+49 8151 95566
« Selected Highlights Rhine Neckar

S-Printing-Horse Heidelberg

The S-Printing-Horse was designed by the sculptor Jürgen Goertz and is with 13 meters height, 15 meters length, 4 meters width and 90 tons weight the largest horse sculpture in the world. The design was implemented by the company Fröhlich Systemautomation GmbH Sondermaschinen- und Vorrichtungsbau, based in Treuchtlingen in Central Franconia, using stainless steel and aluminium. Various machining processes were used to achieve the final shape. The individual parts were cast, ground, polished and partly gold-plated, but also partly sprayed with metallic micaceous enamel.
Since 2000, the sculpture has been located in front of the Print Media Academy, an office and training building of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.

Info on your smartphone

Infos & Tickets to go

use your own device

  1. Simply scan the QR code
  2. Call up information conveniently & securely from your mobile device

selected Highlight

Proven content with highest relevance and topicality

  • SSL encryption:
    100% secure and quick booking
  • Immediate confirmation
  • Printed or mobile ticket accepted

did you know?

The S-Printing Horse is not simply a horse sculpture, but symbolizes the various processes in a printing company.

It begins with the scanning of the documents, which is why the horse's eyes light up at night. The erasers in the neck correspond to holes in the side walls of a printing machine in which the bearings of the printing cylinders are placed.

The round body of the horse stands for the actual printing process and the associated rotation of the machines. Monitored of course by the represented head of the printer. The printing process is completed at the tail. The tail represents an abstract book, which is alternately illuminated in the colours cyan, magenta and yellow, and a face, which looks at the finished book and guides it to its purpose. The three colours cyan, magenta and yellow are those from which all other arbitrary colours can be mixed during printing. So basically only these three colours are needed. Attentive observers will notice that the S-Printing-Horse has only three legs, which also stand for the three steps of the printing process just described.

The sculpture also has wings that allow it to gallop very fast, which is an analogy to the claim of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG to build very fast printing machines. On the other hand, a parallel is drawn to Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology, which all poets ride. Pegasus still stands for poetic fantasy today. Whoever writes poetry and whoever writes wants to publish it, which is a further step towards the letterpress printing invented by Gutenberg.

Hoofprints of the sculpture are also found in Amstetten (Württemberg) at the site of the foundry of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and at the Ludwigsburg site, giving the impression that the sculpture started in Amstetten. Relief-like fossils are incorporated into the cast hoof prints, which additionally symbolize the reference to the Swabian Alb with its fossil sites. In addition to various realistic fossils, parts of the S-Printing Horse itself appear as "fossils" in the hoof prints.


Pick up this flyer at the MPM brochure stand in the hotel lobby or contact reception.

MPM Displaysystem