An old lady cast in bronze sits smiling on the former entrance square to Buga 2009; with a bouquet of flowers in her lap and a watering can beside her. This is how the people of Schwerin knew her, their Bertha Klingberg, who was made an honorary citizen of the Mecklenburg state capital in 2002.
Bertha Klingberg was born in Hamburg in 1898, but grew up in Bützow with her grandparents. At that time, she was often in Schwerin. Her love of flowers and nature also took the then ten-year-old to the Schwerin Palace Garden, where she met the Grand Duke. Taken with the little girl, he allowed her to visit the palace garden whenever she wanted. Later, she moved to Schwerin altogether.
Today, she sits smiling on the wall on the shore of the castle lake and looks at the square named after her, as if she had suspected that she would one day be accorded so much honor. For decades, Bertha Klingberg had done nothing but sell flowers in Schwerin's old town. She always did this in the traditional Rehna costume. When, in 1990, at the age of 91, she started the signature collection "Our State capital Schwerin must become a state capital", she had not only won the hearts of the 17,000 signatories. Because of her appearance, she had long been considered a Schwerin original. She died in 2005 at the age of 107. Her greatest wish, to open the Federal Garden Show in 2009, was not fulfilled. Instead, a life-size monument was erected to her in June 2010 - a bronze sculpture by the sculptor Bernd Streiter.
