Fritz Geiges

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Portrait of Fritz Geiges ( Hugo Vogel , 1925)
Fritz Geiges in the lower left corner of the foundation window of the Johanneskirche . Geiges coat of arms at the bottom left: the Freiburg raven

Fritz Geiges (* 2. December 1853 in Offenburg as Alois Friedrich Sigmund Geiges ; † 23. June 1935 in Freiburg ) was a Freiburger glass and monumental painter, an eminent restorer of stained glass and local historian .

Life

education

Fritz Geiges was born as the son of the architect and later city builder of Freiburg Sigmund Geiges (1810–1898) and his third wife Theresa Baumann. His uncle was the sculptor Alois Knittel (1814–1875). Professionally, Friedrich Geiges, who was only called Fritz throughout his life, followed in the footsteps of his father and uncle. His daughter Margarethe married the zoologist Alfred Kühn in 1914 , his son Fritz junior became a doctor and surgeon. His son was the photographer and photo reporter Leif Geiges .

The young violin received his artistic training from 1872 at the Royal Art School in Stuttgart from Bernhard von Neher . From 1874 to 1878 he studied at the Munich Art Academy , first in Otto Seitz's technical painting school , and then with Wilhelm von Diez for the following semesters . Due to illness, he had to break off his studies prematurely and returned to Freiburg, where he first had to make ends meet as a drawing teacher.

History Association Schau-ins-Land

In 1873 he was a co-founder of the Breisgau history association Schau-ins-Land . After his return to Freiburg, forced by illness, in 1878, he took over the organization of the association.

In 1879 Geiges created a “club room”, which is still preserved today, in addition to the historic department store in the Redoutenhaus , which was designed according to his designs. The room, furnished in the style of a drinking room from the early 16th century, was also designed by other association members.

In the association's committee he is listed as a draftsman for the association's magazine. The first yearbooks not only contain a lot of graphic representations of violin, but also literally bear his signature. From then on he published regularly articles on the history of the city and the history of the building of the minster.

Geiges received recognition and attention through his book Das alten Freiburg in its heyday in words and pictures , published in 1878 .

His grave is in the main cemetery in Freiburg.

plant

Stained glass and monumental paintings

Fritz Geiges' studio tower with a north-facing glazed front
Stained glass from 1899: Konrad von Zähringen gives the settlement at the foot of the Schlossberg its town charter.

As a glass painter and restorer of glass paintings, he had an international reputation. In Germany, for example, he created a cycle of 27 windows for the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin and the mosaic floor in the choir of Cologne Cathedral . He designed glass windows for numerous other church buildings in Germany and also created monumental paintings. In 1897 he was appointed professor by the Prussian Academy of the Arts at the suggestion of Kaiser Wilhelm II .

The glass paintings were made in his studio, which was housed in a tower (" Geigesturm ") built in 1889 at Freiburg Talstrasse 66. The glass facade, which is attached at a distance in front of the storey ceilings and extends over all three storeys, also made it possible to pre-assemble large glass paintings. Since 2004, the BBK - Südbaden has been housed in the preserved Geigesturm , a listed building.

In Freiburg he created stained glass windows for the Sacred Heart and St. John's Church as well as the stained glass in the imperial hall of the historic department store and the bay window of the house.

Much of his work was destroyed in World War II, including the facade paintings on the Old Town Hall and the Basler Hof in Freiburg . The painting of the Freiburg city patron St. Georg on the outside of the Schwabentor and a three-storey depiction of St. Christopher on the east side of the Geigesturm have been preserved. With the Bertholds window, on which Konrad von Zähringen proclaims the town charter to the citizens, one of the glass windows from the council chamber of the New Town Hall has also been preserved. The originally multi-part gallery also contained portraits of Berthold III. and Konrad III., Count of Freiburg as well as an eagle coat of arms with the signature "Zähringen" and was exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 .

Restoration of the cathedral windows

After Geiges had already documented and restored the tower hall of the Freiburg Minster in the 1890s, he was also given the task of restoring the cathedral windows from 1917 onwards. Geiges had made a good reputation for himself throughout Germany through his previous work, so that it almost seemed natural that the Freiburg Minster Construction Association and the church authorities awarded him this contract. The current appearance of the cathedral windows can largely be traced back to this restoration .

