Eugene Boermel

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Eugen Boermel, 1901

Eugen Boermel , also Eugen Börmel, (born March 27, 1858 in Königsberg , † January 24, 1932 in Berlin ) was a German sculptor .

Eugen Boermel was in the tradition of the gas school . After he had mainly made small sculptures (picture works in "showcase format") at the beginning of his professional career , he worked from 1879 to 1889 as an assistant in Otto Lessing's atelier for many buildings. Since 1889 he has been self-employed with his own atelier for handicraft models and monument sculpture, and in 1900 he made a name for himself with his first monument to Emperor Sigismund in Monument Group 14 for Berlin's Siegesallee and received further commissions for monumental sculptures , including a monument to Prince Albrecht of Prussia in 1901 Berlin and in 1903 an equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I in Danzig. The art critics classify his larger works as rather unsuccessful, he got stuck in the external appearance of the gas school. In addition to his work as a sculptor, he was literary and designed technical constructions. After he had been refused a professorship around 1900 , he was very likely given the title of professor in 1904. Boermel was awarded the Prussian Order of the Crown, IV class.

Life and artistic development

Born in East Prussia , Boermel lived in Berlin from a young age.

Training and first creative period

Advertisement by the Micheli brothers in 1892 with busts of Eugen Boermel

In 1874 he began his artistic training with Eduard Lürssen , who taught as a professor for decorative sculpture at the Berlin Academy . This was followed by studies in sculpture with Albert Wolff , Friedrich Pfannschmidt and Fritz Schaper . In 1878 and 1879, as a state scholarship holder, he attended the master's studio of Reinhold Begas , the main representative of the neo-baroque Berlin sculpture school and later artistic director of Siegesallee. Boermel married in 1879 and took up an assistant position in Otto Lessing's studio , who, as a representative of historicism, had a decisive influence on the appearance of Berlin in the second half of the 19th century. At Lessing he worked in plastic and decorative for many buildings over the next ten years. In addition, small sculptures such as a lush Venus with a modern, flirtatious head on an over-fat body were created in 1885 . During this time he also made sketches and drafts for various monuments, including a sketch for a Luther memorial in 1886, a draft for a Lessing memorial in Berlin in 1887, a draft for a Mozart memorial for Vienna in 1888 and a draft in 1889 a Krupp monument in Essen. Since 1878 he was regularly represented at the Academy exhibitions, for example in 1886 with a portrait relief of his own family and with his design for the Luther monument.

Self-employed with his own studio

In 1889 Boermel set up his own studio for handicraft models and monument sculpture. His works of that time include two children's figurines called "Hans" and "Grete" as well as fairy tale characters such as "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty". This life-size, 62 cm high pair of busts made of ivory was offered in a catalog advertisement in 1892 by the Micheli brothers (see picture opposite) for 48  Marks , with a delicate touch of color for 54 Marks per figure. Today, smaller Boermel busts, such as the 26 cm high bronze pair “Beethoven and Mozart” from 1893 in 2007, are sold at auctions for USD  1,681. He made precious metal works such as table silver for Count Ferdinand von Harrach and in 1893 the large centerpiece for the heir to the throne of Romania . In 1895, together with Conrad Freyberg , he created a statuette of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Boermel was involved in various honorary prizes for Kaiser Wilhelm II and in larger monuments such as the Beethoven statue in sandstone for the Rudolfinum in Prague or the statue of Friedrich Kilian (Villa Kilian, Berlin). For the Kaiser Wilhelm National Monument, unveiled in 1897 , he contributed the group “War and Peace” and a figure of Victoria. He made busts for Wilhelm II (1889, 1894) and the Kommerzienrat, opera singer and factory owner Ludwig Leichner (1899), for whose company he also designed a theater auditorium.

Breakthrough as a monumental sculptor, slander and critical appreciation

In 1896 Boermel applied for one of the lucrative orders for Berlin's Siegesallee directly from Wilhelm II, the client and financier of Monumentalallee, but was only awarded the contract on the recommendation of Oberhof- and House Marshal Eulenburg . The Siegesalleegruppe was Boermel's first memorial and, according to Uta Lehnert, had an initial function. She had known the artist, who had previously been unsuccessful as a monument sculptor, to wide circles and had given him commissions from patriotic circles. He then set up a studio suitable for monumental work in the Grunewald colony . As a result, monuments to Prince Albrecht were created in Charlottenburger Schloßstraße (1901, together with the painter Conrad Freyberg ) and a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm equestrian in Danzig (1903).

