Ernst Rietschel

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Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (born December 15, 1804 in Pulsnitz , † February 21, 1861 in Dresden ) was one of the most important German sculptors of late classicism . The sculptures he created, such as the Goethe - Schiller monument in Weimar or the Lessing monument in Braunschweig , have decisively shaped the image of Germany as a land of poets and thinkers .

Medallion on Rietschel's grave, Trinitatis Friedhof in Dresden

Live and act

Ernst Rietschel, engraved by Julius Thaeter

Ernst Rietschel was born as the third child of the bagger Friedrich Ehregott Rietschel and his wife Caroline in Pulsnitz (Saxony). After taking his first drawing lessons and breaking off a business apprenticeship in his hometown, he began studying at the Royal Saxon Art Academy in Dresden in 1820 . In the following years he had his first minor successes and awards with drawings; one became aware of the young artist, who from 1823 learned in the studio of Franz Pettrich . There, on behalf of the Graeflich Einsiedelschen Eisenwerke Lauchhammer, he created his first independent work, a figure of the sea god Neptune for the market fountain in Nordhausen .

In 1826, Count von Einsiedel arranged for Rietschel to move to Berlin to the studio of Christian Daniel Rauch . As early as 1827 he received a Rome scholarship, which he initially postponed in order to work on various monument projects in Rauch's studio. In 1828, as a representative of his workshop, he took part in the laying of the foundation stone for the Dürer statue in Nuremberg . On his return trip he visited the aging Goethe in Weimar. A second visit with Rauch followed in 1829. In August 1830, Rietschel began his trip to Italy. A year later, he received the order for a memorial to the late Saxon King Friedrich August in Dresden.

In 1832 he married Albertine Trautscholdt, to whom he had been engaged for a year. In the same year - not even 28 years old - he received the professorship for sculpture at the Dresden Art Academy. In 1833 he moved into his studio in the Brühl garden pavilion . Also in 1833 his first daughter Adelheid was born. His second daughter, Johanna, was only three weeks old: she died in April 1835; in July of the same year his wife Albertine died. Nevertheless, his creative work remained unchecked.

In collaboration with many important architects, including Gottfried Semper , he was responsible for the sculptural decoration of many buildings, especially in Dresden. At the beginning of 1836 he was made a full member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts , only weeks later an honorary member of the Art Academy in Vienna .

In the following years he received many important commissions, some of which he worked on for years.

By designing works such as the Lessing monument in Braunschweig (1854) (and many others), Rietschel became known beyond the borders of the German Confederation as the most important monument artist of his time.

In November 1836 he married his second wife Charlotte Carus, a daughter of the doctor Carl Gustav Carus , who gave birth to their son Wolfgang on August 28, 1837. As early as May 1838, he suffered another stroke of fate: his second wife also died. As after the death of his first wife, he modeled her portrait bust.

Marie Hand, May 1, 1841, lithograph

On May 2, 1841 he married Marie Hand (* May 26, 1819 - July 18, 1847), the sixth child of Jena professor Ferdinand Gotthelf Hand . On May 10 of the following year his second son Christian Georg was born, who was followed in 1845 by their daughter Margarethe Charlotte. Margarethe was not supposed to be a year old. In 1847 the son Hermann Immanuel was born. Maria Hand died after six years of marriage a few months after the birth of her son Hermann on July 18, 1847. On April 30, 1851 Ernst Rietschel married for the last time. His fourth wife, Frederike Oppermann, outlived him by almost 40 years. In the winter months of 1851/52 Rietschel traveled to Italy and Sicily to cure his lung disease. On July 4, 1853, his fourth wife, Friederike, gave birth to another daughter, named Gertrud Charlotte Marie.

In 1855 he took part in the Paris art exhibition with a Lessing statue. In the same year he was awarded the Great Medal of Honor and made a Knight of the French Legion of Honor . In 1856 the Stockholm Academy made him an honorary member.

In 1857 he visited his master Christian Daniel Rauch again in Berlin. In the same year, on September 4th, his Goethe and Schiller monument was unveiled in Weimar.

