Fritz Wichert

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fritz Wichert, graphic by Lino Salini

Friedrich Karl Adolf Wichert (born August 22, 1878 in Kastel near Mainz , † January 24, 1951 in Kampen (Sylt) ) was a German art historian . He was director of the Mannheim Kunsthalle and the Städelschule and also worked on the New Frankfurt .

Life

Fritz Wichert was born in Kastel in 1878 and passed his Abitur at the Realgymnasium in Wiesbaden in 1899 .

Grave site in Keitum on Sylt (2013)

He studied philosophy and art history in Basel, Berlin and Freiburg. He was a student of the art historian Heinrich Wölfflin and also worked in the art department of the Frankfurter Zeitung . In 1907 he received his doctorate in Freiburg and then worked at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt am Main . In 1909 he became director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim, where he expanded the collection to include paintings from the 19th century with a focus on French modernism. During the First World War, Wichert was a member of the diplomatic service . After the war he returned to the Mannheim Kunsthalle and now put the focus of collecting on the Expressionists .

In 1923, the former Mannheim city councilor Ludwig Landmann appointed Wichert as director of the Frankfurt Städelschule . He won Max Beckmann , Adolf Meyer , Richard Scheibe and Willi Baumeister as teachers and developed the school into one of the leading art schools in Germany. Together with Albert Windisch , he pushed ahead with the merger of the previous Städelschule and the Frankfurt School of Applied Arts . Windisch founded the typography and bookbinding department in 1924 and transferred its management to Wichert in 1925. The department was in direct competition with today's Offenbach am Main University of Design , and Wichert reinforced Paul Renner's area . He also advised Renner to name his font Futura after a project at the Städelschule. As co-editor of the magazine das neue frankfurt (alongside Ernst May ), Wichert was also formally involved in the new Frankfurt. In 1933, Wichert was formally given leave of absence by the National Socialists , and the following year he moved to Kampen on Sylt . In 1946 he was elected mayor of the municipality of Kampen and held this office until 1948.

His estate is in the Mannheim City Archives , Wichert's grave is in the St. Severin cemetery in Keitum on Sylt.

Honors

The Fritz-Wichert-Ring in Frankfurt-Kalbach-Riedberg was named after him in April 2013.

Fonts

  • Fritz Wichert: The Mannheim Movement. A municipal design ideal . In: March, a weekly . 7th year, issue 39 March-Verlag, Munich September 27, 1913, p. 442-456 .

literature

  • Carina Danzer: (helping to) shape the new Frankfurt. The art school director and cultural politician Fritz Wichert (1878–1951). (= Studies on Frankfurt History , Volume 64.) Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-95542-284-4 .
  • Wichert, Fritz. In: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical handbook of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism. KG Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 762-764.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www-brs.ub.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/netahtml/HSS/Diss/LohmannGabriele/diss.pdf Dissertation by Gabriele Lohmann, p. 19 of 421
  2. ^ Official Journal for Frankfurt am Main , Volume 144, No. 17 of April 23, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Wichert, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wichert, Friedrich Karl Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz-Kastel
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1951
Place of death Kampen (Sylt)