Eduard Flechsig

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Wilhelm Eduard Flechsig (born April 9, 1864 in Zwickau , † December 1, 1944 in Achim bei Wolfenbüttel ) was a German art historian and museum official. He had been working at the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig since 1895 , where he was director from 1924 to 1931. In 1930/31 he prevented the planned sale of the Vermeer painting The Girl with the Wine Glass , one of the most valuable works in the collection.

Life

The son of the master builder Eduard Flechsig passed the Abitur at the Zwickau high school. From 1885 he studied art, history and German in Heidelberg , Strasbourg and Leipzig . His academic teachers included Anton Springer and Hubert Janitschek . Flechsig received his doctorate in 1892 at the University of Leipzig with the dissertation The Decoration of the Modern Stage in Italy . In Leipzig he became a member of the St. Pauli University Choir .

After two years of private studies at the Kupferstichkabinett Dresden, he worked as a lecturer at the Leipzig Art Academy in 1894 . In 1895 he became a research assistant at the Ducal Museum in Braunschweig, now the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, where he was appointed museum inspector in 1901. He was responsible for the picture gallery and the copper engraving cabinet. In 1911 he was appointed professor. From October 1, 1924 until his retirement on October 1, 1931, he managed the museum as successor to Paul Jonas Meier , albeit without the rank of director. Since September 1, 1925, he was assisted by the art historian August Fink , who in 1931 became Flechsig's successor as director of the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.

The Vermeer sale was prevented in 1930/31

Jan Vermeer : The girl with the wine glass

In the times of the global economic crisis , the board of directors of the Museum and Library Foundation of Haus und Land Braunschweig, against Flechsig's resistance, planned to sell one of the most valuable paintings in the collection, Vermeer's The Girl with the Wine Glass , abroad. The sales negotiations were accompanied by a nationwide protest by museum directors such as B. Gustav Pauli and Emil Waldmann . Finally, the Reich Minister of the Interior issued an export ban and the Braunschweig State Parliament rejected the sale on February 16, 1931.

Research activity

Flechsig's research focus was on German graphics of the 15th and 16th centuries. He wrote monographic studies on the caretaker , Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. , Albrecht Dürer and Martin Schongauer .

family

Flechsig was married to Else Walther since 1904. The marriage resulted in a daughter and two sons, including the linguist and folklorist Werner Flechsig . His cousin was the psychiatrist and brain researcher Paul Flechsig (1847–1929).

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • Cranach Studies , 1900.
  • Directory of the painting collection in the Landes-Museum zu Braunschweig , Braunschweig 1922.
  • Albrecht Dürer , His life and artistic development, two volumes, Berlin 1928–1931.
  • Martin Schongauer , Strasbourg 1951.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Seidel, Willmar Sichler: Directory of the members of the Association of the Old Paulines in Leipzig , Leipzig 1937, p. 13.
  2. ↑ Jochen Luckhardt (ed.): The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum and its collections 1578 1754 2004 , Munich 2004, p. 270.
  3. ↑ Jochen Luckhardt (ed.): The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum and its collections 1578 1754 2004 , Munich 2004, p. 280.
  4. ↑ City Chronicle Braunschweig. Retrieved July 11, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Flechsig, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flechsig, Wilhelm Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and museum official
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Zwickau
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1944
Place of death Achim near Wolfenbüttel