Siegesalleegruppe 14 1900

In the tough competition between the Berlin sculptors at the turn of the century for orders, Börmel was denounced and his wife exposed to anti-Semitic reproaches. During the Siegesallee work, many artists tried to use the imperial studio visits, which were usually staged festively and found their way into the press, as advertising. When confidential statements by the emperor reached the press on one of these visits, Wilhelm II instructed Begas to prevent such indiscretions in the future. Thereupon the Oberhofmarschallamt received a defamatory letter from a presumably alleged lieutenant colonel a. D. with the content:

"[...] that the sculptor Börmel, the Se. Majesty allowed the grace of his visit to be bestowed upon him, but showed himself not at all worthy of it. One hears here in the better and the best of circles that he praises this fact in the filthiest way, by spreading that Se. Majesty is said to have expressed the greatest delight in his sculptures. "

- Defamation letter, around 1900.

The lieutenant colonel also complained that Mrs. Boermel should have told of a kiss on the hand of the emperor. He then drew attention to the artist's wife's lifestyle and origins and concluded with the words: She is said to be a Polish Jew. Boermel's Siegesalleegruppe was classified by almost all contemporary critics among the unsuccessful or completely unsuccessful works (see below). Overall, Thieme-Becker rates his artistic work as follows:

“B [örmel] got stuck in the external appearance of the gas school. In his small genre figures he develops grace, technical skill and a sense of painterly effect. He understands piquant staging, intelligent improvisation, which, however, lacks rigorous study. "

- Thieme-Becker, Leipzig 1910

Uta Lehnert judges similarly and notes that Boermel did have a certain reputation as a modeller. When trying to use his decorative talent in monument sculpture, however, he did not get beyond the external appearance of the gas school. According to the Ostpreußenblatt in 1969, too , he was completely under the spell of Begas in his work.

Further fields of work, professorship

In addition to his sculptural work, Boermel was also active in literature. He created a number of dramatic works and wrote articles for the journal Werkstatt der Kunst , published by EA Seemann in Leipzig, with titles such as The Artist in Public Corporations or How is a Further Development of Monumental Sculpture Possible? He also dealt with solving technical problems. So he constructed earthquake-proof building foundations and a water supply in earthquake-prone cities. He received international patents for both designs.

Little is known about Boermel's life and work in the last two decades of his life. According to the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein , he worked as a freelance sculptor in his Grunewald studio house (Hagenstrasse p. 10) until his death. It is unclear whether Boermel was awarded a professorship . According to Ethos & Pathos, Wilhelm II refused him the title around 1900 after asking the Akademie der Künste, when Boermel had hoped to have qualified as a professor with the Siegesalleegruppe. Instead, the emperor decorated it with the Prussian Order of the Crown, IV class. According to Uta Lehnert (1998), he also tried in vain for the title of professor, which shows his very limited artistic reputation around 1900. Thieme-Becker, on the other hand, calls Boermel a professor. There is a lot to suggest that he did receive the title a few years later, possibly in recognition of the Gdańsk Monument from 1903 . Because the art. Monthly books for free and applied arts. noted in 1904: Danzig. Sculptor Eugen Boermel, the creator of the Kaiser Wilhelm monument unveiled here in September, has been appointed professor. In addition, the Berlin address book lists him as a professor from 1932, the year he died. Boermel was not represented in the National Gallery . Although he was present at many exhibitions, no artistic awards are known.

Selected Works

Monument group Siegesallee, Berlin (1900)

The Monument Group 14 consisted of the central statue of Emperor Sigismund (1368-1437) from the house of Luxembourg , Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg , and from 1433 to 1437 also Roman-German emperor . The statue was flanked by the half-busts of Lippold von Bredow , governor and administrator of the Mittelmark from the Bredow family in the little country of Friesack , and of Bernd Ryke (also Reiche), mayor of Berlin. The Berlin patrician family Ryke or Reiche provided several mayors with the first name Bernd or Bernhard between 1361 and 1447. Boermel's figure referred to Bernd Reiche, who was first mentioned as mayor in 1361 and died before May 25, 1378, and to Bernd Reiche, who was mayor in 1417 and who died in the same year. While Reinhold Koser , head of the historic Siegesallee program, assumed that it was a question of father and son, according to Uta Lehnert, Boermel wanted Bernd Ryke to be regarded as one and the same person and put the dates 1358-1414 on the base . Another Bernd Reiche / Ryke, who ruled the city in 1447 and was instrumental in Berlin's indignation , was honored with the naming of Rykestrasse .

