace of the Hotel Sonnenhof. Handcrafted, forged and riveted from metal, he watches over the property with Argus eyes and a large flag in his hands and looks out over Kressbronn and the blue lake.
Robert Manhardt noticed this handmade miniature knight on a trip to beautiful Bunzlau, Poland. „I saw this sprightly boy standing in front of the entrance of a magnificent Art Nouveau villa. With a helmet on his head and a flag in his hand, the central element of which was a sun. It was immediately clear to me that my Sonnenhof needs such a gatekeeper, a symbolic figure who will be unique at the lake, which will be a visible identifier for the facility. The whole thing just one size larger,“ says the investor and owner.
No sooner said than done: Robert Manhardt visited the creator of the knight in his small artist workshop in the wild mountains between Poland and the Czech Republic and was immediately enthusiastic. „I commissioned the figure, and I had to make sure that it would withstand the high wind load on the viewing platform next to the terrace. After all, at over six meters, it forms an enormous target,“ explains Robert Manhardt.
But what about the flag and the symbolic sun in it? „My scaffolder told me that it was precisely this flag that the first Christian king of Jerusalem called his own. All his life he strived to establish religious peace between Muslims, Christians and Jews. This flag can therefore also be seen as an ecumenical sign. You symbolizes the idea of peaceful coexistence. Our Sonnenhof knight thus stands for power, justice, life and peace, regardless of any denomination“.
A short time later, after the knight had found his place at the Sonnenhof, the city’s Technical Committee dealt with the giant. The responsible building law office subsequently demanded a building permit for the Sonnenhof knight and the stone wall around the new hotel. Because initially only a small path to the hotel terrace was planned and now an access road for the fire brigade had to be set up, these walls are thicker than originally planned.
Since then, the knight has found a home – right at the top of Kressbronn’s Sonnenhof. There he also fulfills his task: as a symbol bringing peace, he guards the property and the people there.