She Has Kissed More Men Than Any Woman in the World, But Loved None of Them (13 Photos)
In Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany, lies a town home to around twelve thousand students and professors. And right here, atop a fountain in front of the Old Town Hall, stands a young woman known as the most kissed girl in the world. 
Her name is Gänseliesel, the goose girl. Holding three geese in her arms, she has gazed down silently from her bronze pedestal for over 120 years. Over that time, tens of thousands of newly minted PhDs have kissed her—even though doing so was officially banned. 
Founded in 1734, the University of Göttingen has produced 47 Nobel laureates. John von Neumann, Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Bernhard Riemann, David Hilbert, and J. Robert Oppenheimer all studied here, while Max Planck, Niels Bohr, and Max Born served on its faculty. Yet Göttingen’s most famous "alumna" is neither a physicist nor a mathematician: she is a bronze girl with geese. 
The statue was erected in 1901 after the original fountain fell into disrepair and was demolished. Created by sculptor Paul Nisse, the fountain officially holds no direct connection to the city's history. Yet it is hard to believe it was a mere coincidence: the fairy tale "The Goose Girl," which inspired the statue, was written by the Brothers Grimm—themselves alumni of the University of Göttingen. 
Shortly after the fountain was installed, a tradition was born. Every student who successfully defends a doctoral dissertation at the University of Göttingen rides in a handcart from the Great Hall to the fountain, climbs up, and kisses the statue, leaving her a bouquet of flowers. Originally, any newly enrolled freshman was free to kiss the statue, but over time the custom evolved to become an exclusive rite of passage for new PhDs. 
Original
Officially, the practice remains forbidden, but in reality it goes unenforced. In fact, both the city of Göttingen and the university actively promote themselves using photos of doctoral graduates kissing the girl. 
In 1926, a law student named Henckel von Donnersmarck was fined 10 Reichsmarks for kissing the statue. He appealed to the High Court in Berlin, demanding the repeal of the "ban on kissing bronze lips." The court dismissed his appeal. 
Yet students were never deterred. The ban lasted a century, and for a century, the kissing continued. It was only in 2001 that the city officially relaxed the rule—though for a single day only. 
In 1990, following acts of vandalism and arson, Paul Nisse’s original statue was removed and transferred to the city museum. A replica was placed on the fountain in its stead. As a result, doctoral graduates kiss the copy, while the original safely sits behind glass in the museum. 
How did she end up here in the first place? In 1898, the city held a design competition for a new fountain. Out of 46 entries, the jury awarded first place to a neo-Gothic "Fountain of Virtues," while Lisa finished second. But when the proposals were put on public display, the residents of Göttingen revolted: why should a heavy monument honoring professors dominate the Market Square? A simple goose girl, they argued, was the true face of the city. 
Under pressure from the public, second place took first. On June 8, 1901, Lisa was installed atop the fountain—without any ribbon-cutting or grand ceremony. The local newspaper noted her arrival with just a short blurb: "Our town has gained another female resident." 
In 2026, the Goose Girl marks the 125th anniversary of the famous sculpture, with the city museum displaying the original 1901 casting alongside her "Leipzig sister"—a replica that spent decades in a private collection. 
That same year, the city council reached a curious decision: to officially permit kissing, but only on three specific dates—April 19, June 4, and September 27—for a total of 125 minutes. One minute for every year of her existence, settling the score. Naturally, graduates still kiss the replica, while the real Lisa watches from the museum as the long-standing tradition lives on. 
