Herbert Eugen Esche

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Herbert Eugen Esche (portrait photo 1898)

Herbert Eugen Esche (born July 27, 1874 in Chemnitz ; † July 18, 1962 in Küsnacht near Zurich ) was a German entrepreneur in the textile industry and patron of art .

Live and act

The son of the Chemnitz stocking manufacturer Otto Moritz Eugen Esche (1845–1902) became after the death of his father together with his brother Fritz Eugen Esche (1876–1953) co-owners and managing directors of the Moritz Samuel Esche hosiery factory in Chemnitz. The family business, which had existed since the 17th century, was relocated from Limbach to Chemnitz in 1870 because of the need for better rail links .

At the end of the 19th century, Herbert Esche met the Belgian Henry van de Velde , who was not yet known as an architect in Paris . In 1902 Herbert Esche commissioned him to build a villa on Parkstrasse, on the outskirts of Chemnitz. Esche gave van de Velde a “free hand” and so a spacious single-family house was built , which Herbert Esche lived in with his wife and two children after completion in 1903. It is noteworthy that van de Velde took over the entire equipment of the house, so that in addition to the furniture and carpets, window curtains and wall coverings , the lights, crockery and cutlery were also created according to his designs.

Today the Villa Esche can be visited as a museum, the house also serves as a meeting place for business, art and culture.

Sensitivity for the new art movements led Herbert Esche to invite the artist Edvard Munch to Chemnitz in 1905 . He portrayed the family, six portraits and one landscape were created, five of which are now held by a foundation set up specifically for this purpose in Zurich.

At the end of 1945 Herbert Esche left Chemnitz and moved to his daughter in Küsnacht in Switzerland, where he died in 1962.

literature

  • Georg Brühl : Art Nouveau in Chemnitz. The Villa Esche by Henry van de Velde . Bayerische Vereinsbank, Munich 1990.
  • Tilo Richter: Herbert Eugen Esche - A picture of life . Passage Verlag, Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-932900-63-4 .
  • Katharina Metz, Tilo Richter, Priska Schmückle von Minckwitz: Henry van de Velde's Villa Esche in Chemnitz . Birkhauser Verlag, Basel et al. 2003, ISBN 3-7643-6991-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry van de Velde: Villa Esche, pp. 144–145. Retrieved April 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Esche, Herbert Eugen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German textile entrepreneur and patron of the arts
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1962
Place of death Küsnacht near Zurich