Pop artist Claes Oldenburg in Germany

Claes Oldenburg installed three giant billiard balls in a lakeside park in Munster in 1977. Made of concrete, they are 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in diameter. It was the first work he did together with his wife, the art historian Coosje van Bruggen. The idea was to bring art directly to people, bypassing museums.

At Documenta 7 in Kassel, Oldenburg rammed a huge pickaxe into the ground on the banks of the Fulda River. Oldenburg came up with the motif because the pickaxe was used throughout the city after the Second World War to remove the rubble and rebuild the city, which had been left in ruins.

An artificial water spigot nearly 11 meters high, encircled by the larger-than-life red garden hose connected to it, is located in Freiburg im Breisgau. Here, too, the husband-wife artist couple of Oldenburg and van Bruggen explored the site before selecting an appropriate object for the sculpture. As allotment gardens had previously been located in the park, the pair chose a garden hose.

In the middle of Frankfurt's banking district stands the almost 12-meter-high sculpture made of fiberglass. It shows a tie and collar, representing the business apparel of the city's bankers and hedge fund managers, turned on its head. In this way, the artwork almost appears to be a harbinger of the 2007 financial crisis.

Oldenburg set up an 11-meter-tall bundle covered in knotted rope in Berlin. The bundle, woven through with oversized furnishings, symbolizes the belongings of Bohemian immigrants who had fled in the early 18th century because of their faith. They landed in Berlin and built the Bohemian Bethlehem Church. The sculpture stands on the site of the former church, which was demolished in 1963.

An overturned ice cream cone on the roof of a shopping arcade is one of Oldenburg's favorite works of art. It is inspired by the two towers of Cologne Cathedral, which shape the cityscape. When asked whether the sculpture could be understood as a heavenly sign, he told the local newspaper, the "Kölner Stadtanzeiger" in an interview: "Yes, it is like ice falling from the sky and landing there."