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Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien | |
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Established | 1692; 333 years ago (1692) |
| Rector | Johan Frederik Hartle |
| Students | 1,268 (2010) |
| Location | , Austria |
| Website | akbild.ac.at |
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TheAcademy of Fine Arts Vienna (German:Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a publicart school inVienna,Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. Outside of Austria, it is best known for rejecting admission to a youngAdolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908.
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1688 as a private academy modelled on theAccademia di San Luca and the ParisienAcadémie de peinture et de sculpture by the court-painterPeter Strudel, who became thePraefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701, he was ennobled by EmperorJoseph I asFreiherr (Baron) of theEmpire. With his death in 1714, the academy temporarily closed.[1]
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On 20 January 1725, EmperorCharles VI appointed the FrenchmanJacob van Schuppen as Prefect and Director of the academy, which was refounded as thek.k. Hofakademie der Maler, Bildhauer und Baukunst (Imperial and Royal Court Academy of painters, sculptors and architecture). Upon Charles's death in 1740, the academy at first declined, however during the rule of his daughter EmpressMaria Theresa, a new statute reformed the academy in 1751. The prestige of the academy grew during the deanships ofMichelangelo Unterberger andPaul Troger, and in 1767 the archduchessesMaria Anna andMaria Carolina were made the first Honorary Members. In 1772, there were further reforms to the organisational structure. In 1776, the engraver Jakob Matthias Schmutzer founded a school of engraving. This Imperial-Royal Academy of Engraving in the Annagasse soon competed with the Court Academy.
ChancellorWenzel Anton Kaunitz integrated all existing art academies into thek.k. vereinigten Akademie der bildenden Künste (Imperial and Royal Unified Academy of Fine Arts). The word "vereinigten" (unified) was later dropped. In 1822 the art cabinet grew significantly with the bequest of honorary memberAnton Franz de Paula Graf Lamberg-Sprinzenstein. His collection still forms the backbone of the art on display.[2]
In 1872, EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austria approved a statute making the academy the supreme government authority for the arts. A new building was constructed according to plans designed byTheophil Hansen in the course of the layout of theRingstraße boulevard.[3] On 3 April 1877, the present-day building on Schillerplatz in theInnere Stadt district was inaugurated, the interior works, including ceiling frescos byAnselm Feuerbach, continued until 1892.
In 1907 and 1908, youngAdolf Hitler, who had come fromLinz, was twice denied admission to the drawing class by academy professorChristian Griepenkerl.[4] He stayed in Vienna, subsisting on his orphan allowance, and tried unsuccessfully to continue his profession as an artist. Soon he had withdrawn into poverty and started sellinghis amateur paintings, mostlywatercolours, for meagre sustenance until he left Vienna forMunich in May 1913.[5]
During the AustrianAnschluss toNazi Germany from 1938 to 1945, the academy, like other Austrian universities, was forced to purge its staff and student body of Jews and others who fell under the purview of the racially discriminatoryNuremberg Laws.[6] AfterWorld War II, the academy was reconstituted in 1955 and its autonomy reconfirmed. Eduard von Josch, the secretary of the academy, was dismissed for being a member of theNazi Party.[6] The academy has had university status since 1998, but retained its original name. It is currently the only Austrian university without the word "university" in its name.
The academy is divided into the following institutes:[7]
The academy currently has about 900 students, almost a quarter of which are foreign students. Its faculty includes "stars" such asPeter Sloterdijk. Its library houses about 110,000 volumes and its "etching cabinet" (Kupferstichkabinett) has about 150,000 drawings and prints. The collection is one of the biggest in Austria, and is used for academic purposes, although portions are also open to the general public.
The Academy of Fine Arts in 1908 is the scene of the early chapters of the 2001alternative history novelThe Alternative Hypothesis ("La part de l'autre") byÉric-Emmanuel Schmitt. It is based on the assumption that had the youngAdolf Hitler been accepted he might have become a recognized painter and never entered politics, and never become the dictator ofNazi Germany. The dramatic tension in the book's plot develops from the academy staff, deliberating whether or not to admit Hitler, thinking of it as an unimportant matter concerning a single unknown student – while the readers are aware that in fact, they are deciding the future of the entire world.
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48°12′05″N16°21′55″E / 48.20139°N 16.36528°E /48.20139; 16.36528
