Hermann Finsterlin

Hermann Finsterlin (born August 18, 1887 in Munich , † September 16, 1973 in Stuttgart ) was an Expressionist painter and poet , essayist , architectural theorist and toy maker. In the relevant art literature on the architecture of Expressionism, he is labeled as a "utopian architect".

Life

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Hermann Wilhelm Ludwig Finsterlin was born on August 18, 1887 in Munich and grew up there as the only son of an upper-class family. His father, Robert Finsterlin, was a chemist and factory owner. His mother was Bertha Edle von Berueff, his great-grandfather was a court painter and friend of Ludwig I. From 1905 to 1908 he trained as a painter, verifiably from Walter Thor and Hermann Groeber . Finsterlin had contacts with the teaching and experimental workshops Wilhelm von Debschitz , founded a free studio with friends in Schwabing and made acquaintances with Anton Schöner and Walter Ernst Haeckel. From 1908 to 1914, interrupted by trips to the North Sea and Italy, he lived alternately in Schönau near Berchtesgaden and in Munich.

In 1914/15 Finsterlin was enrolled at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and attended events with Adolf von Baeyer and Theodor Paul . In 1913 he met Helene Kratz, whom he married in 1916. In the same year the couple moved to Schönau. Probably in 1917 he designed his own house. From November 24, 1919 to December 24, 1920, Hermann Finsterlin took part in the correspondence of the Glass Chain , which was initiated by Bruno Taut and in which mainly architects were involved. He let u. a. the essay “The Seventh Day”, the scenario “The Grotto” and the film script “The Defiance of Salvation” are circulating and became a member of the Art Labor Council . In 1920 he wrote in a draft letter to the Dutch painter Albert Servaes (1883–1966) about the attempt to "make one of my designs real".

In 1922 the couple Mendelsohn and Bruno Taut visited him in Schönau. During an ascent with Taut on the Watzmann, Finsterlin designed his “Alpine Architecture”. In 1926 the family moved to Stuttgart because the children were supposed to attend the Waldorf School there, initially in a rented apartment, and at the end of 1928 in their own house on Frauenkopf , which was built by the anthroposophical architect Felix Kayser. Finsterlin stayed in Schönau well into the 1930s and lived in Stuttgart for no more than six months.

At the latest since the 1963 exhibitions on the "Glass Chain" in Morsbroich Castle in Krefeld and in 1954 at the Akademie der Künste Berlin , Hermann Finsterlin was again in correspondence with almost all still living members of the "Glass Chain" after he and Wassili Luckhardt in 1962 Max Taut had already contacted Walter Gropius in the mid-1950s and even in the late 1940s. In 1963 he was invited to give a lecture at the Technical University of Aachen .

His wife Helene Finsterlin died on August 18, 1965. From 1966 to 1967 he exchanged letters with Amigos de Gaudí . In 1969 there was another correspondence with Hendrik Wijdeveld , who had already published an issue of his magazine "Wendungen" about Hermann Finsterlin in 1924. A letter from Günter Behnisch dated August 18, 1971, tells Finsterlin that his plan to realize one of his architectures on the Olympic site in Munich will not materialize.

Hermann Finsterlin died on September 16, 1973 in Stuttgart.

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Visual arts

In 1914 the pictorial work mainly comprised portraits, landscapes and nature representations as well as mythological subjects. Until 1918 the painter's repertoire expanded only slowly. In addition to the portraits, there were fantasy portraits. He turned to mythological and fairy-tale themes, came to a freer understanding of the landscape and began to draw numerous miniatures . His intensive Nietzsche reading was expressed in a “ Zarathustra ” watercolor. He was prone to playful, grotesque headlines. In 1918, after a nocturnal ascent of the Watzmann, he painted the picture “Sunrise over the Watzmann ” and wrote the volumes of poetry “The Creators of the Creator in Love” or “The World Soul Sang” and the scenario “The Grotto”. In 1921 he designed the "style game". This architecture game and a “construction kit for future style”, later called “Formdomino”, were entered in the utility model role of the Reich Patent Office in Berlin. In 1923 Finsterlin signed a contract with the Rheinische Werkstätten to produce the “style game”.

