It was designed by German sculptor Ernst Herter and created in 1896 out of Italian white marble in Laas, South Tyrol.

The Austro-Hungarian Empress and Heine admirer, Elisabeth, also joined the Düsseldorf committee, and sent 50,000 marks toward the construction of the monument under the condition that the Berlin sculptor Ernst Herter would build it.

On January 24, 1893, however, the project's construction permit was withdrawn since it was not covered by city laws,[13] and also because of prevailing antisemitism in the German Empire at the time.

On July 10, 1893, the Mainz City Council authorized the erection of the monument,[15] but the plan encountered strong opposition when Oeschner was ousted from his post.

[16] Newly-elected Mainz City Council members ultimately rejected the monument by a large majority on October 31, 1894.

By April 14, 1893, a German-American singing group called the Arion Society of New York had expressed support for its installation in the city.

[14] That same year, the Heine Memorial Association was formed by community members of Little Germany (including Carl Schurz and George Ehret) to advocate for the statue.

Despite early setbacks due to the Panic of 1893, fundraising efforts to pool 100,000 German gold marks for the project eventually culminated in an event known as the Heine Memorial Fair held at the Lenox Lyceum on November 24, 1895.

[14][18] The board also consulted with the National Sculpture Society, which called Heine monument's design "dry, weak and unconventional".

The fountain was challenged not just on aesthetics, but also the Heine Association's desire to have it erected at the prominent Grand Army Plaza entrance to Central Park (at the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street).

[14] With such clear opposition to the project being sited in Grand Army Plaza, alternate locations were considered, including Brooklyn, Queens, and even Baltimore.

[14] On March 10, 1896, members of Tammany Hall ignored the Parks Commissioners' ruling on the project and requested approval from the New York City Board of Aldermen without specifying a precise location.

[2] At the suggestion of New York Republican party, the state created an art commission on March 4, 1896, which ultimately decided to place the monument in the Bronx.

It was unveiled on July 8, 1899, at East 164th Street and Grand Concourse in the Bronx, to a crowd of 4,000 to 6,000 people, with Herter in attendance.

[22] In 1940, the fountain was moved to the northern end of the park and partially repaired [23] In the following decades, the vandalism subsided, but later, the heads of the female characters were cut off again, the monument sprayed all over with graffiti.