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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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| Vienna - 1900 |
The term typically encompasses not only the meaning of the similar English idiom 'turn of the century', but also both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning.
The "spirit" of 'fin de siècle' often refers to the cultural hallmarks that were recognized as prominent in the 1880s and 1890s, including boredom, cynicism, pessimism, and a widespread belief that civilization leads to decadence.
The themes of 'fin de siècle' political culture were very controversial and have been cited as a major influence on Völkisch philosophy and national socialism.
The major political theme of the era was that of revolt against materialism, rationalism, positivism, bourgeois society and liberal democracy.
The 'fin-de-siècle' generation supported emotionalism, irrationalism, subjectivism and vitalism, while the mindset of the age saw civilization as being in a crisis that required a massive and total solution.
'Fin de Siecle' in Austria
At the turn of the 20th century Vienna was one of Europe’s largest urban centers, with a population of more than two million by 1910.
By then, Vienna had been a major centre of political power and cultural patronage for centuries. Vienna was a place of tensions and paradox: Its mayor, Karl Lueger, had right-wing, anti-Semitic inclinations.
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| Adolf Hitler |
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| Theodor Herzl |
The city’s numerous innovative cultural and intellectual movements and figures radically changed Western culture and thought.
Viennese turn of the century culture had its roots in French decadence, and the “Dionysian” influence of two Germans - Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy, and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and aphorism.
Nietzsche's key ideas include the "death of God," the Übermensch, the eternal recurrence, the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy, perspectivism, and the will to power. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation", which involves questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. His influence remains substantial within philosophy, notably in existentialism, post-modernism, and post-structuralism, as well as outside it. His radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth has been the focus of extensive commentary, especially in the continental tradition.
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| Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche |
Nietzsche's key ideas include the "death of God," the Übermensch, the eternal recurrence, the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy, perspectivism, and the will to power. Central to his philosophy is the idea of "life-affirmation", which involves questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. His influence remains substantial within philosophy, notably in existentialism, post-modernism, and post-structuralism, as well as outside it. His radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth has been the focus of extensive commentary, especially in the continental tradition.
Nietzsche had repudiated nineteenth-century ideology, and demanded the reorganization of
human society under the guidance of exceptional leaders.
human society under the guidance of exceptional leaders.
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| Fin de Siecle illustration for 'Das Rheingold' |
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| Richard Wagner |
Wilhelm Richard Wagner (22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known, "music dramas").
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| Parsifal und die Blumenmädchen |
Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama, and which was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852.
Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) and his last work - 'Parsifal'.
Vienna, circa1900, was a vibrant centre of radical cultural and intellectual innovation, with consequences that reverberated into the twentieth century.
Vienna, in the years leading up to the First World War, was a city with an identity crisis.
It was at the crossroads of Europe and the centre of the Austro-Hungarian empire
The Empire had been disintegrating - though few realised this slow decline - internally for many years.
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| The Austro-Hungarian Empire 1910 |
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
Between 1880 and 1910 the population of Vienna trebled to more than two million.
Social deprivation and a desperate housing shortage were the result, with working-class unrest soon presenting a serious threat to the prosperous bourgeoisie - and it was here that the young Adolf Hitler spent his formative years.
The decorative extravagance of nineteenth-century Viennese art and architecture seemed increasingly at odds with social reality.
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| Ringstraße - Wien |
One of the most popular artist in Vienna at the turn of the century was Hans Makart who exemplified the elaborate symbolism of the final years of the Empire.
Interestingly, Makart was one of young Hitler's favourite artists.
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| 'Abundantia - The Gifts of the Sea' - Hans Makart |
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| 'Junge mit einer Flöte' Hans Makart |
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| Hans Makart |
Makart was deeply interested in the interaction of all the visual arts and thus in the implementation of the idea of the "total work of art" which dominated discussions on the arts in the 19th century. This was the ideal which he realised in magnificent festivities which he organised and centred around himself. The 1879 Makart-parade was the culmination of these endeavors. Makart was also a friend of the composer Richard Wagner, and it can be argued that the two developed the same concepts and stylistic tendencies in their differing art forms: a concern for embedding motifs of history and mythology in a framework of aestheticism, making their respective works historical pageants.
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| Sigmund Freud |
Ideas of supposed 'honesty' and 'naturalness' informed the architecture and theories of Adolf Loos (see below), the satirical journalism of Karl Kraus, and the paintings and graphic work of artists such as Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl.
The development of a particularly dissonant form of Expressionism, with its emphasis on uncompromising subject matter, un-suppressed sexuality and psychological introspection, can be traced in the visual arts as well as in music, literature and the theatre, echoing the influential psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud.
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| Entartete Kunst |
Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including painting, literature, theatre, dance, film, architecture and music.
Expressionism is associated with Entartete Kunst as defined in conservative cultural circles, and by Völkisch and National Socialist aesthetics.
The architecture of Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos epitomised the new spirit which sought to reduce decorative excess.
