Auer guild

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The Auer Guild was an association of Vorarlberg builders , which was founded in Au in 1651 and existed until 1842. This guild had a significant influence on Baroque architecture in southern Germany with its churches, monasteries and secular buildings.

prehistory

The builders from Vorarlberg were assigned to the Strasbourg hut in 1459. The narrow Vorarlberg area was surrounded by the craftsmen of the Wiener Hütte in the east and the federal ironworks area in the west. After the consolidation of the Habsburg territorial formation, Strasbourg retired as a suburb of smelters and the Tyrolean Innsbruck became the seat of the main guild and main arena, which was superordinate to the Vorarlbergers . With the construction of the renaissance palace Hohenems by the master builder Martino Longhi the Elder , a real boom began in the construction industry in Vorderarlberg. In addition, starting in Einsiedeln Abbey in the Swiss canton of Schwyz , there was an enormous enthusiasm for building in the monasteries from 1606. From 1623 onwards, the collegiate church in St. Gallen underwent a major redesign . In 1627 planning began for a collegiate church in Weingarten . The Vorarlberg and Graubünden master builders were shaped by the Dillinger Jesuit School and the Jesuit College St. Nikolaus (1649–1773) founded in Feldkirch in 1649 . Michael Beer (1605–1666), who was born in Au-Argenau, and the master builder Michael Kuen (1610–1686) from the Hohenegg lordship , who settled in Bregenz in 1634, came under this sphere of influence . Both are said to have a decisive influence on the Vorarlberg construction industry.

The Auer Guild

founding

Michael Beer had completed his apprenticeship in Lower Austria and Bregenz and received assignments in Bludesch , Bludenz and Rankweil . In 1651 he founded the Auer Laadt , which, along with the Bregenz, Jagdberg / Walgauer and Montafon guilds, became the largest in Vorarlberg. Later the statutes of the general Vorarlberg masonry and stonemason ordinance issued in 1697 were followed. This guild was also joined by builders from the surrounding towns such as Bezau and Schoppernau . Evaluations of the guild books showed that from 1670 to 1699 94 percent of the adult male population of Au and Schoppernau were employed in the construction industry

The guild order

The Auer Guild was both a professional association and an ecclesiastical brotherhood . In it were masons , carpenters and masons enrolled. The guild order regulated the training of apprentices and the activities of journeymen . A three-year training course was planned for the masons, which according to Auer records began between the ages of 14 and 19. A fourth year of apprenticeship as a mason was reserved for training stonemasons. Depending on their age, after or after primary school, the apprentices were instructed by the masters in technology and statics , materials science , geometry , drawing and cost calculation . A maximum of two apprentices were allowed per master. The acquittal or single acquittal as a journeyman took place on the first Sunday after the Epiphany . Between 1650 and 1787, there were singles in the parish of Au in 1814. After the single act, the builders went on a two-year journey to perfect their skills. Then the journeyman could rise to parlier ( foreman ). This position was a prerequisite for settling down, being able to marry and obtaining the master's right. The Auer Ordinance forbade unfair competition within the guild . Even on the most distant construction sites, guild members were primarily employed. The teams were put together by champions and parliaments in winter for the coming spring. The builders were often also building contractors at the same time. The transfer of experiences, requirements and tasks took place within the family associations. Fathers became their sons' teachers, they worked together on the construction sites and the sons completed the construction they had started after their father passed away. Relationships with clients were intensively cultivated and so there were further orders for family and guild members.

Seasonal hike

The seasonal work on the often very distant construction sites usually lasted from March to Martini at the latest , 11 November each year. In the spring, crowds of builders moved to the assembly point west of Hittisau , the Red Mountain . Hittisau is located in the middle of a three- valley gorge with paths into the Rhine Valley , to Oberstaufen in the Allgäu and into the front Bregenz Forest . The masters mostly went on horseback. A report from the Schoppernau parish chronicle from 1729 illustrates the extent of the seasonal migration. Here it is said that Peter Thumb took 200 journeymen and boys with him to Alsace . This migration to foreign areas not only brought material gain for the families of the builders, it also expanded their professional experience. Auer builders have so far been found in over 800 churches, monasteries and secular buildings. They carried out their work throughout southern Germany, in Upper Swabia , on Lake Constance , on the Upper Rhine , in Ortenau , in the Palatinate , in Saarland , on the Middle Rhine , in Main Franconia , in Bavaria , but also in Alsace , Switzerland and Bohemia , Hungary and Russia . The orders resulted from connections to monasteries , bishops and regents .

