Debschitz School

The teaching and experimental studio for applied and free art , still called the Debschitz School for short in professional circles , was a reform-oriented art school in Munich that existed from 1902 to 1914.

founder

Wilhelm von Debschitz , from the old noble family of Upper Lusatia and son of a Prussian lieutenant general , founded this training center for artists and craftsmen in Munich in 1902 together with the Swiss Art Nouveau artist Hermann Obrist - later only named after him in professional circles .

Hermann Obrist left the Debschitz School as early as 1904. In addition to some artistic work, Debschitz was probably largely responsible for running the school, which he transferred to an artist consortium under Fritz Schmoll von Eisenwerth , the younger brother , in 1914, probably also because of financial difficulties by Karl Schmoll von Eisenwerth , sold.

Goal setting and development

As a workshop school, the Debschitz School was at the forefront of contemporary endeavors in the art school reform with the aim of bringing together visual and applied arts and allowing them to flow directly into everyday life.

What was almost revolutionary about this art school was that the ceramic workshop was led by a woman, whose management was transferred to Clara Truëb in 1907 . At most art academies , women were not even admitted, at most in arts and crafts schools in their own classes. It is no coincidence that artist marriages came about at the Debschitz School. The exhibition “Married artists from the environment of the Munich Debschitz School” at Bielefeld University from March 18 to May 2, 2004 was dedicated to them.

After the great success of the “Munich 1908” exhibition with ceramics, designed and carried out by students from the Debschitz School, in 1910, in addition to teaching, the ceramic workshop introduced the commercial manufacture of ceramic products, which included painted everyday objects, decorative figures and animal sculptures how u. a. a pepper eater by Friedrich Eisenhofer . These products bore the blind symbol "LUVA / v.Debschitz / Munich".

In the archive of the Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum in the city of Hagen there is an exchange of letters between the “Teaching and Experimental Atelier for Applied and Free Art” and the “ German Museum for Art in Trade and Industry ”. These are inquiries from the Deutsches Museum to Wilhelm von Debschitz,

1. whether he can make work from his metal workshop available for exhibition purposes,
2. the display of brochures from the Deutsches Museum in the Munich studio,
3. about the participation of the workshop in the ceramic exhibition of the German Museum in the USA in 1912 ( KEO archive A 342 ).
4. In another document in the archive ( KEO-Archiv 109/63 ) he is asked to pay his membership fee to the “German Museum for Art in Trade and Industry”.

Artist

The completely new and idiosyncratic art school drew an abundance of artists to the city who worked here for a few years and then went to similarly organized arts and crafts schools in Germany.

Teacher

• 1904–1907: Friedrich Adler
• 1903–1905: Hugo Steiner-Prag
• 1903–1905: Karl von Wahl
• 1904–1905: Karl Johann Bauer (1877–1914)
• 1904–1905: Karl Schmoll von Eisenwerth
• 1904–1907: Otto Blümel (1881–1973)
• 1907: Clara Truëb (1882–1969), head of the new ceramics department-9999
• 1908–1910: Ludwig Vierthaler
• Max Bucherer (1883–1974)

student

• 1894–1897: Friedrich Adler
• 1902–1904: Anna Schewitz, b. Hellmann (1876–1932)
• 1902–1904: Martha Hellmann (1873–1972)
• 1903–1904: Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner
• 1903: Walther Teutsch (1883–1964)-9999
• 1904: Hans Brass-9999
• 1904: Robert Ittermann-9999
• 1904–1909: Petras Kalpokas (1880–1945)
• 1903-1908: Moissey Kogan
• around 1905: Paul Renner–9
• 1906: Adolf Beckert (1884–1929)-9999
• 1906–1908: Anton Blöchlinger (1885–1961)
• 1906–1908: Gerta Maria Meta Clason
• 1907–1908: Georg Mendelssohn
• 1907–1908: Harriet Ellen Siderovna von Rathlef-Keilmann
• 1909–1911: Karl Jakob Hirsch (1892–1952)
• 1911–1914: Sophie Taeuber-Arp
• 1912–1914: Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack
• 1913: Bruno Tuukkanen (1891–1979)-9999
• around 1917/19: Paul Speck
• after 1922: Carlos Schneider (1889–1932)
• Mateo Cristiani (1890–1962)
• Otto Eugen Hake (1876–1965)
• Gertrud Kraut (1883–1980)
• Dora Fanny Rittmeyer (1892–1966)
• Walter von Ruckteschell
• Hans Schmithals
• Gertraud Schnellenbühel (1878–1959)
• Clara Truëb (1882–1969)
• Ernst von Maydell

literature

• H. Schmoll called Eisenwerth: The Munich Debschitz School. In: Rolf Bothe, Hans-Werner Klünner, Ekkehard Mai , Johannes Rickert, Hans Maria Wingler (eds.): Art school reform 1900–1933. Gebrüder Mann Verlag, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-7861-1191-X .
• Dagmar Rinker: The teaching and experimental studios for applied and free art (Debschitz School), Munich 1902-1914 ; Master's thesis in: Writings from the Institute for Art History at the University of Munich , Tuduv-Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-88073-469-0 .
• Beate Ziegert: The Debschitz School, A Selectively Annotated Bibliography ; Vance Bibliographies, English, Monticello (Illinois, USA) 1985
• Beate Ziegert: The Debschitz School, Munich 1902-1914 . Unpublished Master's thesis, Syracuse University, Syracuse (New York, USA) 1985.
• Beate Ziegert: The Debschitz School - Munich: 1902-1914. Design issues . School of Art and Design, University of Illinois, Chicago (USA) 1986.
• Robin Lehmann: Painter in Munich: A changing community ; in: The art, power and money , on the cultural history of imperial Germany 1871-1918.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cultural property: ceramics by Clara von Ruckteschell-Truëb  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, issue 25, 2010, p. 14