Albert Reimann

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Albert Reimann (born November 9, 1874 in Gnesen , Gnesen district , Kingdom of Prussia , † June 5, 1976 in London ) was a German sculptor , craftsman and art educator . He founded the Reimann School in Berlin , which he directed from 1902 to 1935.

Life

At a young age, Albert Reimann moved with his parents from the Prussian province of Posen to Berlin and graduated from high school there. When he visited his grandfather in Potsdam , nothing could stop him from going with his sketchpad into the park of Sanssouci Palace and sketching the sculptures . Under no circumstances did he want to be a businessman like his father - he wanted to be creative. That is why he first learned wood carving in a furniture factory and then studied at the teaching institution of the Royal Museum of Applied Arts in Berlin.

In 1897 he found a job with a cabinet maker from Kiel . After that he made pictures of German cities and composers in a kind of paper maché for the Bembé company in Mainz for the decoration of the walls of the large society and music hall of the overseas steamship "Kaiser Wilhelm der Große" . In 1898 he opened his own studio in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Rejecting the overloaded ostentatious style of the Wilhelminian era , he designed and manufactured small sculptural objects in the Art Nouveau style .

Together with his wife Klara, geb. Angrèss, in addition to his other work, he held courses for children on free modeling every Sunday and developed the “Reimann School Modeling Box”, which was later sold everywhere. In 1906 he received the "Golden Medal of the City of Berlin" for his work with children.

At around the same time Albert Reimann patented the batik pen he had developed , a metal pen filled with wax. When heated over a spirit flame, the liquid wax could flow out for painting by pressing a valve.

In 1902 he founded the “school workshops for small sculptures”, later renamed the Reimann School . With lessons in drawing, modeling, wood carving, metal driving and designing handicrafts, he wanted above all to train suitable employees for his studio. The increasing number of pupils prompted him to move his school in 1903 to the outskirts of Berlin to Schöneberg at the corner of Landshuter Straße 38 / corner Hohenstauffenstraße in the immediate vicinity of the Lette Association's educational institution . In the following years Albert Reimann continuously expanded the range of courses. In 1931 he had the school building modernized and expanded according to the plans of the architect Leo Nachtlicht for 250,000 Reichsmarks, so that he could now also accommodate a photography department in his training institute.

When the school authorities of the city of Berlin and the suburb of Schöneberg the shop class introduced that teachers received in his student workshops, the practical and aesthetic artistic education.

Since Albert Reimann was unable to provide evidence of Aryan qualifications in National Socialist Germany , he was not accepted into the newly formed Chamber of Fine Arts ( Reich Chamber of Culture Act). That meant that he was no longer allowed to work as an artist. However, he was able to continue to exercise his function as headmaster. For the professional civil service law , were dismissed by the Jewish teachers from the service, was fortunately not to the private school Reimann applicable. In 1934 he had to stop publishing his school magazine “Farbe und Form” due to the editors' law .

In 1935 Albert Reimann bowed to the diverse web of discriminatory laws and ordinances and signed a hire-purchase agreement with the architect Hugo Häring about his school. The agreed monthly payments from Häring to Reimann were immediately seized by the Berlin-Schöneberg tax office.

The Kristallnacht was Albert Reimann yet witnessed in Berlin as his backed the Leo Baeck Institute report shows about the "Kristallnacht". That night the glass front of the sales point for art supplies on the ground floor of the school, which he still owned, was destroyed. Before the end of the year he emigrated to London, where his son Heinz had opened the Reimann School and Studios in early January 1937 . The innovative teaching concepts of the Reimann School in London were enthusiastically received in England and had a major influence on the art and design schools there. The Reimann School in London was destroyed by bombing in 1944, as was the Reimann School in Berlin in November 1943.

After the war, Albert Reimann moved temporarily to Leeds and then back to London. In 1958, Federal President Theodor Heuss awarded Albert Reimann the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class, through the German Embassy in London .

membership

  • in the Association of Berlin Sculptors
  • 1901 on the board of the newly founded association "The Art in the Life of the Child"
  • in the Association for German Applied Arts in Berlin
  • in the German Werkbund
  • in the Economic Association of Visual Artists in Berlin
  • in the AJR (Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain)
  • 1932 founding member of the German Society for Goldsmithing in Berlin

Appreciation

Albert Reimann intended to influence the artistic sensibilities of producers and buyers in the emerging industrial society. He wanted to spread an artistic culture for everyone, from youth and starting with the smallest object. In doing so, he was looking for simple forms in the most varied areas of practical art.

