OLBRICH, Josef Maria

The designs of Olbrich’s furniture, crafts work and metalware, such as the famous candlestick, are expressive, rigorous and simple, decorated with original geometric details and harmonious forms.

The designs of Olbrich’s furniture, crafts work and metalware, such as the famous candlestick, are expressive, rigorous and simple, decorated with original geometric details and harmonious forms.

The candlestick was produced by the factory of Eduard Hueck. The firm (founder Wilhelm Hueck) existed already in 1813 as a button factory. Later on, his son Eduard Hueck and an uncle (same name) gave the L�denscheider factory a reputation for avant-garde art. From 1901 until 1906, they worked with the designers of the Artists’ Colony Darmstadt, such as Josef Maria Olbrich, Peter Behrens and Albin M�ller.

The HUECK-EDELZINN (c. 90% pewter, 5-10% antimony and 0,5-5% copper) was made in a press and bore the mark of the designer.

Examples of the candlestick are to be found in several German museums, including the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, the Museum K�nstlerkolonie Darmstadt, Kunstgewerbemuseums, Berlin, Staatliche Kunstammlungen, Kassel, Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe. There are also examples in the British Museum, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

Olbrich’s Secession Building caused outrage in Vienna but brought Olbrich international acclaim and an invitation (1899) from Ernest-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, to join the artists’ colony he proposed to set up in the Mathildenh�he Park at Darmstadt. In the artists’ colony, Olbrich found the freedom and patronage that enabled him to realize a Gesamtkunstwerk combining the garden-city principles of Sitte with an increasingly original architectural style, which moved from a novel volumetric Jugendstil to the simpler, rationalist forms of proto-modernism.

Except for Behrens’s house, Olbrich designed all the buildings at the colony, including studios, houses, temporary and permanent pavilions and galleries for exhibitions of the colony’s work in 1901, 1904 and 1908. Among his first works was the Ernst Ludwig Haus, a communal studio building with a north-light roof, which was designed to be the focus of the colony’s activities and was at the centre of its first exhibition, Ein Dokument deutscher Kunst (1901). Sited on rising ground above the houses, its smooth rectilinear form was set off by a decorated arched entrance flanked by two monumental sculptures representing Strength and Beauty by Ludwig Habich (1872-1949), one of the colony’s resident sculptors, at the head of a grand approach stair.

The Ernst Ludwig House was built as a common atelier following plans drawn up by Josef Maria Olbrich, who had worked as an architect and was the central figure in the group of artists, Peter Behrens having been involved at first only as a painter and an illustrator. The laying of the foundation stone took place on the 24th of March 1900.

The atelier was both a worksite and the venue for gatherings in the artists’ colony. In the middle of the main floor is the meeting room, and there are three artist studios on each side of it. There are two underground artists’ apartments and underground rooms for business purposes. The entrance is located in a niche decorated with gold-plated flower motifs. Two six-metre tall statues, “Man and Woman” or “Strength and Beauty”, flank the entrance and are the work of Ludwig Habich. The artists’ houses were grouped around the atelier.

Towards the end of the 1980s, the building, restored after damage in World War II, was turned into a museum (Museum K�nstlerkolonie Darmstadt) about the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony.

Joseph Maria Olbrich planned the Wedding Tower and the neighbouring Exhibition Building, which were opened in 1908 as a venue for the members of the artists’ colony to display their artwork. The building stands on a former reservoir, part of the Darmstadt water network originally sealed over only with earth.

The Exhibition Building planned by Josef Maria Olbrich was erected on the highest point of the Mathildenh�he above the former water reservoir built in 1880. Together with the Wedding Tower, which was also built for the “Hessian State Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts”, it forms an ensemble that characterises the cityscape.

This horizontally aligned exhibition building, built of reinforced concrete and clad with a light grey roughcast, is a dynamic contrast to the tower building with its emphasis on material. Its asymmetrically designed architecture, with an entrance building with a pavilion roof to the side and the southern staircase pavilion, is a counterbalance to the massive appearance of the towering clinker structure in the north.

Since its completion in 1908, the building has been used for exhibitions, public events and cultural conferences.

The Exhibition Building planned by Josef Maria Olbrich was erected on the highest point of the Mathildenh�he above the former water reservoir built in 1880. Together with the Wedding Tower, which was also built for the “Hessian State Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts”, it forms an ensemble that characterises the cityscape.

