Felix Nussbaum House

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Southern part of the Felix Nussbaum House
Entrance area opened in 2011

The Felix-Nussbaum-Haus Osnabrück is a museum in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony . With more than 200 works, it houses the world's largest collection of his paintings by Felix Nussbaum , which are shown in alternating extracts. The building was constructed according to the plans of the American- Jewish architect Daniel Libeskind . The Felix-Nussbaum-Haus was the first building he built and opened.

Location and situation

The Osnabrück Museum Quarter with the Felix Nussbaum House, the Museum of Cultural History , Villa Schlikker and Akzisehaus is centrally located and borders directly on the old town of Osnabrück. The strikingly designed, two-storey reception building of the interconnected houses is located at the intersection of Lotter Straße / Heger-Tor-Wall.

Felix Nussbaum

Felix Nussbaum was a German New Objectivity painter . He is the namesake for the new building of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Nussbaum was born on December 11, 1904 in Osnabrück , the second son of the respected Jewish hardware dealer Phillip Nussbaum and his wife Rahel (née van Dyck). He died after September 20, 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . In a studio fire in December 1932, he lost most of his works. In 1933 he left Germany because of the beginning of the persecution of Jews in the Nazi era . From 1940 he hid in Brussels. After being denounced, he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp on one of the last transports, where he and his wife Felka Platek arrived on August 2, 1944. Nussbaum was registered as a camp inmate and died after September 20, 1944 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Since 1929, Nussbaum has dealt intensively with the works of Vincent van Gogh and Henri Rousseau in his “family portraits, self-portraits, city views and landscape impressions.” Nussbaum's works document the search for an imaginative figurative visual language. Later topics describe artistic isolation and personal fears such as persecution and deportation .

The walnut collection

'Triumph des Todes (The skeletons play for the dance)', 1944 by Felix Nussbaum

The Osnabrück Cultural History Museum has a permanent exhibition of the works of the painter Felix Nussbaum. With around 160 works, it is the largest collection of his works. Among them are mainly his late works in which he describes the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe as an emigrant in Brussels. Nussbaum gave a large part of his pictures to his friend, Belgian doctor Grosfils, when his own threat increased. He is said to have said: "If I go under, don't let my pictures go under, put them on display." It was not least these words that prompted the city of Osnabrück to expand the Museum of Cultural History with a Felix Nussbaum House .

The collection of pictures in Osnabrück first became known in 1970. The artist's estate was handed over to Mr. Grosfils in 1969 on the initiative of Auguste Moses-Nussbaum, a cousin of the painter, and her husband in order to bring the works back to Nussbaum's birthplace. The estate contained many badly damaged paintings.

First, a comprehensive exhibition of the works was opened in the Dominican Church (today: Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche ) in 1971 . Many solo exhibitions followed in the Federal Republic of Germany. Works were exhibited in Angers and New York City in 1985 and in Manchester and Jerusalem in 1987, so that the works achieved international recognition. In 1990 the largest solo exhibition of Nussbaum's works took place in the Museum of Cultural History in Osnabrück. A broad exhibition catalog was created with new insights into Nussbaum's life and work.

The Nussbaum collection was expanded through donations, endowments and purchases. 40 other works by Felka Platek , who had been Nussbaum's wife since 1937, are exhibited in the Nussbaum collection in the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Thanks to this enormous increase in the collection with over 160 works, the works are in the Felix-Nussbaum House.

On April 9, 2007, parts of the wooden facade at the rear of the building caught fire, but none of the valuable pictures were damaged.

Creation of the museum

Osnabrück Cultural History Museum

Old building

In 1879, the "Museum Association for the Landdrostei District Osnabrück" was founded with the intention of expanding and promoting public interest in natural history, art, history and the arts and crafts. The numerous donations from the bourgeoisie meant that in 1888/89, with substantial help from the Prussian government, today's museum building was built by the city architect Emil Hackländer in order to create appropriate exhibition opportunities.

In 1971 the institution, which had previously been run as the “Municipal Museum”, was expanded to become today's “Museum of Cultural History” with a regional historical focus by outsourcing the natural science department.