Both side figures stood on slender plinths that were integrated into the semicircle of the bench that closed off the three-tiered pedestal, which was open to the front, as was the case with all 32 monument groups on Monumentalallee. The group was inaugurated on May 6, 1900. The three partially destroyed figures have been resting in the Spandau Citadel since May 2009 , where they have been restored and have been unveiled as part of the new permanent exhibition since April 2016 . Berlin and its monuments are presented.

layout

Even when depicting Sigismund, Boermel did not adhere to Koser's instructions to depict Sigismund in a majestic posture in the imperial coronation regalia based on a portrait of Dürer . He created what, according to Lehnert, was a fictitious, lohen-grin-like warrior figure in strange-looking armor, on his head the pot helmet with a crown and two-winged crest. Over the coat of arms, which encloses the muscular torso and chain mail, is a floor-length cloak that splits at the neck and is held back by the arms, so that the sturdy figure presents itself to the viewer as in front of a stage curtain. Börmel's uncertainty as to which of his many functions he should represent Sigismund in, decided Wilhelm II with regard to Sigismund's title of margrave. Accordingly, he holds in his left hand the document with which he transferred the mark as a fiefdom to the first ruling Hohenzollern , Friedrich I (as Friedrich IV. Burgrave of Nuremberg ). The sword in his right hand represents Sigismund's knighthood. Including the base, the figure made of Carrara marble was 2.75 meters high.

Lippold von Bredow is depicted with a defiant look with a painterly draped cloak in full armor and martial attributes that signal readiness to fight. As with Ryke, the family coat of arms is embedded in the base. The mayor is also wrapped in a long, falling robe, and according to Lehnert, his picturesque headgear also adorns the upper body as a scarf. His gaze is focused on documents in his right hand, which, like the attributed purse, are presumably intended as evidence of Ryke's wealth and administrative work. The architecture of the bench and the pedestal is in finely detailed Gothic ornamental forms with a tendril frieze around the back of the bench. The bank's clumsy eagles, with snakes writhing in their fangs, wore coats of arms over their chests. A coat of arms was leaning against the large pedestal. The emperor's title was engraved in half gold on the side of the main plinth, although the margrave's title was missing.

Marble attack and criticism

Boermel's sketch for a protective grille

On the night of October 22nd to 23rd, 1899, there was an attack on the splendid boulevard, later ridiculed as “Puppenallee” by parts of the Berlin population. In the so-called "marble attack" seven busts of the first four groups that had already been completed were damaged. Börmel therefore designed a collapsible iron grille with steel spikes to protect the monuments (see sketch opposite). However, the emperor opted for - rather symbolic - heavy iron chains that were placed in front of the groups of figures in the dark.

The contemporary criticism of the monument was devastating. The art writer and journalist Fritz Stahl counted it among the unsuccessful stencil-like theater poses on the avenue. The writer and illustrator Wolfgang Kirchbach classified the group as one of the three completely unsuccessful works (alongside groups 11 and 22 ). Another (anonymous) reviewer, who was very fond of the avenue as a whole, placed Boermel's work among the six worst. In her standard work on Siegesallee in 1998, Uta Lehnert came to the conclusion that Boermel's first monument was like an attempt to transfer decorative cabaret into monumental form. Due to the elaborate drapery, the inconsistent design of the main character and the overemphasis on the accessories, however, a petty impression was created that stood in the way of a monumental effect.

Prince Albrecht of Prussia Monument, Berlin (1901)

In 1901, together with the painter and sculptor Conrad Freyberg , Boermel created a monument for Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1809–1872). It depicts the brother of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and the Emperor Wilhelm I in 1870 as a participant in the Franco-German War . The figure from 1901 stands at the north end of Charlottenburger Schloßstraße across from Charlottenburg Palace . Freyberg, who was most likely responsible for the base reliefs, immortalized himself in one of the reliefs as a regimental comrade Prince Albrecht. According to the inscription on one of the four reliefs, the comrades dedicated the monument in 1901 to a princely horseman and a knightly prince, in subservience and devotion .

The sculptors saw Prince Albrecht as the general of the cavalry , when he was in command of the 4th Cavalry Division, which was assigned to the 3rd Army, and took part in several battles during the war against France . The listed bronze statue shows the cavalry general with the general's coat wide open, which falls to his knees. Under the cloak the prince wears a cloak that is also open. The head, turned to the right and slightly raised, is covered with the general's cap, the view goes into the distance. In the right hand the figure is holding a riding whip, in the left hand gloves. The legs are covered with high gauntlets , the right leg is slightly forward. A long saber is added as an attribute. As the scenes from the base reliefs suggest, the depiction of the future Colonel General Albrecht relates to 1870. The eastern relief, for example, contains Prince Albrecht among scattered armed French on the evening of Orgères, a scene from December 2, 1870 from the battle of Loigny and Poupry . The picture shows the prince among partly wounded French soldiers and with German officers as well as with the sculptor and war veteran Freyberg. The western relief on the opposite side of the chase of the enemy over Frenois on Sedan shows the cavalry on August 31, 1870 with Prince Albrecht at the head in or near Frénois , among others Bernhard von Sachsen-Meiningen and Charles Harrison Wright . As Colonel, Wright was in command of the Rhenish Dragoon Regiment No. 5 . On that day of the Battle of Sedan , King Wilhelm of Prussia and his staff watched the battle from a hill near Frénois.