This horizontally aligned exhibition building, built of reinforced concrete and clad with a light grey roughcast, is a dynamic contrast to the tower building with its emphasis on material. Its asymmetrically designed architecture, with an entrance building with a pavilion roof to the side and the southern staircase pavilion, is a counterbalance to the massive appearance of the towering clinker structure in the north.

Since its completion in 1908, the building has been used for exhibitions, public events and cultural conferences.

The designs of Olbrich’s furniture, crafts work and metalware, such as the famous candlestick, are expressive, rigorous and simple, decorated with original geometric details and harmonious forms.

The cabinet was made by Hofm�belfabrik Julius Gl�ckert.

In 1838, Jacob Gl�ckert founded a furniture workshop in Darmstadt, which was taken over by his son Julius Gl�ckert (1848-1911) in 1876. Around 1900, the successful company was able to employ about 100 people and carried out numerous orders for the houses of the artists’ colony. Gl�ckert’s residence was one of the buildings of the 1901 exhibition on the Mathildenh�he. Eventually, Gl�ckert could call himself purveyor to the court of HM Emperor of Russia and HRH the Grand Duke of Hesse. After Gl�ckert’s death, the company was continued by his granddaughter Anne Kl�nne until 1943.

The motto of the Secessionist movement is written above the entrance of the pavilion: “To every age its art, to art its freedom” (German: “Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit”). Below this is a sculpture of three gorgons representing painting, sculpture, and architecture.

By 1896 Olbrich and his contemporary Josef Hoffman had come under the influence of the painters Gustav Klimt and Kolo Moser and were involved in the founding of the anti-academic Secession in Vienna (1897). In 1898, having set up practice on his own, Olbrich completed his first major commission, the Secession building (interior modified), an exhibition building on a prominent site in the Friedrichstrasse. Its design, said to have been inspired by Klimt, immediately established Olbrich as one of Austria’s most progressive architects: its cubic forms and battered walls, with a central, spherical, perforated dome of metal laurel leaves set between four short stone pylons, caused outrage in Vienna but brought Olbrich international acclaim and an invitation (1899) from Ernest-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, to join the artists’ colony he proposed to set up in the Mathildenh�he Park at Darmstadt.

By 1896 Olbrich and his contemporary Josef Hoffman had come under the influence of the painters Gustav Klimt and Kolo Moser and were involved in the founding of the anti-academic Secession in Vienna (1897). In 1898, having set up practice on his own, Olbrich completed his first major commission, the Secession building (interior modified), an exhibition building on a prominent site in the Friedrichstrasse. Its design, said to have been inspired by Klimt, immediately established Olbrich as one of Austria’s most progressive architects: its cubic forms and battered walls, with a central, spherical, perforated dome of metal laurel leaves set between four short stone pylons, caused outrage in Vienna but brought Olbrich international acclaim and an invitation (1899) from Ernest-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, to join the artists’ colony he proposed to set up in the Mathildenh�he Park at Darmstadt.

The motto of the Secessionist movement is written above the entrance of the pavilion: “To every age its art, to art its freedom” (German: “Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit”). Below this is a sculpture of three gorgons representing painting, sculpture, and architecture.

The photo shows the main entrance of the building with three gorgons above it.

The exhibition buildings designed by Olbrich in Mathildenh�he-Darmstadt for the Hessische Landesausstellung of 1908 reveal the gradual shift towards rectilinear forms and a restrained classicism in Olbrich’s work. It became most pronounced in the buildings he designed outside Darmstadt: the Villa Feinhals (1908), Cologne, and the Tietz department store (1906-09; now the Kaufhof), K�nigsallee, D�sseldorf. After winning the competition for the latter, Olbrich set up an office in D�sseldorf to supervise the construction (completed after his death).

The building, planned around three internal light courts, was designed with a reinforced-concrete structure, faced externally with sandstone and internally with coloured marble, highly ornamented and lavishly decorated (original interior destroyed). The design for the fa�ade developed concepts first employed in Alfred Messel’s Wertheim store (1896-97; destroyed), Berlin, and had a considerable influence on store design in the Rhineland in the following decades. The building brought Olbrich much acclaim from contemporary critics.