The functionalism and relative simplicity of their buildings contrasted strikingly with the highly ornamented façades of nineteenth century Vienna.
Loos’s Michaelerplatz Haus was erected opposite Emperor Franz Josef’s ornate residence. So unimpressed was the Emperor by the stark rigour of Loos’s shop building, that he is said to have closed the curtains in the Hofburg to keep it out of sight.
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| Michaelerplatz Haus - Adolf Loos |
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| Adolf Loos |
Loos authored several polemical works. In 'Spoken into the Void', published in 1900, Loos attacked the Vienna Secession, at a time when the movement was at its height.
In his essays, Loos used provocative catchphrases and has become noted for one particular essay/manifesto entitled 'Ornament and Crime', spoken first in 1910.
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| Table Adolf Loos |
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| Decorative Consloe Adolf Loos |
Perhaps surprisingly, some of Loos's own architectural work was elaborately decorated, although more often inside than outside, and the ornamented interiors frequently featured abstract planes and shapes composed of richly figured materials, such as marble and exotic woods. The visual distinction is not between complicated and simple, but between "organic" and superfluous decoration.
Loos was also interested in the decorative arts, collecting sterling silver and high quality leather goods, which he noted for their plain yet luxurious appeal. He also enjoyed fashion and men's clothing, designing the famed Kníže of Vienna, a haberdashery.
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| Ludwig Wittgenstein |
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| Haus Wittgenstein |
The source of Viennese artistic culture is to be found in the Vienna Secession.
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| Wittgenstein and Hitler |
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. Witgenstein, as a boy, went to school with Adolf Hitler - who was also interested in architecture.
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
WIENER SEZESSION
The Vienna Secession (also known as the 'Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs' - Union of Austrian Artists) was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus.
This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects.
The first president of the Secession was Gustav Klimt, and Rudolf von Alt was made honorary president.
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| Rudolf Ritter von Alt |
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| Der Stephansdom vom Stock im Eisenplatz Rudolf Ritter von Alt |
He was the son of the famous lithographer Jakob Alt (1789–1872). He studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna. Hiking-trips through the Austrian Alps and northern Italy awoke a love for landscapes, and he painted with his brush using watercolors in a very realistic and detailed style. In 1833, inspired by a visit to Venice and neighbouring cities, he also made a number of architectural paintings.
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| Ver Sacrum |
Ver Sacrum ("Sacred Spring" in Latin) was the official magazine of the Vienna Secession. Published from 1898 to 1903, it featured drawings and designs in the Jugendstil style along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. These included Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Maurice Maeterlinck, Knut Hamsun, Otto Julius Bierbaum, Richard Dehmel, Ricarda Huch, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Josef Maria Auchentaller and Arno Holz.
The Vienna Secession was founded by Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, and others.
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| Gustav Klimt |
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| Pallas Athena - Gustav Klimt |
In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to create three paintings to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. Not completed until the turn of the century, his three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and material.
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| Allegory of Sculpture - Gustav Klimpt |
His 'Nuda Veritas' (1899) defined his bid to further "shake up" the establishment. The starkly naked red-headed woman holds the mirror of truth, while above her is a quotation by Friedrich Schiller in stylized lettering, "If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please only a few. To please many is bad."
In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the Fourteenth Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a monumental polychrome sculpture by Max Klinger. Intended for the exhibition only, the frieze was painted directly on the walls with light materials. After the exhibition the painting was preserved. The face on the Beethoven portrait resembled the composer and Vienna Court Opera director Gustav Mahler, with whom Klimt had a respectful relationship.
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| Otto Wagner |
Although Otto Wagner is widely recognised as an important member of the Vienna Secession he was not a founding member.
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| Beethoven - Max Klinger |
The Berlin and Munich Secession movements preceded the Vienna Secession, which held its first exhibition in 1898.
The 14th Secession exhibition, designed by Josef Hoffmann and dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, was especially famous.
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| Beethoven Frieze - Gustav Klimpt |
A statue of Beethoven by Max Klinger stood at the center, with Klimt's Beethoven frieze mounted around it.
Klinger was born in Leipzig and studied in Karlsruhe. An admirer of the etchings of Menzel and Goya, he shortly became a skilled and imaginative engraver in his own right. He began creating sculptures in the early 1880s. From 1883-1893 he lived in Rome, and became increasingly influenced by the Italian Renaissance and antiquity. Klinger was cited by many as being a major link between the Symbolist movement of the 19th century and the start of the metaphysical and Surrealist movements of the 20th century.
In 1903, Hoffmann and Moser founded the Wiener Werkstätte as a fine-arts society with the goal of reforming the applied arts (arts and crafts).
On 14 June 1905 Gustav Klimt and other artists seceded from the Vienna Secession due to differences of opinion over artistic concepts.
