Adolph Johannes Fischer

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Adolph Johannes Fischer, portrait with brush and palette , signed by hand

Adolph Johannes Fischer (born July 7, 1885 in Gmunden , Upper Austria ; † November 22, 1936 in Salzburg ) was an academically trained painter , writer , art collector , art historian and high school teacher, who rediscovered the artistic effects of his meeting with James Joyce in Salzburg in 1928 owes.

life and work

AJ Fischer's portrait of Alexander Schönburg-Hartenstein (Vice-President of the Manor House of the Austrian Imperial Council )

From an early age, Fischer was so respected as a painter that his pictures hung in the Austrian Parliament , in the Francisco-Carolinum Museum in Linz and in the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl . For his watercolor, which he painted in 1908 as a gift from the Salzkammergut on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the reign, Franz Joseph I received the children in Ischl as the "Most Highest Recognition". Nevertheless, Fischer soon stopped his artistic and literary activities. It was not until the 1920s that he published his youth poetry volumes ( Die versunkene Stadt , Satan ) and the novel Ich sucht Myriam (1924) in his adopted home of Salzburg . This was followed by the novella The Lady with the Brocade Muff (1931) and the expressionist science fiction "Adventurer Novel" Two Men Play Around the World (1932), which also made him known to a wider public.

Fischer's early death, the failure to take care of his work and estate , the early sale of his famous painting and Gothic collection, which were scattered to the wind as a result, led to his life and work quickly disappearing from the public eye.

This omission is vividly illustrated by the fact that Fischer's remains, which were buried in the Gmundner family crypt at the end of November 1936, were evicted from this final resting place together with those of his ancestors as early as 1954 when the empty tomb was sold to a new tenant even though the sale of Fischer's Gothic collection at the end of 1937 brought the sole heir to the adoptive son Fritz Willy Fischer around 33,000 schillings , which in 2010 corresponds to a value of over 100,000 euros.

Artistic parental home

“Madonna and Child”, pastel

Adolph Johannes Fischer was born in 1885 into a respected Upper Austrian family of artists. His grandfather Michael Fischer (* 1826, Aurolzmünster ; † 1887, Linz), who was friends with Franz Stelzhamer and Adalbert Stifter , designed metal plates and precious stones as an academic engraver and xylograph .

The father Adolf Fischer was an academic painter and illustrator who, in addition to numerous watercolor landscapes , hand drawings , certificates of honor and landscape illustrations, also included the illustrations for Ferdinand Krackowizer's three-volume “History of the City of Gmunden” (1898–1900) and “Children's and Household Tales “ Who drew the Brothers Grimm .

In addition, Adolf Fischer was a drawing teacher at Gmunden secondary schools and head of a drawing and painting school licensed by the state. As a professional art teacher he also taught his son Adolph Johannes, who was soon considered a child prodigy in Gmunden because he had his first exhibition at the age of seventeen and the sixteen-year-old's literary work, the rhyme novella "San Loretto", received the friendly approval of Peter Rosegger : "I built myself up on the form and content and congratulate the author."

According to the “Annals of the Imperial and Royal Court Museum ”, the eighteen-year-old gave its “geological-paleontological department” in 1903 “various photographs of creeping tracks from the flysch of Pinsdorf near Gmunden”. If Fischer himself took the photographs of the archaeologically puzzling finds about which Ernst Haeckel also wrote in writing on July 17, 1911 , not only bought them, but this could no longer be unequivocally clarified on the basis of the photographs in the Vienna Natural History Museum this one kind of pre- Fluviana .

artistic education

"Italian Landscape" (oil on cardboard)
During his studies in Vienna, Fischer lived in the rental house “Zum green Kleeblatt” (Neustiftgasse 25)

After graduating from high school , Adolph Johannes Fischer studied art history , classical archeology , German and philosophy at the University of Vienna . He also attended the Vienna School of Applied Arts , where between 1904 and 1906 he and Anton Kolig and Oskar Kokoschka attended Anton von Kenner's “Department for Teacher Training Candidates in Freehand Drawing at Middle Schools”. He then studied at the general painting and master school of the Academy of Fine Arts with professors Christian Griepenkerl and Rudolf Bacher and was a master student of Kasimir Pochwalski . In 1911 he did his dissertation with Max Dvořák and Josef Strzygowski on “The Viennese copper engravers 'Schmuzer' in the 18th and 19th centuries”, but for reasons unknown until now he did not take the Rigorosum , which is why his dissertation was just approved by Fischer himself but not a doctorate was (Thus one fisherman to that small minority of dropouts who wrote a dissertation approved, but no lack of passing the final exam doctoral degrees received).