In 1930 he painted the portrait of the director of the State Trade Museum in Stuttgart , Gustav Pazaurek . In 1931 and 1932 he created the decorations for the Stuttgart artist festivals “Spuk”, “Opening of the first international art exhibition” and in 1937 and 1938 for the Berchtesgaden artist festivals. He painted a fresco in the Villa Medusa, the Ernst Haeckel House in Jena , based on a photograph by Haeckel. From 1935 he received orders for various wall paintings, such as the orchestra shell in Bad Mergentheim and wall panels in the foyer (1935), wall paintings in the dining room of the Hotel Castellet on Mallorca . In 1957 Finsterlin painted wall and ceiling paintings in the foyer of the Kurhaus in Schömberg . The paintings were pasted over with wallpaper in 1979/1980 and only exposed and restored in 1999.

Architectural visions

In 1918 or at the beginning of 1919 his “Architectural Dream” inspired him to come up with new house designs. In 1919 Walter Gropius asked him on behalf of the Art Workers' Council to take part in an exhibition of young architects. He sent the few available “dream houses”, a telegraphic inquiry for more work led to a real creative frenzy. His architectural visions had little in common with conventional buildings for the benefit and use of humans, but rather resembled mythical animals, deep-sea snails, mussel beds, mushroom colonies or other exotic organic forms from nature. His designs were successful at exhibitions at the time and were admired, but none of his designs were carried out.

In 1962 Finsterlin gave the lecture “Casa novissima” in the Diogenes gallery in Berlin as part of his exhibition “Architectural Visions, Form Metaphors, Models, Oil Paintings, Style Construction Kits, Drawings”. In addition to Wassili Luckhardt and Oswald M. Ungers , Sergius Ruegenberg was also invited to give a lecture in the gallery. Then there was an exchange of letters with Sergius Ruegenberg in 1963.

Literary work

The literary work comprises three handwritten and four machine-written volumes of poetry as well as a bundle of poems intended for binding . The first poems were written in 1904, and in 1907 the first handwritten volume of poetry, “My first attempts”. His poetry is strongly influenced by the work of the dadist Hans Arp , in particular by the intensive reading of Arp's volume of poems "The Cloud Pump" (1920). Before 1950, Friedrich Carl Lamprecht began trying to put Finsterlin's extensive poetry into order. There was no publication. An order of the entire work was not completed.

Quote

“In style, the goal is the game. In the game, the goal is style. At the end the game is the style. "

Exhibitions (selection)