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| Vienna Secession Building Joseph Maria Olbrich |
The building has been adapted and renovated several times:
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| Vienna Secession Building Joseph Maria Olbrich |
Its best-known exhibit is Gustav Klimt famous Beethoven Frieze - a monumetal wall cycle - designed in 1902.
This exhibition, conceived as an homage to the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, most sublimely embodied the secessionist idea of the gesamtkunstwerk - a comprehensive work of art.
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| Haus Feinhals - Marienburg - Joseph Olbrich |
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| Joseph Maria Olbrich |
Olbrich was born in Opava, Austrian Silesia. He was the third child of Edmund and Aloisia Olbrich.
Olbrich studied architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Wiener Staatsgewerbeschule) and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he won several prizes.
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| Ernst Ludwig House - Darmstadt - Joseph Maria Olbrich |
In 1897, Gustav Klimt, Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser founded the Vienna Secession artistic group. Olbrich designed their exhibition building, the famous Secession Hall, which became the movement's landmark.
Olbrich executed diverse architectural commissions and experimented in applied arts and design. He designed pottery, furniture, book bindings, and musical instruments. His architectural works, especially his exhibition buildings for the Vienna and Darmstadt Secessions, had a strong influence on the development of the Art Nouveau style.
Olbrich died from leukemia in Düsseldorf on August 8, aged 40.
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| Paul Bürck - Male Nude |
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| Paul Bürck - Mythological Scene |
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| 'Betender Knabe' Paul Bürck |
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| 'Grabenkmal as einer Gafallen' Paul Wilhelm Bürck |
Paul Wilhelm Bürck (* September 3rd 1878 in Strasbourg , † April 18 1947 in Munich ) was a German painter, graphic artist and textile designer and worked as a member of the Darmstadt artists' colony on the Mathildenhoehe.
Ludwig Habich (* April 2 1872 in Darmstadt , † January 20th 1949 in Jugenheim ) was a German sculptor and medalist .Habich created sculptures for Darmstadt, including the colossal figures of a man and a woman at the entrance to the Ernst-Ludwig House.
Secession Style
Unlike other movements, there is not one style that unites the work of all artists who were part of the Vienna Secession.
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| xiii secession - 1902 |
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| "Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit." |
Above its entrance was placed the phrase "Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit." ("To every age its art. To art its freedom.").
Secession artists were concerned, above all else, with exploring the possibilities of art outside the confines of the traditions of the time.
They hoped to create a new style that owed less to historical influence.
In this way they were very much in keeping with the spirit of turn-of-the-century Vienna (the time and place that also saw the publication of Freud's first writings).
The Secessionist style was exhibited in a magazine that the group produced, called Ver Sacrum, which featured highly decorative works representative of the period.
Architecture
Along with painters and sculptors, there were several prominent architects who became associated with The Vienna Secession.
During this time, architects focused on bringing more simplified geometric forms into the designs of their buildings.
The three main architects of this movement were Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, and Otto Wagner.
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| Karlsplatz Stadtbahn - Otto Wagner |
In 1898, the group's exhibition house was built in the vicinity of Karlsplatz.
Designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich, the exhibition building soon became known simply as 'die Sezession'.
This building became an icon of the movement.
The secession building displayed art from several other influential artists such as Max Klinger, Eugene Grasset, and Arnold Bocklin.
Max Klinger (February 18, 1857 – July 5, 1920) was a German Symbolist painter, sculptor, printmaker, and writer. Klinger was born in Leipzig and studied in Karlsruhe. An admirer of the etchings of Menzel, he shortly became a skilled and imaginative engraver in his own right. He began creating sculptures in the early 1880s. From 1883-1893 he lived in Rome, and became increasingly influenced by the Italian Renaissance and antiquity.
Klinger traveled extensively around the art centres of Europe for years before returning to Leipzig in 1893. From 1897 he mostly concentrated on sculpture; his marble statue of Beethoven was an integral part of the Vienna Secession exhibit of 1902. (see 'GALLERY' below for more of Klinger's works)
Arnold Böcklin (16 October 1827 – 16 January 1901) was a symbolist painter, and one of Adolf Hitler's favourite artists.
Influenced by Romanticism his painting is symbolist with mythological subjects often overlapping with the English Pre-Raphaelites.
His pictures portray mythological, fantastical figures along classical architecture constructions (often revealing an obsession with death) creating a strange, fantasy world.
Böcklin is best known for his five versions (painted in 1880-1886) of ' Die Toteninsel' (Isle of the Dead).
In 1933, the painting was put up for sale, and a noted Böcklin admirer, Adolf Hitler, acquired it. He hung it first at the Berghof in Obersalzberg and, then after 1940, in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Böcklin's work is one of the most consummate expressions of all that was later disliked about the latter half of the nineteenth century.
