Hermann Muthesius | |
|---|---|
 A 1911 illustration of Muthesius | |
| Born | (1861-04-20)April 20, 1861 |
| Died | October 29, 1927(1927-10-29) (aged 66) |
| Education | Frederick William University, Technische Hochschule Berlin |
| Known for | architect, author, diplomat |
| Movement | Arts and Crafts movement |
| Spouse | Anna Trippenbach |
Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (20 April 1861 – 29 October 1927), known asHermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the EnglishArts and Crafts movement within Germany and for his subsequent influence on early pioneers of Germanarchitectural modernism such as theBauhaus.
Muthesius was born in 1861 in the village ofGroßneuhausen nearErfurt and received early training from his father, who was a builder. After a period of military service and two years studying philosophy and art history atFrederick William University in Berlin, he enrolled to study architecture at theTechnische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (nowTechnische Universität Berlin) in 1883, while also working in the office ofReichstag architectPaul Wallot.
Following completion of his studies, Muthesius spent 1887 to 1891 working for German construction firm Ende & Böckmann in Tokyo.[1] There he saw his first building completed—a GermanEvangelical church in theGothic Revival style[2]—and was able to travel extensively across Asia. He returned to Germany in 1891 where he worked for the Prussian Ministry of Public Works, studied for a time in Italy on stipend (in 1895),[2] and served for almost two years as the editor of a pair of official construction journals.[3]
In 1896, Muthesius was offered a position as cultural attaché at theGerman Embassy in London. Muthesius marriedAnna Trippenbach who was a fashion designer and singer.[4] This gave him the opportunity to study the ways of the British. He focused the next six years investigating residential architecture and domestic lifestyle and design, ending with a three-volume report published in 1904 and 1905 asDas englische Haus ("The English House"), his most famous work.[5] Although his subjects were wide-ranging, he was particularly interested in the philosophy and practices of the EnglishArts and Crafts movement, whose emphasis on function, modesty, understatement, individuality and honesty to materials he saw as alternatives to the ostentatioushistoricism and obsession with ornament in German nineteenth century architecture, and whose efforts to bring a sense of craftsmanship toindustrial design he saw as a significant national economic benefit. He visited Glasgow to investigate the innovative work of theGlasgow School exemplified by the designs ofCharles Rennie Mackintosh, and wrote about houses in Birmingham byWilliam Bidlake.
As well as his official reports, Muthesius also developed a career as an author, communicating his ideas and observations in an influential series of books and articles that saw him become a significant cultural figure in Germany, culminating inDas englische Haus. His wife wrote aboutAnti-fashion and how she felt that women were being exploited by German clothing industrialists. Her book which incorporated a novel binding designed byFrances MacDonald is considered an important contribution to theArtistic Dress movement.[6]
Muthesius wrote about Glasgow'sWillow Tearooms for an issue ofDekorative Kunst published in 1905 which was almost entirely devoted toA Mackintosh Tea Room in Glasgow, saying that "Today any visitor to Glasgow can rest body and soul inMiss Cranston's Tea Rooms and for a few pence drink tea, have breakfast and dream that he is in fairy land." At the same time he lamented Mackintosh's unrewarded struggle to "hold up the banner of Beauty in this dense jungle of ugliness."[7]
Muthesius returned to Germany in 1904 and established himself as an architect in private practice, while retaining a role as an official advisor to the Government ofPrussia focusing his time on reforming art and design education in order that more emphasis be put on workshop training.[5]
Over the next two decades he designed a series of houses throughout Germany, drawing upon and cementing the principles and practices expounded in his famous book.
By this time Muthesius was widely recognised as an admirer of English culture, but this also laid him open to accusations of divided loyalties. In 1907 he was accused by theFachverband für die wirtschaftlichen Interessen des Kunstgewerbes ("Trade Association for the Economic Interests of the Arts and Crafts") of criticising the quality of German industrial products in a lecture in Berlin. The resulting controversy saw several influential designers and industrialists withdraw from the association and set up theDeutscher Werkbund ("German Association of Craftsmen"), explicitly aimed at bringing the highest standards of design to mass-produced output.
The Deutscher Werkbund was a major influence on the early careers ofLe Corbusier,Walter Gropius andMies van der Rohe, but although Muthesius was in many ways its spiritual father and served as its chairman from 1910 until 1916, he had little sympathy with the emerging early-modernism, considering bothArt Nouveau and the later designs of theBauhaus to be just as much superficial styles as those of the nineteenth century.
Muthesius was one of the major architects who built Germany's firstGarden City,Hellerau, a suburb ofDresden, founded in 1909. Its foundation was closely related with the activities of the Deutscher Werkbund, too. Among the many employees of Muthesius was the German Socialist city plannerMartin Wagner, who applied the lessons of the garden city to Berlin on a huge scale, from 1924 to about 1932.
Muthesius continued designing houses and writing about domestic architecture until 29 October 1927, when he died in a road accident after a site visit in Berlin.
The schoolStädtische Handwerker und Kunstgewerbeschule (English:Municipal Crafts and Arts and Crafts School) opened in 1907 inKiel, Germany,[8] and after World War II in 1945 the school was renamedMuthesius-Werkschule Kiel für Handwerk und angewandte Kunst (English: Muthesius Factory School Kiel for Handicrafts and Applied Arts) in his honor.
List of select works by Muthesius:
