Georg Heinrich Mylius

Georg Heinrich Mylius at the age of 24 as a student in Marburg

Georg Heinrich Mylius (born July 29, 1884 in Freiberg ; † May 10, 1979 in Dresden ) was a German pharmacist and industrial pharmacist. He became known as an amateur photographer for his early color photographs, which he took in 1911 while studying in Marburg .

Life

Georg Mylius was born in 1884 as the son of the pharmacist Ernst Mylius (1846–1929) and was baptized as an Evangelical Lutheran. In 1902 he began his pharmaceutical training in his father's Engel pharmacy in Leipzig . In 1905 he made his pre-examination in pharmaceuticals and studied from 1906 to 1908 at the Philipps University in Marburg. After the pharmaceutical state examination in 1908, Mylius received his doctorate in 1912 at the University's Botanical Institute under the pharmacist and botanist Arthur Meyer (1850–1922). phil. In the same year he was licensed as a pharmacist.

Until 1914, Mylius worked in various pharmacies. In September 1914 he joined the cosmetics company of Dr. Tetzner in Altona-Ottensen , which manufactured various cosmetic preparations, perfumes, soaps, toothpastes and other drugstore items. In 1927 he left the company and in 1928/29 worked in a pharmacy in Kirchen an der Sieg , where he set up a central homeopathic laboratory. In 1929 he moved to Leo-Werke GmbH in Dresden as operations manager , where he worked until his retirement in 1958.

Georg Mylius was interested in the history of his family early on and then throughout his life. From 1916 he was her archivist for 55 years and from 1918 to 1943 he was the secretary of the communications of the Mylius-Schleiz family . He died in 1979 at the age of 95.

Amateur photographer

During his doctorate, Georg Mylius took color photographs of subjects in Marburg and the surrounding area in the spring and October 1911. To do this, he used the then novel Autochrome process , which had only come onto the market four years earlier by the Lumière brothers . 24 of these photos were published by Gottlieb Braun (1876–1953), owner of the Marburg publishing house NG Elwert and himself an enthusiastic photographer, from 1912 onwards as three-color postcards. The number of copies fluctuated between 300 and 4000 pieces, depending on the motif. Mylius' Autochrome not only attracted local interest, but also received recognition from professional circles. In 1913 Westermann's monthly magazine published two of his color photographs in the article "Marburg an der Lahn". For color photography printing . A collection of 100 photographs in natural colors , which was published in Leipzig in 1912/13, 60 photographs were selected from over 5,000 entries, including one by Georg Mylius.

In addition to the pictures from his time in Marburg, there are other color photos, such as an aerial photo of Bremen from 1912, which was taken during a balloon ride from Marburg to Bremervörde, and some photos from Sweden and Potsdam.

reception

In 1975 Georg Mylius donated 86 autochrome glass plates in the format 9 × 12 cm to the Hessian State Archives in Marburg . In 2018 they were handed over to the German Documentation Center for Art History - Photo Archive Photo Marburg (DDK) for permanent storage. There they were digitized in high resolution. They are the oldest color photographs in the city of Marburg.

In a letter he wrote to his son Horst Gering Mylius a year before his death, he noted about his doctoral studies: "At that time I was not entirely unknown in Marburg because of 24 color photographs that I had published as postcards. Color photography was then something sensational new [...]: the Lumière process, color film did not exist yet. "

The exhibition "Something sensationally new - Marburg around 1910 in color photographs by Georg Mylius" shows the recordings in the State Archives in Marburg from June 27, 2019 to February 5, 2020.

Works

• The Polyderm: A Comparative Study of the Physiological Sheaths Polyderm, Periderm, and Endodermis. Dissertation 1912.

literature

• “Something sensationally new”. Marburg around 1910 in color photographs by Georg Mylius. Accompanying volume for the exhibition of the same name in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg. Marburg 2019 (= writings of the Hessian State Archives Marburg. Volume 37). ISBN 978-3-88964-222-6 .
• Theodor Birth. Marburg on the Lahn. In: Westermannsmonthshefte. Volume 57, 1913.
• Fritz Schmidt. Color photography. A collection of 100 shots in natural colors. E. Seemann, Leipzig 1913.

Web links

Commons : Georg Heinrich Mylius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Photo archive Photo Marburg: Autochrome by Georg Mylius
• Website for the exhibition in the Marburg State Archives