• Munich Annual Exhibition 1916 , Royal Glass Palace , Munich Artists' Cooperative , Munich 1916.
• Exhibition for unknown architects , Graphisches Kabinett Neumann, Berlin 1919.
• Exhibition for unknown architects , Museum am Karlsplatz, Weimar 1919.
• The first exhibition of the artists based in Berchtesgadener Land in the Royal Villa in the summer of 1919 led to the founding of the Berchtesgadener Künstlerbund in 1922, to which Finsterlin also belonged. At the beginning of July 1920 he opened the exhibitions of Berchtesgaden artists, as it did more often in the following years.
• Neues Bauen , Graphisches Kabinett Neumann, organized by members of the “ Glass Chain ”, together with the architects Hans Scharoun , Hans and Wassili Luckhardt , Bruno and Max Taut and Wenzel Hablik , Berlin 1920.
• Annual exhibition of the Berchtesgadener Künstlerbund , Berchtesgaden 1922.
• Munich Trade Show , Munich 1922.
• Leipzig Spring Fair , the "style game" was exhibited for the first time, Leipzig 1922.
• Leipzig Spring Fair , Leipzig 1923.
• Leipzig Autumn Fair , embroidery based on designs by Hermann Finsterlin, Leipzig 1923.
• New toys , Landesgewerbemuseum, Stuttgart 1924/25.
• New collections , Munich 1925.
• Architectures and watercolors , Kunstzaal d'Audretsch, The Hague 1925.
• Form and color fantasies and games , collective exhibition that for the first time offered a representative cross-section of Finsterlin's complete oeuvre. Landesgewerbemuseum, Stuttgart 1928.
• In 1928 Finsterlin tried in vain to show his (not very successful) Stuttgart exhibition with the help of Bruno Taut in Berlin, Alfred Brust in Königsberg and Hendrik Theodorus Wijdeveld in Amsterdam . After that he only took part in the annual exhibitions in Berchtesgaden.
• On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Berchtesgadener Künstlerbund and Finsterlin's 65th birthday, Finsterlin's first exhibition participation takes place after the war , Berchtesgaden 1952.
• Hermann Finsterlin , Kunsthaus Fischender, Stuttgart (Finsterlin's first solo exhibition after the war). Finsterlin's first verifiable poetry reading took place on February 26, 1953, in 1953.
• Hermann Finsterlin , Kunsthalle Barmen , solo exhibition with his own reading on May 4, 1954.
• Hermann Finsterlin , Kunsthaus Fischender, Stuttgart (second solo exhibition) 1957.
• Center Internationale de Culture et D'Echange, with Eliane Bruston-Vergara (Paris), Jochens (La Haye) and tapestries by François Lauvin, Paris 1957. As a result of this exhibition, there is a brief exchange of letters with Theodor Heuss .
• Hermann Finsterlin. Architectural visions. Form metaphors, models, oil paintings, style building sets, drawings , on the occasion of the Berlin Building Weeks, Galerie Diogenes, (solo exhibition, booklet), Berlin 1962.
• The glass chain , Morsbroich Castle, Krefeld 1963.
• The glass chain , Academy of the Arts, Berlin 1964.
• 60 years Finsterlin. Cross-section through his work , professional association of visual artists, (catalog), Munich 1964.
• Mazes. Fantastic art from the 16th century to the present day , German Society for Fine Arts together with the Academy of Arts Berlin, 1966, and Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (participation, catalog), 1966/1967.
• Future architectures and other watercolors , Renitenz-Theater, Stuttgart 1967.
• Metamorphoses of Zeus , one-evening exhibition of erotic drawings on the occasion of Finsterlin's 80th birthday, gallery of bookstore Wendelin Niedlich , Stuttgart 1967.
• Galleria del Levante (solo exhibition, catalog), Munich 1968.
• Hermann Finsterlin , Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Houston , Texas 1969.
• Exposition d'architecture Hermann Finsterlin , Archives d'architecture modern, Brussels 1970.
• Signs and color , Graphic Collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart , (participation, catalog), Stuttgart 1971/1972.
• Hermann Finsterlin , exhibition on his 85th birthday, study room of the graphic collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1972.
• Hermann Finsterlin. Imaginary architecture, watercolors and paintings , Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart , (catalog), Stuttgart 1973.

Exhibitions posthumously

• Hermann Finsterlin (1887–1973) Architectural Ideas 1918–1924. Drafts for a habitable world , Museum Haus Lange , Krefeld 1976.
• Hermann Finsterlin. Aquarelle , Galerie am Haagtor, Tübingen 1984.
• Hermann Finsterlin 1887–1973, painting - graphics - architecture , cultural office of the city of Sindelfingen , town hall, Sindelfingen 1987
• Hermann Finsterlin. Watercolors and models , State Gallery Stuttgart Graphic Collection (1988), Kunstverein Freiburg (1988), Westfälisches Landesmuseum Münster , 1988/89.
• Expressionist Utopias - Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy , Los Angeles County Museum of Art , Los Angeles , California, USA 1993–1994.
• Hermann Finsterlin in the Hamburger Kunsthalle - Cremer Collection , Kunsthalle, Hamburg 1995.

