Thirty years after its discovery, the Celtic Prince of Glauberg remains an enigma, a museum festival will mark the anniversary on June 28
On June 24, 1996, archaeologists recovered a near-intact 2,400-year-old sandstone statue of a Celtic ruler from a grave in Hesse. Three decades later, the Keltenfürst vom Glauberg still conceals its identity, even as the region prepares a festive anniversary.
A chance aerial observation
In the summer of 1988, local historian Werner Erk took a small plane over the Wetterau region to photograph a school building as a retirement gift for a principal. He decided to fly over the Glauberg hill too, and from the air he noticed unusual colour variations in the vegetation that formed a half-circle and lines. He pressed the shutter again, and those images, sent to the state office for monument preservation, would lead to a ‘discovery of the century’.
And then I said, since we're up here now, we'll fly over the Glauberg too.
The princely grave emerges
Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann, the state archaeologist at the time, commissioned excavations that uncovered a Celtic princely grave at the foot of the 276-metre hill in the autumn of 1994. The real sensation came on 24 June 1996 when the nearly fully preserved, life-sized sandstone statue was recovered. Only the feet are missing; archaeologists assume it once stood on a pedestal. The grave goods included a richly decorated gold neck ring, jewellery, a sword and a shield – attributes that match the statue exactly.
The sandstone figure shows attributes that are identical to the grave goods of the buried person, including a richly decorated golden neck ring and further pieces of jewellery, a sword and a shield.
A face for the Central European Celts
The statue, 1.86 metres tall and roughly 2,400 years old, gave the Celts in Central Europe ‘literally a face’, as a publication marking the anniversary states. Together with fragments of at least three other statues, the find proved that the Glauberg was the northernmost princely seat of early Celtic times in Germany and that the Celts were the first known people with a distinct culture to settle in Hesse. Since about 2011 the statue has been displayed in its own museum, the Keltenwelt am Glauberg.
- Werner Erk’s aerial photos reveal vegetation marks on the Glauberg.
- State archaeologist Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann orders excavations; a princely grave is discovered.
- The life-sized sandstone statue of the Celtic Prince is recovered.
- The statue is placed on permanent display in the new Keltenwelt am Glauberg museum.
- 30th anniversary festival with craft demonstrations and a replica auction.
Anniversary festival with a new bronze find
The 30th anniversary of the statue’s recovery will be celebrated with a large public festival in the museum garden on 28 June 2026. Visitors can watch demonstrations of historical craft techniques, take part in hands-on experiments and creative activities. One of the black Celtic prince replicas created by conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl, several of which stand in front of the museum, will be auctioned at the event. A newly discovered object will also be on display: a solid bronze arm ring, about 2,700 years old, found recently in a meadow in the Büdingen district by a 12-year-old schoolgirl. According to experts, it attests that the Glauberg was already settled in the early Iron Age.