The Tietz department store is still owned by the former Leonhard Tietz Group, today’s Kaufhof (called this since 1933), which operates it under the name Galeria Kaufhof D�sseldorf K�nigsallee. The building sculpture on the external fa�ades is the work of the sculptor Johannes Knubel (1877-1949), who worked on monumental fa�ades in D�sseldorf and Cologne.

Joseph Maria Olbrich planned the Wedding Tower and the neighbouring Exhibition Building, which were opened in 1908 as a venue for the members of the artists’ colony to display their artwork.

Darmstadt’s landmark, the Wedding Tower, rises on the Mathildenh�he. The name refers to the wedding between Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig and Princess Eleonore zu Solms-Hohensolms-Lich in 1905. After the announcement of the engagement, the Grand Duke consulted the Viennese architect Josef Maria Olbrich. Both of them were intrigued by the idea of creating a widely visible monument in commemoration of this event. The 49-meter-high tower designed by Olbrich was erected in the years 1907 to 1908.

The tower consists of a multi-stage pedestal, a tower body built with dark-red clinker brick, stylish bands of windows carrying around the corners, and a five-spired crown. The unconventionally shaped crown has earned the tower the name ‘Five-Finger-Tower’. The western fa�ade is the visible face of the tower; the relief above the entrance porch bears an inscription referring to the wedding.

The tower is divided into seven floors of different heights and functions. These rooms were completed step by step after the exhibition in 1908. On 15th May 1909, construction works in the Wedding Room and the Grand Duke’s Room were finished.

Except for Behrens’s house, Olbrich designed all the buildings at the colony, including studios, houses, temporary and permanent pavilions and galleries for exhibitions of the colony’s work in 1901, 1904 and 1908.

Olbrich also designed the smallest of the eight houses in the colony, built for Wilhelm Deiters, the managing secretary of the 1901 exhibition “A Document of German Art”. During the exhibition, the ground floor with its rooms designed by the architect could be visited.

The form and orientation of the building respond to the location at the corner of two streets, particularly noticeable in the three-sided structure facing the corner. It has large white wall surfaces and continues upwards in a hexagonal roof extension with flanking round turrets. The playful roof shapes, including the plane tiles and the two symmetrically placed turrets, are still reminiscent of the English country house type. The smooth white wall surfaces in the south and east refer to the clarity of modernity.

The windows of various shapes and sizes are distributed asymmetrically over the four sides of the building. They indicate the inside organisation of the house: the distribution of rooms was defined by the architect. Here Olbrich implemented the principle of planning from inside to outside in his architecture. Despite the small ground plan, all rooms had a decent size. Furthermore, access to these rooms and passages were planned in such a way that no space was lost through corridors that could not be used.

After removing a post-war extension, the house, which was not damaged in the war, was restored in 1990. It is original in its architecture, in parts of its permanently installed interior, and in the fencing with its geometrically designed iron grid.

Except for Behrens’s house, Olbrich designed all the buildings at the colony, including studios, houses, temporary and permanent pavilions and galleries for exhibitions of the colony’s work in 1901, 1904 and 1908.

Olbrich also designed the smallest of the eight houses in the colony, built for Wilhelm Deiters, the managing secretary of the 1901 exhibition “A Document of German Art”. During the exhibition, the ground floor with its rooms designed by the architect could be visited.

The form and orientation of the building respond to the location at the corner of two streets, particularly noticeable in the three-sided structure facing the corner. It has large white wall surfaces and continues upwards in a hexagonal roof extension with flanking round turrets. The playful roof shapes, including the plane tiles and the two symmetrically placed turrets, are still reminiscent of the English country house type. The smooth white wall surfaces in the south and east refer to the clarity of modernity.

The windows of various shapes and sizes are distributed asymmetrically over the four sides of the building. They indicate the inside organisation of the house: the distribution of rooms was defined by the architect. Here Olbrich implemented the principle of planning from inside to outside in his architecture. Despite the small ground plan, all rooms had a decent size. Furthermore, access to these rooms and passages were planned in such a way that no space was lost through corridors that could not be used.

After removing a post-war extension, the house, which was not damaged in the war, was restored in 1990. It is original in its architecture, in parts of its permanently installed interior, and in the fencing with its geometrically designed iron grid.

The photo shows the entrance portal of the house.