In his autobiography “Das Licht der Welt” published in 1949, the writer Felix Braun describes his student days friend Adolph Johannes Fischer, who was a friend of Franz Theodor Csokor and who he noticed at the lectures of Franz Wickhoff and Friedrich Jodl as a kind of “ romantic or Savoyard youth” . A little later, Fischer Braun self-confidently introduced himself as a poet. We owe Braun's memoirs to the fact that Fischer also played several musical instruments, including the Italian string mandolin, as well as an authentic description of Fischer's contemporary witness:

“Fischer's character was one of dark gentleness. His large eye had a melting shine, his voice dared to advance slowly and softly, his language tried to overcome the original dialect, he sang well, his whole demeanor hid the dangerously sparkling demon. The three of us sat in Fischer's lower room, full of old furniture, drinking wine, talking and looking at each other. We read our poems aloud and praised each other's art. Then Fischer put on his lute , the colorfully embroidered ribbon of which delighted me, and started playing and singing. It was like a novella by Eichendorff : a young poet and painter who sings his and other songs to the lute, here he sat next to me, descended from the German past, and taught me the return of all that we have ever loved and will love. Nothing can completely perish that has once been part of life. The romantics had not lied: the poets they dreamed of were themselves, and one of their kind smiled at me, while his brownish hand with strangely upwardly spread fingers lay on the strings and his soft, dark voice, in it the Upper Austrian dialect was only slightly covered, sang Italian and German folk songs half aloud. "

Teaching and artist activity

The defense shield “Iron Edelweiss” exhibited in the “ Tirol Panorama ” and created by Adolph Johannes Fischer in 1915

After completing his teaching degree, Fischer returned to his hometown of Gmunden in 1909, where his one-act play "Nitokris" had previously been performed in August 1907. Like his father, who died in 1908 and whose state-licensed drawing and painting school he founded in 1887, he continued, Fischer taught drawing (as well as mathematics and descriptive geometry) at the Gmundner Gymnasium and painted on behalf of the city of Gmunden and the Salzkammergut for various ruling houses and their surroundings. Furthermore, on the occasion of the “50th anniversary” of the “Kurstadt Gmunden” in 1911, Fischer designed the anniversary festival ship of the town council and the Gmunden spa commission for the large spa town anniversary flower parade on the Traunsee .

During the First World War he created the “Iron Edelweiss ” for the Upper Austrian city of Enns , a defensive shield intended for public nailing , which was intended to encourage the population to donate for the widows and orphans who died in the World War and since 2011 in the “ Tirol Panorama "is issued:" the defense shield, a large Edelweiss, which the regiment awarded insignia , was in a mighty monumental effect by Professor Ad. Joh Fischer, who attended the exalting ceremony at the invitation of the officer corps. The defense shield will also be sent to the front for nailing and then exhibited in the regimental museum. "

After the death of his mother Julie Fischer (January 26, 1850 - November 23, 1917), Fischer moved to Salzburg at the beginning of 1918, where he taught drawing, mathematics, writing and art studies at the kk Staatsgymnasium and in 1921 made preparations for the adoption of the then 18-year-old Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Christoph Edler von Güllern , which took place officially in 1925, but whose motives cannot yet be determined.

Writer and art collector

Jakob Ceconi's Art Nouveau house ( Salzburg , Haydnstrasse 5), where Fischer lived from 1918 to 1936

In addition to his teaching activities, Fischer turned back to literature in Salzburg. He publishes two volumes of youth poems ("The Sunken City", 1923; "Satan", 1923) and the novel "Ich sucht Mirjam" (1924). Occasionally he also writes for newspapers and magazines. He is also invited to participate in the “VI. International Congress for Drawing, Art Education and Applied Arts in Prague ”(July 29 - August 5, 1928), where drawings by his students are also exhibited, to give a lecture on“ New ways of art education ”.

The genesis of Fischer's valuable painting and Gothic collection, which was famous far beyond the country's borders, is not known - he may have inherited it from his father. It is certain that his apartment, furnished with valuable Gothic sculptures, pictures and valuable art objects, in the house at Haydnstrasse 5 planned and built by Jakob Ceconi , was perceived by the Salzburg Festival celebrities as a sight: “His showpiece, for the sake of which connoisseurs from all over the world come to his studio , which was his home also homed, a magnificent Gothic is Madonna , the Beautiful Madonna called; if he wanted to fully show the noble beauty of this statue, he darkened the room and let the wonderful Madonna profile be admired in the soft candlelight. "

Encounter with James Joyce

Two Fluviana photographs

The best-known visitors to the apartment, which according to newspaper reports resembled “a museum or a gallery”, were Marlene Dietrich and the Irish writer James Joyce, who was vacationing in Salzburg in the summer of 1928, whom Fischer met at the time and who portrayed him for the Salzburger Volksblatt . Joyce was so pleased with the written portrait that he “Prof. Fischer ”had the latest edition of the avant-garde magazine“ Transition ”sent with the latest chapter of his“ Work in Progress ”.