At the “ Day for the Preservation of Monuments ” in Freiburg in 1925, his work was heavily criticized, with some participants even accusing him of “restoration vandalism”. Geiges had, still in the spirit of historicism , supplemented lost parts of the medieval windows with his own new creations and freed the originals from the repairs of previous centuries, which he found annoying. In order to match the old and new parts with one another, Geiges also covered the inside of all windows, with the exception of the Küfer window and the Konstanz window, with a dampening oil paint, which meant that he accepted the loss of luminosity (during the restoration of the windows in 1971 to In 1982 this coating was removed again). Here Geige's view of restoring an original condition collided with the maxim of modern monument preservation , which is: never restore, if possible only conserve . Geiges had taken a position that raised almost the entire German leadership guild of German art historians to protest against the destruction of the most precious cultural assets by violins. Characteristic of the Geige's attitude is his statement that z. For example, in terms of restoration, the west rose of the minster could easily be easily replaced from just one segment, a statement that can be found analogously with regard to repetitions in other windows of the minster. One of the reasons for the discussion about window restoration may have been the goal of restoring the original condition . This was too vague and unclear and thus left considerable room for Geiges' execution. The client had not given the restorer any conservation requirements. This gave the impression that Geiges had decided how the restoration would proceed at its own discretion.

The artistic estate of Fritz Geiges is in the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg and in the Freiburg city archive . A dissertation published in 2000 describes his work in detail, as does the catalog for the exhibition Illuminating the Middle Ages. 19th century stained glass in Freiburg in 2000. The German Glass Painting Museum in Linnich has copies of windows from the 16th century made by Fritz Geiges.

Works (selection)

Saint George : Wall painting on the outside of the Freiburg Schwabentor (1903)
Window of the " Kaisersaal " at the historic department store (from inside)
Bay window of the historic department store in Freiburg on Münsterplatz

Stained glass

Freiburg

Germany

Fonts (selection)

  • Old Freiburg in its heyday in words and pictures . Freiburg, Wachter, 1878.
  • The belfry in Freiburg Cathedral . In: Schau-ins-Land 21, 1896.
  • Studies on the building history of the Freiburg Minster . In: Schau-ins-Land 10, 1883.
  • Over half a millennium of history of a Freiburg town house, a critical study. - Coat of arms cultures of the Günterstal monastery . In: Schau-ins-Land 51, 1926.
  • The medieval window decorations of the Freiburg Minster. Its history, the causes of its disintegration and the measures taken to restore it; at the same time a contribution to the history of the building itself . Freiburg, Breisgau-Verein Schau-ins-Land, 1931 (Simultaneously volume 56–58 of Schau-ins-Land ).
  • The oldest Freiburg town hall and its court arbor . In: Schau-ins-Land 63, 1936.