(see 'GALLERY' below for more of Böcklin's works)
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| 'Der Arbend ' 1882 - Max Klinger |
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| 'Triton und Nereide' - Max Klinger |
Klinger traveled extensively around the art centres of Europe for years before returning to Leipzig in 1893. From 1897 he mostly concentrated on sculpture; his marble statue of Beethoven was an integral part of the Vienna Secession exhibit of 1902. (see 'GALLERY' below for more of Klinger's works)
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| 'Die Toteninsel' - Arnold Böcklin |
Influenced by Romanticism his painting is symbolist with mythological subjects often overlapping with the English Pre-Raphaelites.
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| Selbstporträt mit fiedelndem Tod Arnold Böcklin |
Böcklin is best known for his five versions (painted in 1880-1886) of ' Die Toteninsel' (Isle of the Dead).
In 1933, the painting was put up for sale, and a noted Böcklin admirer, Adolf Hitler, acquired it. He hung it first at the Berghof in Obersalzberg and, then after 1940, in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Böcklin's work is one of the most consummate expressions of all that was later disliked about the latter half of the nineteenth century.
(see 'GALLERY' below for more of Böcklin's works)
Otto Wagner's Majolika Haus in Vienna (c. 1898) is a significant example of the Austrian use of line.
The so-called Majolica in the left Vienna Line 40 was built in 1898. The facade is decorated with glazed majolica tiles of the company Wienerberger dressed, decorated with floral motifs. These ceramic tiles are weather resistant, easy to clean and washable - for Otto Wagner hygiene was an important part of modernity. .
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| Majolikahaus - Otto Wagner |
Other significant works of Otto Wagner include The Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station in Vienna (1900), and the less successful Austrian Postal Savings Bank or Österreichische Postsparkasse in Vienna (1904–1906).
Wagner's way of modifying Art Nouveau decoration in a classical manner did not find favour with some of his pupils who broke away to form the Secessionists.
One was Josef Hoffmann who left to form the 'Wiener Werkstätte', an Austrian equivalent of the Arts and Crafts movement.
A good example of his work is the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1905).
Wiener Werkstätte
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| Wiener Werkstätte |
The enterprise evolved from the Vienna Secession, founded in 1897 as a progressive alliance of artists and designers (see above).
From the start, the Secession had placed special emphasis on the applied arts, and its 1900 exhibition surveying the work of contemporary European design workshops prompted the young architect Josef Hoffmann and his artist friend Koloman Moser to consider establishing a similar enterprise.
Finally in 1903, with backing from the industrialist Fritz Wärndorfer, the Wiener Werkstätte began operations in three small rooms; it soon expanded to fill a three-story building with separate, specially designed facilities for metalwork, leatherwork, bookbinding, woodworking and a paint shop.
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| Josef Hoffmann - Chair |
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| Moser - Zebra Cabinet - 1904 |
Most of the objects produced in the Wiener Werkstatte were stamped with a number of different marks; the trademark of the Wiener Werkstatte, the monogram of the designer and that of the craftsman, who created it.
The Wiener Werkstatte had about 100 employees in 1905, of whom 37 were masters of their trade.
The seat of the venture was in Neustiftgasse 32-34, where a new building was adapted to their requirements.
Eventually the project exhausted Wärndorfer's fortune.
The circle of customers of the Wiener Werkstatte and Josef Hoffmann mainly consisted of artists and upper middle class supporters of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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| Palais Stoclet - Josef Hoffmann |
In architectural commissions such as the Purkersdorf Sanatorium and the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, the Wiener Werkstätte was able to realize its ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork), a coordinated environment in which everything down to the last detail was consciously designed as an integral part of the whole project.
The Stoclet Palace (French: Palais Stoclet, Dutch: Stocletpaleis) is a private mansion built by architect Josef Hoffmann between 1905 and 1911 in Brussels, Belgium, for banker and art lover Adolphe Stoclet. Considered Hoffman's masterpiece, the Stoclet's house is one of the most refined and luxurious private houses of the twentieth century.
The Stoclet Palace (French: Palais Stoclet, Dutch: Stocletpaleis) is a private mansion built by architect Josef Hoffmann between 1905 and 1911 in Brussels, Belgium, for banker and art lover Adolphe Stoclet. Considered Hoffman's masterpiece, the Stoclet's house is one of the most refined and luxurious private houses of the twentieth century.
For several years, beginning in 1904, the Wiener Werkstätte had its own carpentry workshop. Josef Hoffmann designed a furniture line noted for its simple forms for the firm of Jacob & Josef Kohn. But only few pieces of furniture were made there.
Josef Hoffmann (December 15, 1870 – May 7, 1956) was an Austrian architect and designer of consumer goods. Together with Joseph Maria Olbrich they founded the Vienna Secession in 1897 along with artists Gustav Klimt, and Koloman Moser.
Beginning in 1899, he taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. With the Secession, Hoffmann developed strong connections with other artists. He designed installation spaces for Secession exhibitions and a house for Moser which was built from 1901-1903. However, he soon left the Secession in 1905 along with other stylist artists due to conflicts with realist naturalists over differences in artistic vision and disagreement over the premise of Gesamtkunstwerk. With the banker Fritz Wärndorfer and the artist Koloman Moser he established the Wiener Werkstätte, which was to last until 1932. He designed many products for the Wiener Werkstätte.
Koloman Moser (March 30, 1868 – October 18, 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art, and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.
During his life, Moser designed a wide array of art works - books and graphic works from postage stamps to magazine vignettes; fashion; stained glass windows, porcelains and ceramics, blown glass, tableware, silver, jewelry, and furniture - to name a few of his interests.
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| Josef Hoffmann |
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| Sessel Kubus - Josef Hoffmann |
Beginning in 1899, he taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. With the Secession, Hoffmann developed strong connections with other artists. He designed installation spaces for Secession exhibitions and a house for Moser which was built from 1901-1903. However, he soon left the Secession in 1905 along with other stylist artists due to conflicts with realist naturalists over differences in artistic vision and disagreement over the premise of Gesamtkunstwerk. With the banker Fritz Wärndorfer and the artist Koloman Moser he established the Wiener Werkstätte, which was to last until 1932. He designed many products for the Wiener Werkstätte.
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| Kolo Moser - Selbstbildnis |
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| Allegorie des Frühlings - Koloman Moser |
During his life, Moser designed a wide array of art works - books and graphic works from postage stamps to magazine vignettes; fashion; stained glass windows, porcelains and ceramics, blown glass, tableware, silver, jewelry, and furniture - to name a few of his interests.
Most of the furniture known as Wiener Werkstätte Furniture were made by cabinet-makers as: Portois & Fix, Johann Soulek, Anton Herrgesell, Anton Pospisil, Friedrich Otto Schmidt and Johann Niedermoser.
Some historians now believe that there are no existing original products of the Wiener Werkstätte Furniture division.
From 1905, the Wiener Werkstatte produced hand-painted and printed silks.
The Backhausen firm was responsible for the machine-printed and woven textiles.
In 1907, the Wiener Werkstätte took over distribution for the Wiener Keramik, a ceramics workshop headed by Michael Powolny and Berthold Löffler.
And in the same year Moser, embittered by the financial squabbling, left the Wiener Werkstätte, which subsequently entered a new phase, both stylistically and economically.
By the turn of the century, Berlin had become an industrial city with 800,000 inhabitants.
Improvements to the infrastructure were needed; in 1896 the construction of the subway (U-Bahn) began and was completed in 1902.
The neighborhoods around the city center (including Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain and Wedding) were filled with tenement blocks.
The surroundings saw extensive development of industrial areas East of Berlin and wealthy residential areas in the South-West.
In terms of high culture, museums were being built and enlarged, and Berlin was on the verge of becoming a major musical city.
Berlin dominated the German theater scene, with the government-supported Opernhaus and Schauspielhaus, as well as numerous private playhouses included the Lessing and the Deutsches theatres.
And in the same year Moser, embittered by the financial squabbling, left the Wiener Werkstätte, which subsequently entered a new phase, both stylistically and economically.
'Fin de Siecle' in Germany
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| Berlin 1900 |
Improvements to the infrastructure were needed; in 1896 the construction of the subway (U-Bahn) began and was completed in 1902.
The neighborhoods around the city center (including Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain and Wedding) were filled with tenement blocks.
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| Schauspielhaus - Berlin |
In terms of high culture, museums were being built and enlarged, and Berlin was on the verge of becoming a major musical city.
Berlin dominated the German theater scene, with the government-supported Opernhaus and Schauspielhaus, as well as numerous private playhouses included the Lessing and the Deutsches theatres.
Berliner Secession
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| Verein Berliner Künstler |
That year the official salon jury rejected a landscape by Walter Leistikow, who was a key figure among a group of young artists interested in modern developments in art.
Sixty-five young artists formed the initial membership of the Secession.
Max Liebermann was the Berlin Secession’s first president, and he proposed to the Secession that Paul Cassirer and his cousin Bruno act as business managers.
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| Im Schwimmbad - Max Liebermann |
He used his own inherited wealth to assemble an impressive collection of French Impressionist works. He later chose scenes of the bourgeoisie, as well as aspects of his garden near Lake Wannsee, as motifs for his paintings. In Berlin, he became a famous painter of portraits; his work is especially close in spirit to Édouard Manet.
From 1899 to 1911 he led the premier avant-garde formation in Germany, the Berlin Secession. Beginning in 1920 he was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts..
Together with Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt, Liebermann became an exponent of German Impressionism.
In 1901 Bruno Cassirer resigned from the Secession, so that he could dedicate himself entirely to the Cassirer publishing firm.
Paul took over the running of the Cassirer gallery, and supported various Secessionist artists including the sculptors Ernst Barlach and August Gaul.
Notable members of the Secession included: Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Lyonel Feininger, Georg Kolbe, Käthe Kollwitz, Julie Wolfthorn, Hermann Struck, Adolf Eduard Herstein, Ludwig Dettmann and Max Slevogt
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| Selbstporträt - Lovis Corinth |
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| 'Gekreuzigt Dieb' Lovis Corinth |
Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Secession group, later succeeding Max Liebermann as the group's president.
His early work was naturalistic in approach. Corinth was initially antagonistic towards the expressionist movement, but after 1911 his style loosened and took on many expressionistic qualities.
His use of color became more vibrant, and he created portraits and landscapes of extraordinary vitality and power. Corinth's subject matter also included nudes and biblical scenes.
Münchner Secession
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| Franz Ritter von Stuck |
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| Glaspalast - München |
Berlin, however was a relative newcomer to the cultural and artistic scene (Kunst-und Kulturszene) - Munich had long been Germany's artistic capital.
The Münchner Sezession grew out of a dispute between the Munich 'Künstlergenossenschaft' with the 'Allgemeine Deutsche Kunstgenossenschaft' in 1893.The Münchner Sezession is the earliest schism of a group of artists in protest against an existing artists' association, but other Secessions followed in Vienna, Berlin (see above).
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| Münchner Sezession |
At that time some Berlin artists, both sculptors and painters, belonged to the Münchner Sezession out of which the Berliner Secession would grow in 1899.
Like the Wiener and Berliner Secessions, the Münchner Secession embraced all the various art forms,including fine art (painting and sculpture), architecture, graphic art, and industrial art (furniture, interior decoration etc.)
Prominent German artists included Paul Hoecker (1854-1910), Leopold von Kalckreuth (1855-1928), Christian Landenberger (1862-1927), Max Liebermann (1847-1935), Hans Olde (1855-1917), Franz von Stuck (1863-1928) and the architect Peter Behrens (1868-1940).
Possibly the most well known of these artists at the turn of the century was Franz Stuck - also one of Adolf Hitler's favourite artists, and in 1892 Stuck co-founded the Münchner Sezession.
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| Villa Stuck - München - 1897-98 |
Franz Stuck (February 24, 1863 – August 30, 1928), ennobled as Franz Ritter von Stuck in 1906, was a German symbolist/Art Nouveau painter, sculptor, engraver, and architect.
Stuck was born at Tettenweis, in Bavaria. To begin his artistic education he relocated in 1878 to Munich, where he would settle for life. From 1881 to 1885 Stuck attended the Munich Academy.
In 1889 he exhibited his first paintings at the Munich Glass Palace, winning a gold medal for The Guardian of Paradise.
In 1897 began work designing his own residence and studio, the Villa Stuck. His designs for the villa included everything from layout to interior decorations and furniture.
Stuck's subject matter was primarily from mythology, inspired by the work of Arnold Böcklin. Large forms dominate most of his paintings and indicate his proclivities for sculpture. His seductive female nudes are a prime example of popular Symbolist content. Stuck paid much attention to the frames for his paintings and generally designed them himself with such careful use of panels, gilt carving and inscriptions that the frames must be considered as an integral part of the overall piece.
In 1897 began work designing his own residence and studio, the Villa Stuck. His designs for the villa included everything from layout to interior decorations and furniture.
Stuck's subject matter was primarily from mythology, inspired by the work of Arnold Böcklin. Large forms dominate most of his paintings and indicate his proclivities for sculpture. His seductive female nudes are a prime example of popular Symbolist content. Stuck paid much attention to the frames for his paintings and generally designed them himself with such careful use of panels, gilt carving and inscriptions that the frames must be considered as an integral part of the overall piece.
One of Stuck's best-known paintings The Wild Chase depicts Wotan (Odin) on horseback leading a procession of the dead. It was completed about 1889, the year of Hitler's birth, and it has acquired a kind of semi-legendary status as the face of Wotan in the painting greatly resembles Hitler's.
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a German architect and designer. He was important for the modernist movement.
He was one of the leaders of architectural change at the turn of the century and was a major designer of factories and office buildings in brick, steel and glass.
In 1903, Behrens was named director of the Kunstgewerbeschule in Düsseldorf, where he implemented reforms. In 1907, Behrens and ten other people (Hermann Muthesius, Theodor Fischer, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Bruno Paul, Richard Riemerschmid, Fritz Schumacher, among others), plus twelve companies, gathered to create the Deutscher Werkbund As an organization, it was clearly indebted to the principles and priorities of the Arts and Crafts movement, but with a decidedly modern twist. Members of the Werkbund were focused on improving the overall level of taste in Germany by improving the design of everyday objects and products. This very practical aspect made it an extremely influential organization among industrialists, public policy experts, designers, investors, critics and academics. Behrens' work for AEG was the first large-scale demonstration of the viability and vitality of the Werkbund's initiatives and objectives.
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| Peter Behrens |
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| AEG Turbine Factory - Peter Behrens |
He was one of the leaders of architectural change at the turn of the century and was a major designer of factories and office buildings in brick, steel and glass.