The artistic results of this encounter are a Joyce lithograph that is in the “Salzburg Museum” and four black-and-white photographs that Fischer took in Raitenhaslach von Salzach- Schwemmholz in Bavaria , which are marked with the copyright notice “Photo Fischer, Salzburg " Were published in 1929 under the title" Fluviana "in the aforementioned journal" Transition ", but since 1974 they have been attributed to Joyce and his work and taken as an opportunity to stylize Joyce as a conceptual or object artist, which he is not : After all, the photos of the floating debris exhibits by Fischer and the show pieces photographed as well as their names come from the Raitenhaslach innkeeper Johann Baptist Pinzinger, who exhibited the curious flotsam exhibits in his Karl Valentinesken - "Salzach Museum", which Joyce shared in the summer of 1928 visited with Fischer.

Literary focus and early death

The "Beautiful Madonna" attributed to Michael Pacher was the pride of Fischer's Gothic collection

From the end of the 1920s onwards, Fischer tried his hand at several literary genres: he wrote the unpublished comedy Lu and the Tiger (undated), the romantic novella The Lady with the Brocade Muff (1931) and the expressionistic "science fiction" - "Adventurer novel" Two men play around the world (1932), which was criticized by the social democratic journal Bildungsarbeit as "harmless reading material for those hungry for excitement", but praised the "nice German" and "the decent, pacifist attitude" were:

“A crime novel crammed with acts of violence and surprising effects to the point of overflowing. Death and blood are in abundance, psychological probability cannot be expected in this description of the varied power struggle between two hostile large corporations. But since there is a need for such artistically irrelevant reading material, there is no need to raise any objection to the attitude of this book. It is written in nice German, shows a decent, pacifist outlook and, much to the benefit of the whole, relocates the plot to a somewhat fantastically industrialized future, so that the band reads at times like one of the many technical future fairy tales. This means that there is no longer any claim to being realistic. Harmless reading material for those hungry for excitement. "

Similarly, in 1998 , Franz Rottensteiner classified Fischer's work in the Werkführer through the utopian-fantastic literature as "more interesting than most [novels] of his time" and recognized it as an "entertaining crime thriller with good ideas and successful descriptions". Matthias Neiden recently described Fischer's novel and its peculiarity very accurately in a short review:

“In addition to the pathetic German foolishness, there is above all an unexpected anti-war attitude that explicitly warns of the dangers of a war being waged with modern weapons systems. As is well known, however, not only the artistically gifted author came from Austria ... Unfortunately, the plot can only be dismissed as trivial trash, even though the almost pacifist attitude is pleasantly different from the contemporary SF literature around 1930. In terms of style, Fischer throws pearls in front of the swine, but even this novel still bears witness to a considerable talent, as it was shown to its greater advantage in the fantastic short novel "Ich sucht Myriam" (1924). "

The high- school diploma note that Fischer was exempt from gymnastics lessons and apparently also spared military service and later World War II service suggests a health impairment that can possibly serve as an explanation for Fischer's early death. Fischer's death was noticed by numerous obituaries in regional and national newspapers and magazines, one of which especially attracts attention with the reference to an estate work:

“In recent years he had successfully devoted himself to writing. In 1932 his novel "Two men play around the world" was published. It was a surprisingly mature and talented debut work that soon reached a print run of 10,000 copies. Perhaps Fischer's strongest talent lay in this field. With this work he is in the ranks of contemporary authors like Hans Dominik and others who deal with problems of the future. Professor Fischer leaves behind a second finished novel, preceded by a reputation for great genius, and which his adopted son, the painter Fritz Fischer, will publish in America. "

But Fischer's adoptive son did not publish Fischer's novel from the estate, but within a year put the famous art collection up for auction: “ In its 450th art auction this week, the Dorotheum is bringing the sculpture collection of the deceased Professor Adolf J, which is well-known far beyond Austria's borders, on Friday and Saturday . Fischer, Salzburg [...] for auction. [...] From the estate of Professor Fischer, whose collection was one of the most popular sights in Salzburg, the beautiful Madonna in the collection, as a major piece of Austrian-German sculpture by Michael Pacher , deserves the greatest attention. ”At this auction the 1.58 m tall Beautiful Madonna attributed to Michael Pacher was “sold to a Viennese collector for 18,500 schillings [corresponds to the purchasing power of 57,535 euros in 2010]”. The numerous other works of art in the “Sculpture Holdings of Prof. Adolf J. Fischer” were also sold “with a brisk competition among the keen buyers”.

Most famous artistic works

Venice (oil on linen)
  • View of Grado , watercolor (picture collection of the Kammerhof Museum Gmunden, Gustav Poll Foundation), 1902.
  • Reception of Franz Joseph I by children in Ischl (gift from the Salzkammergut for the 60th anniversary of the government), watercolor, 1908.
  • Lady with a veil , watercolor (picture collection of the Kammerhof Museum Gmunden, Gustav Poll Foundation).
  • Street beauty , watercolor (unknown whereabouts, most recently Museum Franzisko-Carolinum Linz) (created before 1911).
  • Parchment code with miniatures (wedding gift from the city of Gmunden for Duke Ernst August von Braunschweig and Viktoria Luise von Prussia ), 1913.
  • Alexander Schönburg-Hartenstein , portrait ( Austrian Parliament , inv.no.111-025) (created before 1911).
  • Iron edelweiss , defense shield, (Tiroler Landesschützenmuseum, Innsbruck) (1915).
  • Antinous (1924),
  • Demons (around 1924),
  • Fluviana . In: Eugene Jolas: Transition 16/17. Adolph Johannes Fischer: Fluviana, pp. 296-297. (1929).
  • Karl Goldmark , portrait, lithograph .
  • James Joyce , portrait, lithograph.

Publications

Literary works

  • San Loretto (rhyme novella, 1901) [reprinted in "Satan"].
  • Nitokris ( drama , first performance on August 3, 1907, Gmunden, printed 1908).
  • The sunken city. Songs of a Dead (1923).
  • Satan . Poems (1923).
  • I'm looking for Myriam (novel, 1924).
  • The high song (rhyming translation from the Bible), (1924).
  • Lu and the Tiger (comedy in three acts) (undated).
  • The Lady with the Brocade Muff (Novella) (1931).
  • Two men play around the world (science fiction “adventurer novel”, 1932).
  • The last fairy tale . From the opera Thousand and One Nights (1933/34).

Art historical and pedagogical writings

swell

  • Archives of the "University of Vienna", the "Vienna School of Applied Arts", the "Academy of Fine Arts Vienna", the " Natural History Museum Vienna " and the "Academic High School Salzburg"
  • "Salzburg State Archives" and "Picture Collection of the Kammerhof Museums Gmunden" ("Gustav Poll Foundation").
  • Annual reports of the Gmundner and Salzburger Gymnasium, where Fischer taught.
  • "Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland scholars, artists and writers in words and pictures" (Albert Steinhage, 1911).
  • Reinhold Glaser: Foreword . In: Adolph Johannes Fischer: Two men play around the world 1932, pp. 3–6.
  • Correspondence with Nikolaus Schaffer (“Salzburg Museum”, “General Artists Dictionary”) about the origin of the Fischer lithographs of the “Salzburg Museum” as well as his research discussions with Adolf Johannes Fischer's daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

literature

  • Nikolaus Schaffer: Adolph Johannes Fischer . In: General Artist Lexicon . Volume 40, 2004.
  • Andreas Weigel : fragmentary biographies. Searching for and securing clues: Adolph Johannes Fischer and Fritz Willy Fischer-Güllern. In: Michael Ritter (Ed.): Praesent 2011. The Austrian Literature Yearbook. The literary event in Austria from July 2009 to June 2010. Vienna, präsens 2010, pp. 21–36. ISBN 978-3-7069-2010-0 .
  • Andreas Weigel: James Joyce's stays in Austria. Innsbruck (1928), Salzburg (1928) and Feldkirch (1915, 1932) . In: Michael Ritter (Hrsg.): Praesent 2006. The Austrian Literature Yearbook. The literary events in Austria from July 2004 to June 2005 . präsens, Vienna 2005, pp. 93-105.
  • Eva Gilch: The “Most-Hans” by Raitenhaslach and James Joyce . In: Oettinger Land. A local history series for the entire Altötting district . Published by “Oettinger Heimatland” e. V. Altoetting. Volume 28, annual series 2008, pp. 221–226.
  • Claudia Niese: Adolph Johannes Fischer. Painter, writer and art collector - an all-rounder. In: 400 years of the Academic Gymnasium Salzburg . Festschrift and annual report for the 2016/17 school year. Salzburg 2017, p. 192f.

