Anton Aicher

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Anton Aicher's grave in the Salzburg municipal cemetery

Anton Aicher (born April 5, 1859 in Reiting bei Feldbach , Styria , † February 5, 1930 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian sculptor and founder of the Salzburg Marionette Theater .

Origin and education

Anton Aicher was born as the illegitimate son of Nothburga E icher in the small Styrian village of Reiting. A local landowner recognized his talent early on and sent him to the Graz sculptor Jakob Gschiel as an apprentice. From 1881 he studied as a pupil of Edmund Hellmer and Kaspar von Zumbusch at the Vienna Academy . During this time, the art student Aicher got to know the world of puppetry in Vienna's Prater , to which he later devoted himself. After completing his studies, Hellmer and Zumbusch recommended him in 1884 as a teacher at the Imperial and Royal State Trade School in Salzburg . In 1885 he married the daughter of the landowner Rosina Deutsch from Graz († 1929), who gave him two sons, Karl and Hermann .

Artistic creation

Anton Aicher initially made a name for himself as a sculptor, aside from his job. He created excellent, partly Rococo-like carvings and sculptures , including Mozart at the spinet (Mozart Museum), statue of Dr. Petter ( Salzburg Museum Carolino Augusteum ), Epitaph Dr. Bekk (study building Salzburg), as well as the bust of Dr. Schützenhuber and the crucifixion group in the Gibelfeld of the new morgue in the Salzburg municipal cemetery . It was only after his retirement in 1912 that he remembered his long-cherished wish to found his own puppet theater and got instructions from the Munich puppet artist Leonhard Schmid.

Foundation of the artist puppet theater

At a carnival event organized by the Salzburg artists' association “Gral” in February 1913, Aicher performed the shepherd's play Bastien and Bastienne by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the first time in public with his hand-carved jointed dolls . Other repertoire in the early days of the "artist puppet theater" included, besides puppet pieces, the fairy tale games by the Munich court musician Franz von Pocci , the popular pieces by Hans Demel, as well as smaller operas and singing games such as Doctor Faust . At that time, the program was played, spoken and musically designed mainly by the Anton Aichers family themselves as well as by Salzburg teachers, professors and Mozarteum students who worked part-time. The first performance was such a great success that Anton Aicher was able to move into the gym of the old Borromäum towards the end of the premiere year with his artist puppet theater, which was to remain the theater's venue until 1962. One of his most famous characters was the self-created, amiable, melancholy and mischievous Kasperl Larifari.

In 1919 Aicher lost his older son Karl, who died as a result of an injury sustained in the First World War . The younger son Hermann finished his engineering studies in Vienna and married the soprano Elfriede Eschenlohr on June 7, 1926 . On the occasion of this celebration, Anton Aicher, at the age of 67, gave his son the management of the Salzburg Marionette Theater as a wedding present. Anton Aicher died on February 5, 1930 and was buried at the Salzburg municipal cemetery.

Honors and successors

The Republic of Austria honored Anton Aicher in 1927 with the award of the Republic's Golden Sign of Merit , the City of Salzburg, in recognition of his services to the establishment of the Salzburg Marionette Theater, posthumously in 1947 by naming the Aicherweg in the Parsch district .

The Salzburg Marionette Theater was continued by Hermann Aicher until 1977 and expanded into a world-famous institution. After Hermann Aicher's death in 1977, his daughter, Margarethe Aicher (born 1928), took over the management until her death in 2012.

Works (excerpt)

  • Statuette Salzburger Wehrmann , tin bronzed, 1915, 6.5 × 6 × 24.5 cm; signed: "A. AICHER", inscribed: "SALZBURGER WEHRMANN KAISER KARL DER GROSSE 1915"; Army History Museum , Vienna

literature

  • Ilse Krumpöck: The sculptures in the Army History Museum , Vienna 2004, p. 15 f.
  • Rudolf Schmidt: Austrian Artist Lexicon from the Beginnings to the Present , Vienna 1974–1979, Volume 1, p. 19.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ilse Krumpöck: Die Bildwerke im Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna 2004, p. 15
personal data
SURNAME Aicher, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Reiting near Feldbach (Styria)
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 1930
Place of death Salzburg