After his mainly formative creative period Albert Reimann devoted himself to art education.

He recognized early on the need for a new artistic expression that was later called Art Nouveau and New Objectivity . The utensils he designed were functional and purpose-oriented. This required simplicity in the use of materials. They were commissioned works, some of which in industrial series production went ( Gerhardi & Cie in Lüdenscheid , Gladenbecksche ore foundry AG in Berlin-Friedrichshagen). They met the buyer's taste and were u. a. also successfully sold in the Wertheim department store in Berlin. Albert Reimann can therefore certainly be described as one of the first form designers, today one would say industrial designer.

Building on these artistic and commercial experiences, he founded his private school. For him, free and applied arts should form a unit. He recognized the machine production of the goods as indispensable. The purpose of the manufactured object should determine its shape. Objectivity was an expression of beauty.

Following the example of Berthold Otto , Albert Reimann largely left the design of their personal curriculum to his students themselves. After detailed advice, which took into account the personal talents of the student, he should find out for himself which skills he liked best and how many courses and hours he had wanted to prove in order to achieve his set goal. Albert Reimann expected this kind of self-motivation to achieve high levels of creativity in a short time.

Following these principles, measured by the number of students, the Reimann School developed into the largest private arts and crafts school in Germany within three decades .

literature

  • Tilmann Buddensieg: Berlin 1900–1933, architecture and design / architecture and design. Catalog Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 0-910503-55-9 .
  • Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime. Aachen 2009, ISBN 978-3-86858-475-2 .
  • Albert Reimann: In: Degeners Who is it? Hermann AL Degener (Ed.), 10th edition. Verlag HA Ludwig Degener, Berlin 1935, p. 1277.
  • Albert Reimann: The Reimann School in Berlin. (= Writings on the history of art and culture in Berlin, vol. 8.) Verlag Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1966.
  • Albert Reimann: Small sculpture, based on original designs and models by the sculptor Albert Reimann. Bruno Hessling publisher, Berlin and New York 1903.
  • Herbert A. Strauss, Werner Röder (complete line): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945. Edited by the Institute for Contemporary History, Munich and Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, Inc., New York. Vol. II, Part 2: L – Z, The Arts, Sciences and Literature, Verlag KG Saur, Munich 1983, p. 954.
  • Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902–1943) - with special consideration of fashion and textile design. Dissertation, Philosophical Faculty of the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University, Bonn 1993.
  • Hans M. Wingler (Ed.): Art School Reform 1900–1933. Represented by the Bauhaus Archive Berlin using the examples Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin - Debschitz Art School: Munich - Frankfurt Art School - Academy for Art and Applied Arts Wroclaw - Reimann School Berlin, series of publications: Gebr. Mann-Studio series. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-7861-1191-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Julian Exner: Arts and Crafts - To the death of Albert Reimann . In: Tagesspiegel , No. 9336, Berlin June 12, 1976
  2. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 58
  3. ^ A. Reimann: The Reimann School in Berlin . Berlin 1966, p. 16
  4. ↑ Photo: Nursing at the bedside, a teaching unit of the Lette Association of the German Historical Museum, accessed on May 16, 2016
  5. ↑ S. Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime . Aachen 2009, p. 45
  6. ^ H. Wingler: Art School Reform 1900 - 1933 . Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1977, p. 260
  7. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 458
  8. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 461ff
  9. ↑ S. Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime . Aachen 2009, p. 500 f.
  10. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 470
  11. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 57; see. in particular S. Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime . Aachen 2009, pp. 323-354
  12. ↑ S. Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime . Aachen 2009, p. 324 f., 331 f.
  13. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 515
  14. ↑ http://www.ajr.org.uk/ , accessed on May 16, 2016
  15. ↑ S. Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London 1902-1943. A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime . Aachen 2009, p. 28
  16. ↑ Albert Reimann: In: Our contemporaries Who is it? Hermann AL Degener (Ed.), 4th edition. Verlag HA Ludwig Degener, Leipzig 1912, p. 1275
  17. ^ Albert Reimann: Small sculpture, based on original drafts and models . Berlin and New York 1903, p. 1
  18. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 22ff
  19. ↑ Berthold-Otto-Schule, Berlin: http://www.berthold-otto-schule.de , accessed on May 16, 2016
  20. ^ A. Reimann: The Reimann School in Berlin . Berlin 1966, p. 7
  21. ↑ S. Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 52
personal data
SURNAME Reimann, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor, craftsman and art teacher
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Gnesen , Gnesen district , Kingdom of Prussia
DATE OF DEATH 5th June 1976
Place of death London