Fonts

• My first attempts , handwritten volume of poetry, 1907.
• Cobwebs. Herd of ballads by Hermann Finsterlin , typewritten volume of poetry 1908.
• With open eyes , handwritten volume of poetry 1911.
• The highest song , a later so-called erotophilosophical essay , (probably) 1917. (unpublished)
• To the creators of the creator in love , volume of poetry 1918
• Der Weltseele Sang , volume of poetry 1918
• The grotto , scenario 1918
• The Defiance of Salvation , 1919 film script
• Questions that need clarification , Finsterlin's answers and a floor plan, in: Yes! Voices of the Working Council for Art , first publication of a theoretical text by Hermann Finsterlin in 1919.
• The seventh day , essay 1919
• The polarity of world architecture , essay and illustrations by Hermann Finsterlin in Frühlicht - supplement to urban architecture of the old and new times , issue 6, pp. 92–96, 1920.
• The eighth day , with illustrations in Frühlicht - supplement to urban architecture of the old and new times , issue 11, pp. 171–176, 1920
• Interior architecture , with illustrations by Hermann Finsterlin, including the "Design for a residential building on Lake Starnberg" mentioned in the letter to Albert Servaes , in: Frühlicht - A series for the realization of the new building concept , No. 2, 1921/22, p. 35– 37.
• The genesis of world architecture or the descent of the domes as a game of style , in: Frühlicht - Supplement to urban architecture of old and new times , issue 3, pp. 73–78, 1922.
• Interior architecture , in: the wood industry, no. 41 , leaflets of the Dada advertising society in Berlin , Berlin 1922.
• Casa Nova , in: Wendingen (series 6, number 3). Finsterlin published this essay with 47 illustrations for the first time and designed the cover of the booklet. Editors: Hendrik Theodorus Wijdeveld and Cornelis Joule Blaauw, Amsterdam 1924.
• Casa Nova , reprinted in: Mittelland - A Time Mirror , 1925.
• The pyramid , the only published essay by Finsterlin, critical of civilization and cultural philosophy. In: Mittelland - Ein Zeitspiegel , Heft 4, pp. 142-143, 1925.
• Architectural letters and essays , typescript anthology 1925
• Philosophy of culture and critique of civilization , typescript anthology 1925.
• Poems and scenarios from 1918 to 1925 , 1925.
• Sphinx to the power of three , a third scenario in 1925.
• The style game - the construction kit of world architecture of all times and peoples , prospectus, private printing, Berchtesgaden 1928.
• A handle in half a century - songs of Pan , selection of poems with a foreword by Friedrich Karl Lamprecht. Edition of 1000 copies, private print, Stuttgart 1964.
• Metamorphoses of Zeus - 29 erotic miniatures with poems by Hermann Finsterlin , Contra Verlag, Stuttgart 1970.