Web links

Commons : Adolph Johannes Fischer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fischer, Adolph Johannes. In: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland Scholars, artists and writers in words and pictures. Albert Steinhage, 1911. p. 129.
  2. ↑ Andreas Weigel: fragmentary biographies. Searching for and securing traces of Adolph Johannes Fischer and Fritz Willy Fischer-Güllern. In: Michael Ritter (Ed.): Praesent 2011. The Austrian Literature Yearbook. präsens, Vienna 2010, pp. 21–35.
  3. ^ A b Dorotheum (Vienna): The sculpture inventory of Prof. Adolf J. Fischer, Salzburg . November 19 and 20, 1937 (Catalog No. 450).
  4. ↑ Reinhold Glaser: Foreword. In: Adolph Johannes Fischer: Two men play around the world (1932). Pp. 3-6. P.4.
  5. ^ Franz Steindachner : Annual report for 1903. The multiplication of the collections. In: "Annals of the Imperial and Royal Natural History Court Museum". Volume XIX (1904). P.37.
  6. ↑ Roman Moser: The Flysch phenomenon of the Pinsdorfberg (PDF; 5.8 MB). A suggestion for preserving strange tracks in the flysch.
  7. ↑ The dissertation review by Dvořák and Strzygowski contained in the Rigorosenakt concludes: "So the work could only be described as one that just met the legal requirements with the greatest indulgence."
  8. ↑ Felix Braun: "The Light of the World". Autobiography (1949). P.396. Further Fischer mentions follow on pages 402f. and 447f.
  9. ↑ Felix Braun: "The Light of the World". Autobiography (1949). P. 448.
  10. ↑ The following press photo shows Fischer's defense shield in the section of the “Tiroler Kaiserschützen”.
  11. ^ Wiener Zeitung : "(Defense shield of the Landesschützenregiment No. II". Saturday, November 27, 1915).
  12. ^ A b Professor retired Adolph Fischer has died. Salzburg Chronicle, November 23, 1936, p. 5.
  13. ^ Adolph Johannes Fischer: James Joyce in Salzburg ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Salzburger Volksblatt. (August 25, 1928)
  14. ↑ http://members.aon.at/andreas.weigel/Linsinger.htm phi-dead link | url = http: //members.aon.at/andreas.weigel/Linsinger.htm | date = 2018-08 | archivebot = 2018-08-22 06:22:33 InternetArchiveBot}} (link not available)
  15. ^ Andreas Weigel: James Joyce: Search for traces in Salzburg ( Memento from November 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Salzburger Nachrichten, Bloomsday , (June 16, 2007)
  16. ↑ A. A — r .: Tension! Tension! From: educational work. Sheets for socialist education, issues p. 163 (1933)
  17. ^ Franz Rottensteiner: Fischer, Adolph Johannes "Two men play around the world". In: Franz Rottensteiner (Hrsg.): Werkführer durch die Utopisch-Fantastische Literatur. 27. Supplementary delivery. November 1998.
  18. ↑ Matthias Neiden: “The Second World War does not take place.” Review of Adolph Johannes Fischer's science fiction novel “Two men play around the world”. In: " Andromeda News ". # 219. Volume 39, March 2008. p.105. ( ISSN  0934-3318 ).
  19. ↑ "Funeral of Professor Adolf Johannes Fischer". In: " Linzer Volksblatt ". November 26, 1936. Morning issue. # 275. P.4.
  20. ↑ Valuable plastic under the hammer. Art auction of the Dorotheum. Glued-in newspaper article in the following Dorotheum auction catalog in the Austrian National Library : 450th art auction. The sculptures of the "Prof. Adolf J. Fischer † ”. Salzburg. Works of art from the "Hohenwerfen Fortress". Other private property. Exhibition 16.-18. November 1937. Auctioned November 19th and 20th.
  21. ↑ Information from Statistics Austria .
  22. ↑ a b Heinrich Leporini : Vienna. Art trade . In: Pantheon . Volume 21, 19 ??, p. 36.
  23. ↑ http://members.aon.at/andreas.weigel/images/Grado GenealogieToter Link | url = http: //members.aon.at/andreas.weigel/images/Grado | date = 2018-08 | archivebot = 2018-08-22 06:22:33 InternetArchiveBot}} (link not available)
  24. ^ Adolph Johannes Fischer: Lady with a veil ( Memento from December 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Adolph Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Adolf Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter and writer
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Gmunden
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1936
Place of death Salzburg