Kiepenkerl

The original statue, like its successors, depicted a Kiepenkerl [de] (literally "pannier guy": a travelling merchant or pedlar [US: peddler]) with a carrying basket, whistle, knot stick and linen smock.

For the 1987 Sculpture Projects Münster, American sculptor Jeff Koons created a replica of the statue in polished cast stainless steel.

The guide for the Sculpture Projects Münster includes these notes by Georg Jappe:The Kiepenkerl monument symbolizes the man who comes to town with a few eggs, potatoes, and rabbits in his "Kiepe" (a huge basket carried on the back).

The will to survive during the hoarding times: as early as 1953, the city of Münster still in ruins, Theodor Heuss inaugurated a new life-size Kiepenkerl monument in bronze.

Jeff Koons now has recast it in stainless steel which he calls the "material of the masses" (a highly complicated procedure: as the form does not correspond to any industrial standard, the various parts had to be smelted at 1800 degrees Centigrade and cast one by one and then welded together) and finally gave it a high mirror polish to create a "false front of luxury".