Kaiser Wilhelm I Monument, Gdansk (1903)

One of the larger works of Boermel after the initial spark from his work in Siegesallee was the monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I , which was unveiled on September 21, 1903 on Dominikswall in front of the Hohe Tor at the Hauptwache in Danzig . Kaiser Wilhelm II showed particular interest in this monument and came specially from Vienna for its inauguration. The monument was destroyed in March 1945 by Soviet soldiers who tore the bronze equestrian statue on ropes with a tank from its base.

Boermel won first prize in the competition for the monument. His model of the equestrian statue fell out of the ordinary: It was the only one of the many Kaiser Wilhelm I equestrian statues that depicted the emperor on a galloping horse. The entire monument reached a height of around 9 meters, the equestrian statue itself a height of 4.5 meters. The statue was cast in bronze at Gladenbeck's bronze foundry in Friedrichshagen near Berlin . Wilhelm I was shown in uniform and with the typical spiked bonnet. The massive base made of Swedish granite stood on a three-step pedestal and was adorned by three allegorical female figures:

  • At the front was Borussia as the national allegory of Prussia with a sword. The sign behind her bore the dedication: (...) THE GRATEFUL PROVINZ WESTPREUSSEN . The imperial crown was enthroned on the shield at the level of the upper edge of the base .
  • On one side was the Vistula, depicted as a mermaid, personification of the Vistula . The name of the Vistula as Vistula goes back to the Chronicle of the Goths ( Getica ) by Jordanes in the 6th century. The relief behind or above the figure showed the Marienburg , which is south of Danzig on the Nogat - an estuary of the Vistula. Below the castle the picture shows the estuary with barges and wooden rafts.
  • The other side of the base was adorned by the sea giant Aegir , a name for the giant of the sea and beer in Germanic and Nordic mythology . The corresponding relief showed warships.

The cost of the monument was 160,000 marks .

gallery

Work list (selection)

with an unclear date

literature

Web links

Commons : Eugen Boermel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Eugen Boermel. In: District lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein . In: luise-berlin.de, accessed on September 22, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c Fritz Gause: The still pictures of the Hohenzollern (PDF; 14.6 MB). In: The Ostpreußenblatt . Organ of the Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen, vol. 20, volume 9, March 1, 1969, p. 13.
  3. ↑ a b c d Ethos & Pathos … exhibition catalog. ... p. 47.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Ulrich Thieme, Felix Becker (Ed.): General Lexicon… .
  5. ↑ Eugen Börmel. Past auction results. In: artnet, accessed September 22, 2017.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Uta Lehnert: The Kaiser and the Siegesallee ... p. 361.
  7. ↑ Quotation n .: Uta Lehnert: The Kaiser and the Siegesallee ... p. 80.
  8. ↑ Uta Lehnert: The Kaiser and the Siegesallee… P. 79 f.
  9. ↑ Ethos & Pathos … exhibition catalog. ... p. 49.
  10. ↑ The art. Monthly books for free and applied arts. 9th volume, XIX. Jg., Verlaganstalt F. Bruckmann, Munich 1904, p. 78 ( Scan - Internet Archive ).
  11. ↑ Boermel, Eugen . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1932, part 1, p. 323.
  12. ^ Edition Luisenstadt : Berlin's Mayor . 1998.
  13. ↑ a b c Uta Lehnert: The Kaiser and the Siegesallee ... p. 144 ff.
  14. ↑ Uta Lehnert: The Kaiser and the Siegesallee ... p. 258 ff.
  15. ↑ All information and short quotations from: Uta Lehnert: Der Kaiser und die Siegesallee ... p. 146, 285 ff.
  16. ^ Prince Albrecht of Prussia, bronze statue. District lexicon on berlin.de .
  17. ↑ Entry in the Berlin State Monument List .
  18. ↑ Grieben's travel guide to Berlin and the surrounding area. Verlag Albert Goldschmidt, Berlin 1909, p. 149.
  19. ↑ Ethos & Pathos … exhibition catalog. ... p. 51.
  20. ^ Heinz Csallner: German imperial monuments in old views. 2nd revised edition, European Library, Zaltbommel (Netherlands) 1994, ISBN 90-288-1961-4 .
  21. ^ Pomnik Wilhelma I. ( Memento from January 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). In: rzygacz.webd.pl, accessed on April 9, 2018 (Polish page on the equestrian statue). See also the memorial article on the Polish-language Wikipedia.
  22. ↑ Monuments of famous scientists and politicians in the gardens of the Charité University Hospital. Site plan ( Memento from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: charite.de, accessed on September 21, 2017 (for more information click on the fourth symbol from the left; status: 2016).
personal data
SURNAME Boermel, Eugene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Börmel, Eugene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1932
Place of death Berlin