The Auer courses

The Auer courses are a two-volume work for the training and further education of craftsmen, which were created around 1720. The first volume was found in 1948 by the school director Gebhard Albrecht in the house of the Aberer family in Schoppernau. The second volume was owned by the Feuerstein family from Au-Schrecken. The volumes contain Andrea Pozzo's theory of perspective (1642–1709). Pozzo was a lay brother of the Jesuit order and a leading theoretician of illusionist painting of his time. In addition, they contain traces of the theory of forms by Augustin-Charles d'Aviler (1653–1701) in the translation by Leonhard Christoph Sturm (1669–1719), which is entitled “Detailed instructions on the whole of civil architecture”. Also included are sample drawings, construction plans, floor plans and templates with dates of origin between 1699 and 1725. The Vorarlberg cathedral scheme developed by the Auer master builders and preferred by them also goes back to the works of the Italian Baroque architect Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (1507–1573). The standard work on Vignola's theories "Basic rules about the five pillars", written by the Saxon engineer and architect Johann Rudolph Fäsch (1680–1749) did not appear until 1720 and was also included in the Auer courses.

criticism

The family cohesion of the Vorarlberg builders and their fixings in the guild system had a negative influence on the earlier assessment of their achievements. The architect and art historian Cornelius Gurlitt (1850–1938) in particular promoted this point of view for decades with his “History of the Baroque Style and Rococo in Germany” published in 1889. The accusation was that the Vorarlberg master builders attached a baroque style and still maintained it at a time when, in the rest of Germany, the deliberate manner of the French already embraced the spirits everywhere with its correctness of the rules. Gurlitt was alluding to the Rococo that developed in France from around 1720 .

More recent research, on the other hand, has established that the Vorarlberg master builders essentially stuck to generational experience in their architecture, but that despite their ties to clan and guild, they recognized openings and development opportunities to a sufficient extent. If one takes into account the developments and changes in their architecture, the result is a much more differentiated picture than was suggested by the master builders from the “Hinterlands” to “Thal” .

Builder of the Au guild

(alphabetical order)

Beer (family of architects)



Moosbrugger (family)


Thumb (family of architects)



Franz Dieth has listed a total of 50 families in his list "The leading families of the Auer Guild", which with 1796 masters witnessed 3428 single convictions.

Helmut Swozilek , then director of the Vorarlberg State Museum , published an overview of the main works of the Au builders for the exhibition in the summer of 1990 in the municipality of Vorarlberg Baroque Master Builders.

literature

  • Markus Bauer (Ed.): From the Alps to the West Palatinate , Kübelberg 2013
  • Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Baroque Master Builders , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976
  • Werner Oechslin : The Vorarlberg baroque master builders and their interpretation in German baroque research . In: Helmut Swozilek (Ed.): Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , Bregenz 1990
  • Helmut Swozilek : 10 major works short descriptions . In: Helmut Swozilek (Ed.): Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , Bregenz 1990

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976, p. 14
  2. ↑ Markus Bauer (Ed.): From the Alps to the West Palatinate , Kübelberg 2013, p. 12
  3. ^ Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976, p. 14
  4. ^ Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976, p. 13
  5. ^ Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976, p. 15
  6. ↑ Markus Bauer (Ed.): From the Alps to the West Palatinate , Kübelberg 2013, p. 12
  7. ↑ Herlinde Lehr: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , 2nd edition, self-published, 2002, accessed on February 12, 2018
  8. ^ Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976, p. 68
  9. ^ Werner Oechslin: The Vorarlberg Baroque Master Builders and their Interpretation in German Baroque Research . In: Helmut Swozilek (Ed.): Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , Bregenz 1990, p. 74
  10. ^ Werner Oechslin: The Vorarlberg Baroque Master Builders and their Interpretation in German Baroque Research . In: Helmut Swozilek (Ed.): Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , Bregenz 1990, p. 78
  11. ^ Franz Dieth: The leading families of the Auer guild. In: Norbert Lieb: Die Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , third edition, Munich and Zurich 1976, p. 142
  12. ↑ Helmut Swozilek: 10 major works, short descriptions . In: Helmut Swozilek (Ed.): Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister , Bregenz 1990, p. 81 ff