National romance
As national romanticism cultural and political currents are referred to the romantic interpretation patterns, phrases and images for historical and political processes as well as for the identity of a nation offer understood social groups. National romantic motifs were often used in the design of national monuments and in the design of public and sacred buildings in the 19th and early 20th centuries, for example in the Hermanns and Niederwald memorials , or in the Church of the Resurrection in Saint Petersburg . There are also many paintings with national romantic motifs, such as Freedom Leading the People by the French painter Eugène Delacroix .
In Scandinavia , the term national romanticism denotes a special direction in cultural politics , architecture , literature and painting in the 19th and early 20th centuries that incorporated elements of folk art , the art and crafts movement and Art Nouveau . The pursuit of monumentality and the simplification of forms was also linked to a reflection on national traditions. In Sweden , Ragnar Östberg's building of the Stockholm City Hall (1911–1923) is considered an outstanding example of national romanticism, in Finland it is the work of Eliel Saarinen , especially his Helsinki Central Station . The Oslo City Hall has externally due to its approximately 35-year planning history (completed in 1950) a rather functionalist design language accepted but shows significant elements of national romanticism in the design of interiors. There were similar tendencies in the search for a consciously national architectural style in Hungary at that time , for example with Ödön Lechner and Karoly Kós . The German Heimatstil is a similar phenomenon.
literature
- Joep Leersen (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Romantic Nationalism in Europe . 2 volumes, Amsterdam University Press, 2018, ISBN 978-9-4629-8118-8 ( online ).