In 1858/1859 Rietschel received the order for the Reformation memorial in Worms. One of his most important creations is the Luther monument there. He became an honorary member in other academies and institutes (Paris, Brussels, Copenhagen, Rome, Antwerp). In addition, he was accepted on May 31, 1858 in the Prussian order Pour le Merite for science and the arts.

He finally succumbed to his long-term lung disease on February 21, 1861. Three days later he was buried in the Trinity cemetery in Dresden.

  • Ernst Rietschel. Graphic by Adolf Neumann .

  • Rietschel's birthplace in Pulsnitz

  • Goethe and Schiller monument in Weimar, unveiled on September 4, 1857

  • Rietschel's grave at the Trinitatisfriedhof in Dresden

estate

A large part of Rietschel's extensive estate was presented between 1869 and 1889 in the Palais in the Great Garden in what was then the Rietschel Museum. It has been in the Dresden sculpture collection in the Albertinum on Brühl's Terrace since 1889, and some of it is also exhibited there. Parts of the personal estate are with the descendants (drawings, sketches, diaries and letters in the Rietschel archive, Remscheid).

His great-grandson, the writer and graphic artist Christian Rietschel , re-published his memories from my life in 1963.

progeny

Ernst Rietschel's descendants are very numerous today. Above all, the two sons from Ernst Rietschel's third marriage with Maria Hand, Georg Rietschel and Hermann Rietschel , had numerous offspring. These include u. a. Christian Rietschel , Hans Rietschel , Wigand von Salmuth , Jörg Hilbert , Horst and Christopher Buchholz and Susanne Falk . Today the descendants of Ernst Rietschel meet at irregular intervals on the anniversary of the birth and death of the artist and thus remember the life and work of the ancestor.

Works (selection)

The Neptune Fountain in Nordhausen
Lessing monument in Braunschweig
Bust of Martin Luther in the Walhalla near Regensburg (1831)

Illustrations and fonts (selection)

  • In: ABC book for small and large children / drawn by Dresden artists. With stories and songs by R. Reinick and songs by Ferdinand Hiller. - Leipzig: Wigand, 1845. - Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Ernst Rietschel, Christian Rietschel (ed.): Memories from my life. 2nd Edition. Evang. Verl.-Anst., Berlin 1963.

Honors

Monument in honor of Ernst Rietschel on the Brühl Terrace in Dresden
  • Monument in Dresden (in front of the secondary school on the Brühl Terrace ) by Johannes Schilling .
  • Monument on the market square in Pulsnitz, designed and implemented by his student Gustav Kietz .
  • 1853: Honorary citizen of the city of Braunschweig .
  • 1855: Great Medal of Honor.
  • 1855: Knight of the French Legion of Honor .
  • 1856: Honorary member of the Stockholm Academy.
  • 1858: Admission to the Prussian order Pour le Mérite for science and the arts .
  • 1858: Foreign member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts .
  • Honorary member in other academies and institutes (Brussels, Copenhagen, Rome, Antwerp)
  • The asteroid (20016) discovered in 1991 was named Rietschel after Ernst Rietschel .
  • The Pfefferküchlerei E. C. Groschky from Pulsnitz, which was founded by a brother-in-law of Ernst Rietschel, bakes and sells a gingerbread specialty named after Ernst Rietschel, the so-called Rietschel cake . The Pfefferküchlerei is located at Rietschelstrasse 15 in Pulsnitz, opposite of which the founding building, the Rietschelhaus (where Ernst Rietschel was born).

Ernst Rietschel Art Prize

The Ernst Rietschel Art Prize has been awarded by the Ernst Rietschel Kulturring eV since 1991. The prize is awarded to outstanding sculptors every two to three years. Previous winners were:

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Rietschel  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The order for pour le merite for science and the arts: The members Volume I, (1842–1881), Gebr. Mann-Verlag, Berlin 1975.
  2. ↑ gellert-museum.de
  3. ^ Website of the Ernst Rietschel Culture Prize for Sculpture
personal data
SURNAME Rietschel, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rietschel, Ernst Friedrich August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor of late classicism
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Pulsnitz
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1861
Place of death Dresden