The winged rhino is the heraldic animal of Dortmund's concert house, the Westphalian Philharmonic.

Due to its extraordinarily sensitive ear, the rhino is able to hear infrasonic sounds over long distances, whereas humans can only detect these sounds as vibrations. The rhino is able to move each of its ears independently thus catching sounds in a radius of 360º.

Together with City-Marketing Ltd, eighty sponsors put up 100 artistically designed rhino sculptures in the City of Dortmund in 2005/2006. Those powerful, winged animals (2,50 metres in length and 1,87 metres in height) quickly won the hearts of the Dortmund people, each rhino in its individual shape lending character to the city's appearance.

The 1100 year-old Hanseatic city of Dortmund became an imperial city in the 13th century and therefore carries the eagle in its emblem. Next to the eagle, the winged rhino turned into the second, unofficial heraldic animal. Similar to the figure of the Pegasus, the rhino is considered to be the source of inspiration for ceaseless intellectual flights of fancy.

 

 

 

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