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| AEG Poster |
Deutscher Werkbund
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| Hermann Muthesius |
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| Deutscher Werkbund |
The Werkbund was to become an important event in the development of modern architecture and industrial design..
Its initial purpose was to establish a partnership of product manufacturers with design professionals to improve the competitiveness of German companies in global markets.
The Werkbund was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States.
Its motto 'Vom Sofakissen zum Städtebau' (from sofa cushions to city-building) indicates its range of interest.
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| Festspielhaus Hellerau - Dresden - Heinrich Tessenow |
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| Heinrich Tessenow |
The Werkbund was founded in 1907 in Munich at the instigation of Hermann Muthesius, and existed until 1934.
The organization originally included twelve architects and twelve business firms.
The architects include Peter Behrens, Theodor Fischer (who served as its first president), Josef Hoffmann, Bruno Paul, and Richard Riemerschmid.
Another highly influential architect affiliated with the project was Heinrich Tessenow - who taught Albert Speer.
FIN DE SIECLE ÖSTERREICHISCHE KUNST
'Die Niljagd der Kleopatra' - 'Cleopatra's Nile Hunt'
Hans Markart
'Der Tod Der Kleopatra' - 'The Death of Cleopatra'
Hans Markart
'Abundantia' - 'Die Gaben der Erde'
Hans Makart
'Das Urteil des Paris'
Anselm Feuerbach
'Ein Wiederfinder'
Eduard Veith
Eduard Veith (born March 30 1858 in Neutitschein , crown land Moravia , † March 18 1925 in Vienna ) was an Austrian landscape - genre - and portrait painter .
Eduard Veith, the carpenter's son Julius Veith (1820-1887) and Susanna, born Grinding (1827-1883), was a pupil of Ferdinand Laufberger at the Imperial School of Applied Arts of the Imperial Austrian Museum for Art and Industry and received his education in Paris from . Study tours took him to Italy , Belgium and Tunis .
'Die Seelen am Acheron'
Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl
'Ahasver am Ende der Welt'
Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl
Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl (1860–1933) was an Austro-Hungarian artist known for historical and mythological painting, particularly of subjects pertaining to ancient Rome.
Although he was one of the most successful artists of fin-de-siècle Vienna, these circumstances, along with the rise of Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secessionists, put his reputation in eclipse.
Hirémy-Hirschl was born in Timișoara, at that time a part of Hungary, but at an early age went to Vienna to study. He received a scholarship to attend the Akademie der bildenden Künste in 1878.
He won his first prize two years later with 'Farewell: Scene from Hannibal Crossing the Alps', followed in 1882 by a prize that allowed him to travel to Rome.
His time in Rome was a major influence on his choice of subject matter.
After returning to Vienna, he produced the acclaimed large-scale canvas 'The Plague in Rome' (1884), a work that is now lost.
He enjoyed a successful career with numerous commissions and high praise for his historical and allegorical works, culminating in the Imperial Prize in 1891.
In 1904, seventy of his works were exhibited at a retrospective.
He was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in 1911.
'Idylle'
Gustav Klimpt
WIENER SEZESSION KUNST
'Hygieia - Allegorie der Medizin'
Gustav Klimpt
Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body; his works are marked by a frank eroticism.
He remained with the Secession until 1908. The group declared no manifesto and did not set out to encourage any particular style—Naturalists, Realists, and Symbolists all coexisted.
'Der Kuss' - 'The Kiss'
Gustav Klimpt
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'Am Teich'
Alexander Rothaug (1870 - 1946)
Alexander Rothaug (1870 Vienna - 1946 Vienna) was a very well known Austrian painter, stage designer, illustrator and graphic artist who was active during the late 19th - early 20th century.
In 1885-1892 he studied at the Vienna Academy and later in Munich. Rothaug began exhibiting around the year 1900 in Munich where he worked for a few years as an illustrator of the magazine "Fliegende Blaetter".
In ca. 1910 he moved back to Vienna.
Rothaug was strongly influenced by the works of Franz von Stuck.
Artemis
Alexander Rothaug (1870 - 1946)
'Die Walkure'
Alexander Rothaug (1870 - 1946)
'Europa und der Stier'
Alexander Rothaug (1870 - 1946)
'Die Abscheidung' - (1874)
Arnold Böcklin - (1827–1901)
Arnold Böcklin (16 October 1827 – 16 January 1901) was a symbolist painter, and one of Adolf Hitler's favourite artists.
Influenced by Romanticism his painting is symbolist with mythological subjects often overlapping with the English Pre-Raphaelites.
His pictures portray mythological, fantastical figures along classical architecture constructions (often revealing an obsession with death) creating a strange, fantasy world.
Böcklin is best known for his five versions (painted in 1880-1886) of ' Die Toteninsel' (Isle of the Dead).