Honors

literature

  • Maja Geiges: Directory of the main works of the artist (Fr. Geiges) . In: Schau-ins-Land 63, 1936, pp. 72–77.
  • Adolf J. Schmid : The Freiburg honorary citizen Prof. Dr.hc Fritz Geiges died 50 years ago (December 2, 1853– June 23, 1935), In: Schau-ins-Land 104, 1985, pp. 291–304.
  • Clemens Rehm in: Badische Biographien , New Series, Volume 3. Stuttgart 1990, p. 98 f.
  • Rüdiger Becksmann : The safeguarding and restoration of the Freiburg cathedral windows in the years 1970−1982. In: 100 Years of the Freiburg Minster Construction Association 1890–1900 , Freiburg Minster Construction Association, Freiburg 1990, pp. 155–194.
  • Peter Kalchthaler: artist and local historian. In: Die Wiehre, An Almanac . Kehrer, Freiburg 1999. ISBN 3-929140-18-7 .
  • Daniel Parello: From Helmle to Geiges. A century of historicist glass painting in Freiburg . City Archives, Freiburg i. Br. 2000, ISBN 3-00-006521-0 (with catalog raisonné).
  • Illumination of the Middle Ages. 19th century stained glass in Freiburg . Exhibition May 26th to September 3rd, 2000, Augustinermuseum Freiburg.
  • Adolf J. Schmid: Fritz Geiges and "Freiburg's incomparable cathedral" , In: Badische Heimat , 1/2004, p. 168 ff.
  • Daniel Parello: The stained glass by Fritz Geiges . In: A Hundred Years on the Way. Parish and parish church of Sankt Johann in Freiburg-Wiehre; Festschrift , ed. from the Catholic parish of St. Johann. Freiburg 1999, pp. 87-102.
  • Daniel Parello: The stained glass by Fritz Geiges in St. Johann. In: 1000 years of Wiehre. An Almanach 1008-2008 , Promo Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-923288-64-9 , p. 152 ff.
  • Jutta Dresch: Violin, Fritz . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 51, Saur, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-598-22791-4 , p. 84.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hansjochem Autrum :  Kühn, Alfred. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 192 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ^ A b c d e f g Daniel Parello: From Helmle to Geiges: a century of historicist glass painting in Freiburg . Freiburg i. Br .: Stadtarchiv, 2000, ISBN 3-00-006521-0 , S. #.
  3. ^ Karl Schmid, Hans Schadek: The Zähringer. 2, Impulse and Effect , Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1986, ISBN 3-7995-7041-1 , p. 369.
  4. ↑ Restored in 2004, cf. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg (Ed.): "Noble folds, painted in a horrific way ...": the tower porch of the Freiburg Minster. Investigation and conservation of polychromy. Stuttgart: Theiss, 2004. ISBN 3-8062-1944-3
  5. ↑ Glass window in the stairwell of the girls' bourgeois school on Holzmarkt, motif donor of the Adelhausen and St. Katharina monasteries ; so in: Karl Ritter, Rudolf Thoma: Middle and elementary schools . In: Baden Architects and Engineers Association, Upper Rhine District (Ed.): Freiburg im Breisgau. The city and its buildings . HM Poppen & Sohn, Freiburg im Breisgau 1898, p. 540 ( Scan - Wikisource ).
  6. ^ Michael Klant: Freiburg for strollers. Building plastic . In: Michael Klant (Ed.): Sculpture in Freiburg. 19th century art in public spaces , modo, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, ISBN 3-922675-77-8 , p. 25.
  7. ↑

    "VNIVERSITAS LITERARVM ALBERTO-LVDOVICIANA
    RECTORE MAGNIFICO CAROLO DIEHL FRIBVRGENSIBVS OCTO AB VRBE
    condita DAECVLORVM MEMORIAM SOLLEMNITER COCELEBANTIBVS
    EX AVCTORITATE SENATVS academici ET DECRETO ORDINIS philo-
    SOPHORVM EGO ERNESTVS FARBICIVS PROMOTOR LEGITIMATE CONSTITV-
    TVS IN PICTOREM EGREGIVM FRIDERICVM Geiges MAGNI ETIAM APVD
    EXTEROS nominis FRIBVRGENSEM CVM DE CETERIS IN HAC CITITATE
    ANTIQVAE ARTIS MONVMENTIS INSIGNITER MERITVM TVM VITREARIAE
    PICTVRAE PATRIAE PEREGRINAEQVU SINE VLLA COMPARATIONE PERI-
    TVM CONSERVATOREM ATQVE DOCTUM INTERPRETEM
    DOCTORIS DOCTUM INTERPRETEM
    DOCTORIS PICTVRAE CAVSOPHIA.
    ATTESTOR CAROLVS DIEHL RECTOR, ERNESTVS FABRICIVS DECANVS.
    FRIBVRGI BRISGAVARVM THE XVII MENSIS VLII ANNI MCMXX. "

    - Text of the honorary doctorate certificate from 1920
  8. ↑ Schau-ins-Land, magazine of the Breisgau-Geschichtsverein , 1985, p. 299.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Geiges  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Fritz Geiges  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Violin, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Violin, Alois Sigmund Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and Freiburg local historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Offenburg
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1935
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau