Richard Riemerschmid
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
and city planner from Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. He was a major figure in Jugendstil, the German form of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
, and a founder of architecture in the style. A founder member of both the Vereinigte Werkstätte für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Art in Handcrafts) and the Deutscher Werkbund
Deutscher Werkbund
The Deutscher Werkbund was a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists. The Werkbund was to become an important event in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, particularly in the later creation of the Bauhaus school of design...
and the director of art and design institutions in Munich and Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, he prized craftsmanship but also pioneered machine production of artistically designed objects.
Life and career
Riemerschmid was born in Munich, the sixth of nine children of Eduard Riemerschmid, who headed the Munich distillery founded by his father Anton Riemerschmid, and his wife Amalie. After completing his AbiturAbitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
at the Wilhelmsgymnasium
Wilhelmsgymnasium (Munich)
The Wilhelmsgymnasium of Munich is a school of academic secondary education. It is very famous for various reasons: it is the oldest grammar school in Munich; it has had several famous students; since 2004 it has been the only school in Bavaria that can claim to be a "Humanistisches Gymnasium";...
in 1886 and military service in the army, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the "Royal Academy of Fine Arts" and is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany...
under Gabriel Hackl and Ludwig von Löfftz
Ludwig Löfftz
Ludwig Löfftz was a German genre and landscape painter.- Biography :He was born at Darmstadt. He was a pupil of August von Kreling and Karl Raupp at Nuremberg, then of Wilhelm von Diez at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, where he became professor in 1879, and of which he was director between 1891...
from 1888 to 1890 and then worked as an independent artist and architect.
He began as an Impressionist and Symbolist painter. He produced advertising of various kinds on commission, including series of pictures for albums for the Stollwerck
Stollwerck
Stollwerck GmbH is a German food company known for the production of chocolate. In 1998 it acquired Sarotti.In 2002 it was bought by the Barry Callebaut AG, who sold it in 2011 to the Baronie Groep in Veurne, Belgium.- History :...
chocolate company of Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, one called "The Seasons" (Jahreszeiten) for Album No. 4 of 1899.
He was a co-founder of the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Art in Handcrafts) (1897 or 1898, originally Dresdner Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst, later Deutsche Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst and now Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau
Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau
The Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau is a medium-sized furniture-manufacturing business in the Hellerau district of the German city of Dresden....
) and the Deutscher Werkbund
Deutscher Werkbund
The Deutscher Werkbund was a German association of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists. The Werkbund was to become an important event in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, particularly in the later creation of the Bauhaus school of design...
(1907), which he headed from 1920 to 1926. From 1913 to 1924, he was director of the Munich Kunstgewerbeschule
Kunstgewerbeschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule was the old name for an advanced school of applied arts in German-speaking countries. The first such schools were opened in Kassel in 1867 and Berlin and Munich in 1868 with other German towns following. They are now merged into universities....
(which merged with the Academy of Fine Arts in 1946), and from 1926 to 1931 was a professor at and the director of the Kölner Werkschulen
Kölner Werkschulen
The Kölner Werkschulen were a series of schools in Cologne training artists in visual arts, architecture and design from 1926 to 1971.- Directors :* 1879–1906: Friedrich Romberg, engineers* 1906–1910: Gustav Halmhuber, architect and painter...
(an art and design college which was a forerunner of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne). He played an important role in the 1922 German Handcrafts Exhibition in Munich. He published books on art education.
Riemerschmid paved the way for the modern artistic handcrafts movement. Influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, he created furniture, carpets, fabric and wallpaper designs and glass and porcelain pieces. In all of these his guiding principles were "objective clarity and purpose, solid craftsmanship and the use of simple, inexpensive materials". He created several interior designs, including for the Munich Kammerspiele
Munich Kammerspiele
The Munich Kammerspiele is a successful German language theatre in Munich. The Schauspielhaus in the Maximilianstrasse is the major stage.-History:...
(1900/01). With Joseph Maria Olbrich
Joseph Maria Olbrich
Joseph Maria Olbrich was an Austrian architect and co-founder of the Vienna Secession.-Life:Olbrich was born in Opava, Austrian Silesia .He was the third child of Edmund and Aloisia Olbrich. He had two sisters who died before he was born, and two younger brothers John and Edmund...
and his friend and colleague Bruno Paul
Bruno Paul
Bruno Paul was a German architect, illustrator, interior designer, and furniture designer.Bruno Paul was born in Seifhennersdorf, a village in rural Saxony, in 1874. His father was an independent tradesman, craftsman, and dealer in building materials...
, he designed the 30 luxury cabins of the fast ocean liner SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie
SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie
SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie was an ocean liner built in Stettin, Germany in 1906 for North German Lloyd that had the largest steam reciprocating machinery ever fitted to a ship. The last of four ships part of the kaiser class, she was also the last German ship to have been built with four funnels....
, launched in 1906, at the time one of the most ambitious and successful German passenger vessels, and he, Paul, and Johann Poppe
Johann Poppe
Johann Georg Poppe , often called Johannes Poppe by English-speaking writers, was a prominent architect in Bremen during the German Gründerzeit and an influential interior designer of ocean liners for Norddeutscher Lloyd...
, house designer for the North German Lloyd Line, were to have co-designed the interiors of the never finished SS Columbus of 1914. The furniture in his 1899 show interiors was praised for its style, for varying the repetitive verticals by adding a diagonal note to the framing of a glass-fronted cabinet and having chairs taper upwards from a broad base, and above all for remaining true to simplicity. He began designing furniture because he could not find what he wanted for his flat after his marriage. In 1903-04 he designed a dinner and coffee service for Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china is the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market...
, part of their attempt to incorporate art nouveau designs; it was well received by the critics but did not sell well, although some were also sold through the Workshops. It has been reissued as Blaue Rispe (blue meadow-grass).
Riemerschmid designed the site plan, the factory and some of the housing for Hellerau
Hellerau
Hellerau is a quarter in the City of Dresden, Germany. It was the first garden city in Germany.Based on the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, businessman Karl Schmidt-Hellerau founded Hellerau near Dresden in 1909. The idea was to create an organic, planned community...
(now part of Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
), which was the first garden city
Garden city movement
The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts" , containing proportionate areas of residences, industry and...
of the English type to be built in Germany. As an architect, he is known particularly for his houses: his own house in Munich, the Villa Fischel in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, the Fieser villa in Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
, and the Frank villa in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
and country house in Witzenhausen
Witzenhausen
Witzenhausen is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany.It was granted town rights in 1225, and until 1974, it was a district seat....
, and for the uncompleted "Walddorfstraße" workers' housing complex in Hagen
Hagen
Hagen is the 39th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr...
, Westphalia, although his major contribution to Jugendstil architecture was his interior for the Munich Schauspielhaus (playhouse; later the Kammerspiele
Munich Kammerspiele
The Munich Kammerspiele is a successful German language theatre in Munich. The Schauspielhaus in the Maximilianstrasse is the major stage.-History:...
).
At the United Workshops in Hellerau, Riemerschmid developed a programme of machine production of art furniture. For example, a chair in his "music room" exhibit at the German Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1899 was so popular, the Workshops immediately placed it in production, it was also being manufactured and sold by Liberty's the next year, and it was widely copied. He subsequently expanded this to the production of house kits. One such house, ordered in 1922 at an exhibition and erected in 1923 in Rodenkirchen
Rodenkirchen
Rodenkirchen is a southern city district of Cologne in Germany. It has about 100,000 inhabitants and covers as an area of 54.56 square kilometres...
near Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
from 4,000 parts, mostly wood but including tiles and heating stoves, was disassembled and stored in Leverkusen
Leverkusen
Leverkusen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the South, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne and to the North is the state capital Düsseldorf....
in 1978. In 1984 the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
declared it a landmark, and research revealed that it was the only example of the model ever built. A grandchild of the original purchaser had the pieces moved in 2004 to Simbach
Simbach
Simbach is the name of two towns in Bavaria*Simbach, Dingolfing-Landau*The town Simbach am Inn in the district Rottal-Inn...
in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
and reassembled there at considerable cost, assisted by the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz
Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz
The Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz is a German private initiative founded in 1985 which works for the preservation of cultural heritage in Germany and to promote the idea of cultural heritage management....
(German Foundation for Landmark Protection).
In 1895, Riemerschmid married the actress Ida Hofmann. They had four children. In 1910, his sister Frieda became the second wife of Karl Schmidt-Hellerau
Karl Schmidt-Hellerau
Karl Camillo Schmidt-Hellerau was a German carpenter, furniture manufacturer and social reformer. He is notable as the founder of Hellerau, Germany's first garden city....
, the founder of the United Workshops.
After the Nazi regime came to power in 1933, Riemerschmid was forced out of the Werkbund, and in 1943 Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
forbade the award of the Goethe Medal for Art and Science
Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft
The Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft was a German award. It was authorized by Reichspresident Paul von Hindenburg to commemorate the centenary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's death on March 22, 1932...
to him as urged by Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
. However, he did receive the medal on 20 July that year.
He is buried in the cemetery at Gräfelfing
Gräfelfing
Gräfelfing is a municipality in the district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located 1 km west of Munich .The name "Gräfelfing" first appears as "Grevolvinga", which as per one hypothesis could possibly name a tribe leader named "grey wolf" .Gräfelfing is ranked on the 5th...
, which he laid out in 1913. His drawings are in the architectural museum at the Technical University Munich and his other papers in the German Art Archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Germanisches Nationalmuseum
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day...
in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
. The Richard-Riemerschmid-Berufskolleg
Richard-Riemerschmid-Berufskolleg
The Richard-Riemerschmid-Berufskolleg is a secondary school in the southern half of the German city of Cologne. It is notable for being named after the architect and designer Richard Riemerschmid....
, a vocational school in Cologne, is named for him in memory of his direction of the Kölner Werkschulen.
Selected works
- 1898-1906: Personal villa in the style of an English cottage, PasingPasingPasing is a district in the city of Munich, Germany and part of the borough Pasing-Obermenzing.-Overview:Pasing is located west of the Munich city centre, at the north-western edge of the city's innermost traffic zone. The district is mainly residential; there is a large concentration of shops,...
, Munich. Later extensions: studio and connecting building. Furnishings removed in 2010. - 1899: "Music salon" interior, shown at the German Art Exhibition in Dresden
- 1900: "The art-lover's room" interior, shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900
- 1901: Interior design of the Schauspielhaus (later the Kammerspiele) in Munich (architect: Max LittmannMax LittmannMax Littmann was a German architect.Littmann was educated in the Gewerbeakademie Chemnitz and the Technische Hochschule Dresden...
) - 1902–1903: Fieser villa in Baden-Baden
- 1904: "Rector's room at the Industrial School in Nuremberg" interior, shown at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis
- 1904–05: Fischel villa in Kiel
- 1905: Rudolph villa in Dresden (destroyed)
- 1906: Frank villa in Göttingen
- 1906: Fritz Frank country house in Witzenhausen
- 1907–10: Walddorfstraße Workers' Settlement for Hagener Textilindustrie Gebrüder Elbers AG in Hagen (only 11 houses built of the planned 87 buildings)
- 1909–10: Scholten villa in DuisburgDuisburg- History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...
(demolished) - 1909–11: Manufacturing plant, Deutsche Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst, Moritzburger Weg 67, Hellerau, Dresden
- 1909–11: Hoffmann villa in HalleHalle, Saxony-AnhaltHalle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
- 1909–13: Wieland villa in UlmUlmUlm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
- 1910: "Dining room" and "lady's chamber" interiors, shown at the 1910 International Exposition in BrusselsBrussels International 1910Exposition Universelle et Internationale was a world's fair held in Brussels in 1910 from April 23 to November 1. This was just thirteen years after the previous Brussels world's fair....
- 1910–12: Schwalten villa at SchwaltenweiherSchwaltenweiherThe Schwaltenweiher is a reservoir lake in the Ostallgäu foothills of the Alps. It lies 14 km from the Allgäu Alps between the towns of Seeg and Rückholz. It was named after the Schwaltenmühle mill built beside it, which was in turn named after the Schwalt or Schwald family...
, OstallgäuOstallgäuOstallgäu is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Oberallgäu, Unterallgäu, Augsburg, Landsberg, Weilheim-Schongau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and by the Austrian state of Tyrol... - 1910–12: Carl villa, for the publisher Hans Carl, Höhenbergstraße 35, FeldafingFeldafingFeldafing is a municipality in Starnberg district, Bavaria, Germany, and is located on the west shore of Lake Starnberg, southwest of Munich.- History :...
- 1911: Naumann villa in RiesaRiesaRiesa is a town in the district of Meißen in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is located at the river Elbe, approx. 40 km northwest of Dresden.The world's first 110 kV power line was inaugurated between Riesa and Lauchhammer in 1912....
- 1914: Interior design and furniture for the villa in the Werkbund exhibition at CologneWerkbund Exhibition (1914)The first Werkbund Exhibition of 1914 was held at Rheinpark in Cologne, Germany. Bruno Taut's best-known building, the prismatic dome of the Glass Pavilion of which only black and white images survive today, was in reality a brightly colored landmark. Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer designed a model...
- 1922: Factory building for Anton Riemerschmid Liquors on Prater IslandPrater IslandPrater Island is one of the two islands in the Isar in Munich. The other is Museum Island....
, Munich - 1924: War memorial, Schloßstraße, IsmaningIsmaningIsmaning is a municipality in Bavaria, Germany, located near Munich. In 2006 it had 14,638 inhabitants. Near Ismaning there is a large broadcasting facility called Transmitter Ismaning....
- 1925: Exhibition hall at the German Transport Exhibition in Munich
- 1928: Pavilion for Hermann Reckendorf GmbH, publisher, at the "Pressa" international press exhibition in Cologne
- 1928–29: Schaffer villa in KlingenmünsterKlingenmünsterKlingenmünster is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany.Near Klingenmünster there is a castle called "Burg Landeck".It is the birthplace of Michael Hahn, the 19th governor of Louisiana.-References:...
- 1929–31: Wefelscheid villa in BendorfBendorfBendorf is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. 7 km north of Koblenz.-Structure of the city:The city has the following neighbourhoods:*Bendorf*Sayn*Mülhofen...
Selected publications
- Wege und Irrwege unserer Kunsterziehung. Berlin: Reckendorf, [1917]
- Künstlerische Erziehungsfragen. Flugschriften des Münchner Bundes. 2 vols. Munich: Müller, 1917, 1919
Honours
- 1914: Geheimrat, Kingdom of Bavaria
- 1924: Geheimer Regierungsrat, Bavaria
- 1943: Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft
- 1951: City of Munich architecture prize
- 1952: Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz (Commander)
- 1952: City of Munich grand prize for art
- 1954: Honorary membership in the Academy of Fine Arts, MunichAcademy of Fine Arts, MunichThe Academy of Fine Arts, Munich was founded 1808 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in Munich as the "Royal Academy of Fine Arts" and is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany...
- 1955: Honorary doctorate in engineering, Technische Hochschule Stuttgart, now the University of StuttgartUniversity of StuttgartThe University of Stuttgart is a university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized in 10 faculties....
Sources
- Michaela Rammert-Götz. Richard Riemerschmid, Möbel und Innenräume von 1895-1900. Schriften aus dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität München 22. Munich: Tuduv, 1987. ISBN 9783880732537
- Bernhard Graf. Richard Riemerschmid, Bayerischer Architekt zwischen Jugendstil und Werkbund. Documentary. Bayerischer RundfunkBayerischer RundfunkBayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
2006 - Maria Wüllenkemper. Richard Riemerschmid: "Nicht die Kunst schafft den Stil, das Leben schafft ihn". Regensburger Studien zur Kunstgeschichte 6. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2009. ISBN 9783795420956
- Detlef Lorenz. Reklamekunst um 1900. Künstlerlexikon für Sammelbilder. Berlin: Reimer, 2000. ISBN 9783496012207
- Thomas Nitschke. Die Geschichte der Gartenstadt Hellerau. Dresden: Hellerau, 2009. ISBN 9783938122174
External links
- Examples of his art and design at ArtNet
- Examples of his work and biography from Grove Art Online at MOMAMomaMoma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
- Textilarbeitersiedlung Walddorfstraße, Themenroute 9 - Industriekultur an Volme und Ennepe, Metropoleruhr
- Das Richard-Riemerschmid Berufskolleg in Köln