In addition to the main building, the museum complex includes three other houses that are in close proximity to each other. The Akzisehaus and Villa Schlikker, a former representative home of the textile manufacturer Schlikker, which was built around 1900/01 by the architect Otto Lüer and lavishly furnished with marble, wood paneling and tapestries. This building housed the museum's folklore department.

The main building was to be expanded as early as 1891.

New building

Realization competition

In 1994 Daniel Libeskind prevailed over 295 other architects in a competition to design the Felix Nussbaum House. The museum was opened in July 1998.

The task for the architects was similar to that of the Jewish Museum Berlin, which is why the buildings have a lot in common. An extension for the cultural history museum of the city of Osnabrück was to be designed, which should represent the life of Nussbaum. The new building must be built in structural and functional connection with the cultural history museum, which is a listed building.

The area of ​​admission for the "Realization competition for the expansion of the Cultural History Museum Osnabrück with a" Felix-Nussbaum House "" advertised in December 1994 referred to the federal states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. At the request of the museum and in consultation with the Osnabrück building authority, the architects Giorgio Grassi from Milan , and Daniel Libeskind from Berlin and Vilhelm Wohlert from Copenhagen were invited, with the expectation of having as many different architectural options as possible. In addition, other foreign architects who had been registered with a Chamber of Architects in Germany were admitted.

The proposals had to be submitted relatively quickly, on March 13, 1995, in Osnabrück. Five prizes were awarded to architects and the construction contract to the winner, Daniel Libeskind. Thereupon there were fierce media disputes about the decision of the jury and the unconventional architecture of Libeskind. Among other things, he was selected because he had succeeded in "spatializing the life and work of Felix Nussbaum."

Daniel Libeskind designed a complex of three overlapping buildings. A wood-clad main wing split by an inserted acute-angled staircase, the narrow "corridor of unpainted pictures", the concrete-facing outer wall of which is supposed to be reminiscent of an unpainted canvas, and the zinc-clad "walnut bridge" as a connecting link between the old and new buildings, which supports posthuman integration of the painter in the art history of Osnabrück.

On May 15, 1996, a stone bridge from 1672 was discovered during construction work in the garden of the Museum of Cultural History. The changes brought about by this discovery did not call into question the original arrangement of the structural units. However, the walnut corridor had to be shortened and continued after the interruption of the stone bridge in the "Vertical Museum".

Between 2010 and 2011, Libeskind expanded the museum complex with a two-storey reception building, which is directly connected to the historic old building of the Museum of Cultural History. "Located at a prominent urban intersection, it extends the striking architecture of the Nussbaum House towards the front of the complex." In addition to the cash desk area, it also houses the museum shop and library. A glass corridor leads from the gray structure, which is broken up by asymmetrical glass-shard-like windows, into the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus.

Funding and sponsors

The construction costs total around 14.4 million DM including the restoration of the historic arched bridge from 1672, which was rediscovered shortly before construction began sold to the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and at the same time secured the works on permanent loan. The proceeds flowed into the new building in full. The Lower Saxony Lotto Foundation supported the construction project with a further DM 5 million . The city of Osnabrück bore the remaining costs.

The new building has 890 m 2 of exhibition space, 270 m 2 of technical rooms, 219 m 2 of foyer, lecture room, cafeteria, 172 m 2 of stairs / corridors, 146 m 2 of workshop / warehouse, 110 m 2 of magazine / depot and 83 m 2 of administration rooms .

Numerous donations and permanent loans to the Museum of Cultural History and, since 1998, to the Felix-Nussbaum-Haus preceded the initiative to establish the “Felix Nussbaum Foundation”. The foundation goes back to the private initiative of the collector couple Irmgard and Hubert Schlenke and is jointly supported by the Schlenke family and the city of Osnabrück.

The founding motivation and goal of the Felix Nussbaum Foundation is to preserve the work of Felix Nussbaum and other artists of exile and resistance in the years 1933 to 1945 for the next generations, to process it scientifically and to make it accessible to the public in exhibitions and publications. In particular, the foundation would like to contribute to the international recognition he deserves for the painter. By purchasing works by Felix Nussbaum, the Felix Nussbaum Foundation also makes an indispensable contribution to building up the collection in the Felix Nussbaum House.

Architecture and buildings

Architectural language

Characteristic of all buildings by Daniel Libeskind is the architectural language, which tends more in the direction of a "building sculpture" than in the direction of traditional building methods. “Beyond the Wall” is, so to speak, the leitmotif of Libeskind architecture. Complex philosophical contexts and historical motifs embody impressions such as fragmentation, turmoil and liveliness, which become visible through numerous overlapping parts of the building.

With its new building, Libeskind wanted to preserve the original solitary character of the Wilhelminian-style buildings along the main street and therefore worked with individual elements that were offset against each other. The dominant representation of the new building offers a contrasting tension to the historical architecture without displacing it.

In the competition plans, he describes the Felix Nussbaum House as a "museum without an exit". The construction plans are overlaid with texts, photos and lines, which means that the viewer has to deal with the plans for a longer time in order to understand the complex relationships and historical motifs of the construction idea. The “corridor of unpainted pictures” is directed towards the Schlikker villa, which from 1933 to 1945 housed a seat of the NSDAP . The blueprints are to be viewed as autonomous, independent works of art that go beyond the realistic implementation options and reflect Libeskind's thoughts.

The new building was tailored precisely to the proportions of the old building and Villa Schlikker. Libeskind's architecture contains a certain characteristic ambivalence, the great distance between old and new, but also consideration for the existing architecture.

Libeskind uses some tree metaphors with direct reference to the life and fate of the Osnabrück artist Felix Nussbaum. The initially light German oak cladding on the main wing, which later smelt gray-green, indicates the artist's well-protected youth. The warmth of the natural material contrasts with the hard concrete of the 50-meter-long corridor, which depicts the pain, cold and hardness Nussbaum experienced after 1933. The oppressive narrowness of the corridor reflects the difficult conditions under which his most important works were created.

Voids

There are several so-called "Voids" in the new building. Voids are completely empty spaces that extend through entire rooms. They address the physical voids that the Holocaust left behind through the expulsion and extermination of Jews. Many outer and inner surfaces are bare, like the “corridor of unpainted pictures”, the concrete-facing outer wall of which is supposed to be reminiscent of an unpainted canvas. The visitor is forced to face the challenges of architecture through his own creativity.

building

The new building consists of three main components, the walnut corridor, the main wing and the walnut bridge. All buildings are in the style of deconstructivism by Daniel Libeskind.

Walnut aisle

The central, narrow and high walnut corridor is cut by a footpath, leaving a small piece of the museum, the vertical museum. The corridor rises as a 13 meter high concrete wall.

The walnut corridor, with its large, cold areas, has a dominant effect and is similar to the architecture of the Jewish Museum Berlin. They are used consciously to play with the intolerance of the viewer and illustrate the closed and inaccessible. Libeskind is paying homage to the “Gallery of Unpainted Pictures” to the void that Nussbaum left behind after his death.

Vertical museum

The Ravelin Bridge and the "Vertical Museum"

Due to the discovery of an ancient stone bridge from 1672, the construction of the Nussbaum Ganges could not go according to plan. The "Ravelin Bridge" is the fifth historical entrance to Osnabrück and had a wooden predecessor from the Middle Ages. Instead, the walnut corridor was shortened and "optically continued beyond the stone bridge in the vertical museum." The main corridor was led directly over the exposed bridge using a lightweight construction, creating a tension between the different structures. The walnut corridor and the vertical museum are both cut at an angle and thus form a uniform line. Libeskind is alluding to the deconstruction in the sense of separation, the gap created by the “Ravelin Bridge”.

Main wing

The main wing branching off from the walnut corridor extends into the garden of Villa Schlikker and is divided by a supplementary staircase. Due to building regulations, the aisle was shortened by a few meters during implementation, but a little wider overall. The entire system was rotated a few degrees.

The windows are arranged at an angle in the facade and have a disturbing effect, so that one is not aware of the internal proportions and thus clearly distinguish them from the traditional architectural style. They cut the facade expressively, but connect the rooms due to their continuous clear lines. Units and opposites are just as tense here as warmth and cold, movement and calm, artificiality and naturalness, abundance and emptiness.

All the materials used in the exterior, especially the oak-clad main wing, are given a gray-green hue after some time through patination . This gives "the various building elements a certain degree of uniformity [...] without losing their heterogeneity."

Walnut bridge

The walnut bridge is a floating, pushed-in connection between the old building and the new building. It is clad with zinc and has a sloping, horizontally running narrow window. An acute-angled triangular inner courtyard is opened by the Nussbaum Bridge to Villa Schlicker. Through the connection, the " posthuman integration of the artist into the city's history in the main building [completed], whereby some lines imagined as a wall concretize the diagonally cut cuboid of this part of the building in the old building".

The bridge illustrates the identification problems that the artist experienced while imprisoned in St. Cyprien and ultimately his death in Birkenau .

The transition of the Nussbaum Bridge, from the old building to the new building, appears inharmonious and full of tension. The cold gray zinc plates meet the warm sandstone of the old building. A merger does not take place. This is supported by a gap between the two complexes so that both elements remain independent.

Such a dissonance can also be seen in the shapes used, so that sharp edges and different materials such as zinc plates, oak and concrete meet in the courtyard.

garden

The museum is embedded in a diverse garden, which has some outdoor spaces and takes up the splintered architectural language. It was designed by the garden architects Müller, Knippschild and Wehberg from Berlin and reflects some Nussbaum works. A sunflower field is created, which addresses a work from 1928, as well as the constant "transience and renewal process" of the sunflower. Birch trees give the impression of narrowness and threat, which refer to the imprisonment in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . The building materials of the new building are partly ambivalent to the garden and determine each other.

reception

After the jury's decision to crown Libeskind as the winner of the “Realization competition for the expansion of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum with a“ Felix-Nussbaum Haus ”, there were heated media disputes about Libeskind's unconventional architecture.

The unconventional collage-like competition building plans by Libeskind were described by critics as "the extravagance of a star architect".

The visitor is forced to face the challenges of architecture through his own creativity. Libeskind deliberately uses lots of empty spaces (“Voids”), which critics repeatedly find unpleasant and provocative. They are used consciously to play with the intolerance. In the Felix-Nussbaum House, various empty spaces highlight what is locked and inaccessible.

Award

In 2020, the hbs culture fund, run by the Lower Saxony Sparkasse Foundation, awarded the Museum Quarter, and thus the Felix Nussbaum House as part of it, the museum prize, which is awarded every two years . According to the jury, the successful merger of the four houses under the theme of peace was recognized.

See also

literature

To the architect

  • Arnt Cobbers: Daniel Libeskind in Germany. The architect - his life and his buildings. Berlin 2017. ISBN 978-3-89773-804-1
  • Daniel Libeskind: Outlines of my life. Autobiography. Verlag Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 2004. ISBN 978-3-442-15364-0

To the building

  • Thorsten Rodiek : Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1

Web links

Commons : Felix-Nussbaum-Haus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ City of Osnabrück: Arrival. Accessed December 4, 2017 (German).
  2. ↑ a b Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 12-13 .
  3. ↑ Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 14 .
  4. ↑ a b Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 15 .
  5. ↑ Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 9-10 .
  6. ^ A b c Arnt Cobbers: Daniel Libeskind in Germany. The architect - his life and his buildings. 1st edition. Jaron Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-89773-804-1 , p. 66 .
  7. ↑ a b c Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 16 .
  8. ↑ a b Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 18 .
  9. ↑ Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 123 .
  10. ^ City of Osnabrück: Felix Nussbaum Foundation. Accessed December 4, 2017 (German).
  11. ^ City of Osnabrück: Felix Nussbaum Foundation. Accessed December 4, 2017 (German).
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 19-28 .
  13. ↑ The Libeskind Building | Jewish Museum Berlin. Retrieved December 4, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Thorsten Rodiek: Daniel Libeskind - Museum without an exit. The Felix Nussbaum House of the Osnabrück Cultural History Museum. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag GmbH & Co., Tübingen / Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8030-0181-1 , p. 17 .
  15. ↑ Museumsquartier Osnabrück: Prize of the Sparkassenstiftung. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . August 3, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 31.66 "  N , 8 ° 2 ′ 20.98"  E