In 1933, the painting was put up for sale, and a noted Böcklin admirer, Adolf Hitler, acquired it. He hung it first at the Berghof in Obersalzberg and, then after 1940, in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Böcklin's work is one of the most consummate expressions of all that was later disliked about the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Influenced by Romanticism his painting is symbolist with mythological subjects often overlapping with the English Pre-Raphaelites.
His pictures portray mythological, fantastical figures along classical architecture constructions (often revealing an obsession with death) creating a strange, fantasy world.
Böcklin is best known for his five versions (painted in 1880-1886) of ' Die Toteninsel' (Isle of the Dead).
In 1933, the painting was put up for sale, and a noted Böcklin admirer, Adolf Hitler, acquired it. He hung it first at the Berghof in Obersalzberg and, then after 1940, in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Böcklin's work is one of the most consummate expressions of all that was later disliked about the latter half of the nineteenth century.
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'Medussa'
Arnold Böcklin - (1827–1901)
'Die Klagelieder der Maria Magdalena auf dem Körper des Christus'
Arnold Böcklin - (1827–1901)
'Amaryllis'
Arnold Böcklin - (1827–1901)
'Tod von Caesar'
Max Klinger
Max Klinger (February 18, 1857 – July 5, 1920) was a German Symbolist painter, sculptor, printmaker, and writer.
Klinger was born in Leipzig and studied in Karlsruhe.
An admirer of the etchings of Menzel, he shortly became a skilled and imaginative engraver in his own right.
He began creating sculptures in the early 1880s.
From 1883-1893 he lived in Rome, and became increasingly influenced by the Italian Renaissance and antiquity.
Klinger traveled extensively around the art centres of Europe for years before returning to Leipzig in 1893. From 1897 he mostly concentrated on sculpture; his marble statue of Beethoven was an integral part of the Vienna Secession exhibit of 1902
'Das Urteil des Paris'
Max Klinger
'Venus in der Muschel Warenkorb'
Max Klinger
'Die Götter in der Brandung'
Max Klinger
MÜNCHNER SECESSION
'Amor'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
Franz Stuck (February 24, 1863 – August 30, 1928), ennobled as Franz Ritter von Stuck in 1906, was a German symbolist/Art Nouveau painter, sculptor, engraver, and architect.
Stuck was born at Tettenweis, in Bavaria.
To begin his artistic education he relocated in 1878 to Munich, where he would settle for life. From 1881 to 1885 Stuck attended the Munich Academy.
In 1889 he exhibited his first paintings at the Munich Glass Palace, winning a gold medal for The Guardian of Paradise.
In 1897 began work designing his own residence and studio, the Villa Stuck. His designs for the villa included everything from layout to interior decorations and furniture.
Stuck's subject matter was primarily from mythology, inspired by the work of Arnold Böcklin. Large forms dominate most of his paintings and indicate his proclivities for sculpture.
His seductive female nudes are a prime example of popular Symbolist content.
Stuck paid much attention to the frames for his paintings and generally designed them himself with such careful use of panels, gilt carving and inscriptions that the frames must be considered as an integral part of the overall piece.
One of Stuck's best-known paintings 'Der Wilde Jagd' (The Wild Chase) depicts Wotan (Odin) on horseback leading a procession of the dead.
It was completed about 1889, the year of Hitler's birth, and it has acquired a kind of semi-legendary status as the face of Wotan in the painting greatly resembles that of Adolf Hitler.
'Nackte Junge mit einem Schwert'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
'Kämpfe Amazone'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
'Reitende Amazone'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
'Die Sünde'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
'Der Geist des Sieges'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
'Kreuzigung'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
Studie zum Kreuzigung
Franz Ritter von Stuck
'Pieta'
Franz Ritter von Stuck
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'Pallas Athene' - 1898
Franz von Stuck
'Der Wilde Jagd'
Franz von Stuck
One of Stuck's best-known paintings 'Der Wilde Jagd' (The Wild Chase) depicts Wotan (Odin) on horseback leading a procession of the dead.
It was completed about 1889, the year of Hitler's birth, and it has acquired a kind of semi-legendary status as the face of Wotan in the painting greatly resembles that of Adolf Hitler.
Medusa - 1892
Franz Ritter von Stuck
Painted in 1892, Von Stuck’s Medusa arrests the viewer at first gaze.
Writhing, sinuous snakes crown the Gorgon while she stares out at the world with mesmerizing eyes.
Limpid and reflective, her irises are set within a feminine visage.
Von Stuck focused the viewer’s attention to the eyes in order to convey the petrifying power behind them. August Kubizek related in his memoirs, Adolf Hitler, 'Mein Jugendfreund' that he had visited a gallery with the young Adolf Hitler.
The future Führer of the Third Reich gazed at Von Stuck’s Medusa and suddenly exclaimed, “Those eyes, Kubizek! Those were my mother’s eyes”.
The similarity is remarkable when one views a photograph of Klara Hitler. Von Stuck’s oneiric visions were both extraordinary and prescient.
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('Adolf Hitler - My Boyhood Friend')
Klara Hitler
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