Carl Roettgen

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Carl Roettgen

Carl Franz Michael Roettgen (born September 30, 1837 in Bonn , † March 17, 1909 in Bonn) was a German art collector - in a row with the Rhenish collectors Ferdinand Franz Wallraf , Melchior and Sulpiz Boisserée , Franz Obernier , Richard Moest , Alexander Schnütgen and Josef Haubrich .

Life

Carl Roettgen, son of the businessman Franz Roettgen (owner of a luxury goods store) and his wife Louise, b. Goldbach, attended grammar school in Bonn (today Beethoven grammar school ). After the death of his father in 1852, he spent five years (for the purpose of commercial training) in Belgium, where he was impressed by the art collections of Brussels and Antwerp. After he had established himself as a businessman in Bonn, he attended lectures on art history at Bonn University with Anton Springer , Carl Justi and Paul Clemen . He associated with the physician and art collector Franz Obernier and was with the sculptor Albert Küppersbefriended (who created the portrait plaque for Roettgens grave in the old cemetery in Bonn ). Roettgen was a member of the board of directors of the “Alt Bonn” association and campaigned for the preservation of the star gate .

In 1870 Roettgen married Emma Busch. His brother-in-law, the gynecologist Karl Schroeder (married to Anna, Emma Busch's sister), encouraged him to collect. Through him he also got to know the art historians Wilhelm Bode and Julius Lessing . Roettgen traveled as an art lover (sometimes accompanied by his brother-in-law) through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy. After Schroeder's death in 1887, Roettgen took over parts of his collection and made them the basis of his own. Members of the imperial family - Empress Friedrich (wife of Friedrich III. ), Viktoria von Schaumburg-Lippe (sister of Wilhelm II. ) And Crown Prince Wilhelm (son of Wilhelm II.) - were interested in the collection and were guests at the Roettgen house (Bonn, Nassestrasse 1). Paul Clemen says: "In terms of the number of objects, the collection on the three floors of the house is the most extensive of all Rhenish private collections for Gothic and Renaissance furniture and wooden figures."

collection

The collection consisted of over 600 objects. Not all parts have been proven to be real. Roettgen's method of cleaning and restoring collected objects was controversial (cleaning with lye, replacement of missing or destroyed parts, which is not always justified in terms of art history). The collection included

  • Wooden sculptures from the 13th to 17th centuries (40% from Westphalia and the Rhineland, the rest mainly from southern Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, some also from France and Spain)
  • Furniture and furniture parts of the Gothic and Renaissance periods as well
  • Objects of the arts and crafts, some glass and oil paintings, also catalogs and books.

The objects are divided into these three categories in a roughly 3: 2: 1 ratio. The highlight is a Pietà from around 1300, the Pietà Roettgen . Three years after Roettgen's death, objects from the collection were auctioned at Lempertz . Today the collection is spread over many museums, e.g. B. the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn (including the Pietà Roettgen and 16 other sculptures), Schnütgen Museum Cologne , Art Museums Krefeld and Focke Museum Bremen .

literature

  • Paul Clemen: Foreword to the Carl Roettgen Bonn Collection catalog , Math. Lempertz 'Buchhandlung und Antiquariat, Cologne 1912
  • Armin Spiller: Karl Roettgen (1837 - 1909), a Rhenish collector , Bonner Geschichtsblätter, Volume 24, Bonn 1971
  • Fritz Knickenberg: Old Bonn street and house names , Eifelvereinsblatt, Bonn 1917 (No. 10)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ not to be confused with the lawyer and entomologist Carl Franz Roettgen
  2. ↑ in the Bischofsgasse, an alley between Acherstrasse and Markt that no longer exists today
  3. ↑ Founded in 1886 as the museum association "Bonnensia", since 1891 "Alt Bonn", since 1951 " Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein "
  4. ^ A granddaughter of the Bonn painter Clemens Philippart (teacher of Carl Joseph Begas ) and a distant relative of the painter Wilhelm Leibl
  5. ^ Paul Clemen: The art monuments of the city and the district of Bonn , Schwann-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1905
  6. ↑ This criticism affected many 19th century collectors
  7. ↑ Linden and oak, but also nut, pear, willow, stone pine and box
  8. ↑ it is described in Thomas Mann's novel Zauberberg as "something deeply terrifying" and "simple-minded and effective to the point of grotesque" (sixth chapter, section On the State of God and from Evil Redemption )
personal data
SURNAME Roettgen, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roettgen, Carl Franz Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art collector
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1909
Place of death Bonn