literature

• Fantasy , with illustrations of Finsterlin's works (for the first time with serial and sheet numbers) in “Call for Building”, published by the Arbeitsrat für Kunst 1920.
• The magazine "German Art and Decoration" announced Hermann Finsterlin's "Stilspiel" as a production of the Mikado workshops in Bonn, 1923.
• Hans Hildebrandt tried to classify Hermann Finsterlin in art history for the first time. In: Art of the 19th and 20th Century - Handbuch Kunstwissenschaft , edited by AE Brinkmann, Potsdam 1924.
• Josef Ponten criticizes Hermann Finsterlin's utopian designs in "Architecture That Wasn't Built", Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 1925.
• Adolf Behne : “The modern functional building”, multiple mentions of Finsterlin, Drei Masken Verlag, Munich 1926.
• Gustav Adolf Platz : "The architecture of the latest time". Mention of Finsterlin, Propylaeen Verlag , Berlin 1927.
• In an article on the artist's 60th birthday in the Stuttgarter Zeitung, Hans Hildebrandt referred to Finsterlin again for the first time after the war, 1947.
• Udo Kultermann : "Dynamic Architecture", Lucas Cranach Verlag, Munich 1959.
• Ulrich Conrads and Hans G. Spärlich emphatically recall the utopian architect Finsterlin in the preprint in the architecture magazine "Zodiak" (1959), then in the book edition "Fantastic Architecture", Verlag Gerd Hatje , Stuttgart 1960.
• Heinz Ohff : Dreams are spaces. Hermann Finsterlin's architectural visions for the construction week , in: Der Tagesspiegel, No. 5165, September 1962.
• Nikolaus Pevsner : Finsterlin and some others , in: Architectural Review , Vol. 13, No. 789, pp. 353-357, 1962.
• The glass chain , catalog for the exhibitions at Morsbroich Castle , Krefeld (1963) and at the Berlin Academy of the Arts (1964). The now legendary correspondence was published here for the first time.
• 60 years Finsterlin. Cross-section through his work , catalog for a solo exhibition in the professional association of visual artists, including texts by Otto Conzelmann (1953), Hans Steiner (1949), foreword by Hermann Finsterlin, Stuttgart 1964.
• Dennis Sharp pays tribute to Hermann Finsterlin in: "Modern Architecture and Expressionism", Longmans Verlag, London and George Braziller, New York 1966.
• According to Finsterlin, Knut Lienemann and HPC Weidner worked with Jürgen Joedicke at the Technical University of Stuttgart a first biography, a catalog raisonné of the architectures, the catalog Hermann Finsterlin - Architectures 1917–1924 and an exhibition in Stuttgart, Darmstadt , Karlsruhe , Aachen and Berlin was shown, 1966/1967.
• Manfred Speidel: "Architecture in Germany", translation by Tetsue Ito, in the Japanese magazine "Space Design", Tokyo 1968.
• Franco Borsi: “Hermann Finsterlin. Idea dell'architectura. Architecture in its idea ”, text in Italian, German, Firenze 1969.
• Architecture of tomorrow and beyond space travel and drugs - the path to an idea. Pictures and poems to stimulate the imagination and relax the intellectual , announcement of the publishing house Alois Storck, Ottobrunn near Munich, after 1970 (not published).

Writings about Hermann Finsterlin published posthumously

• Wolfgang Pehnt : The architecture of expressionism , Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-7757-0027-7 .
• Hermann Finsterlin (1887–1973) Architectural Ideas 1918–1924. Designs for a habitable world . Catalog for the exhibition in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum of the City of Krefeld , Museum Haus Lange (publisher), Krefeld 1976.
• Ingo Kühl : Homage to Hermann Finsterlin . In: Catalog for the exhibition Kunstimpulse II - Homage - Artists to Works by Artists , p. 10, Obere Galerie - Haus am Lützowplatz, Kunstamt Tiergarten, published by Paul Corazolla , Berlin 1984.
• Wolfgang Pehnt: Expressionist Architecture in Drawings , Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York 1985, ISBN 978-0-442-27384-2 , ISBN 0-442-27384-3 .
• Iain Boyd Whyte and Romana Schneider (editors): The Letters of the Glass Chain , original edition under the title: Glass Chain. The Crystal Chain letters , Verlag Ernst, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-433-02152-X .
• Reinhard Döhl : Hermann Finsterlin. An approximation , on the occasion of the exhibition Hermann Finsterlin. Watercolors and models , Graphische Sammlung Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (1988), Kunstverein Freiburg, (1988), Westfälisches Landesmuseum Münster (1988/89), with contributions by Johannes Langer and Maria Müller, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-7757-0267 -9 .
• Timothy O. Benson: Expressionist Utopias - Paradise, Metropolis, Architectural Fantasy , published for the exhibition of the same name at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art , language: English, publisher: University of Washington Press, 1994, ISBN 0-295-97324-2 , ISBN 978-0-295-97324-1 .
• Robert Harbison: The built, the unbuilt and the unbuildable. In search of the architectural meaning. (Pp. 178–179) (from the English by Christian Rochow) Birkhäuser, Basel / Berlin / Boston 1994, ISBN 3-7643-5051-2 .
• Uwe M. Schneede (editor): Hermann Finsterlin. Collection Cremer , on the occasion of the exhibition Hermann Finsterlin in the Hamburger Kunsthalle by Reinhard Döhl. With an introduction by Uwe M. Schneede, Verlag Gerd Hatte, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-7757-0451-5 .
• Ulrich Schneider: Hermann Finsterlin and the Architecture of Expressionism , Ernst Wasmuth Verlag Tübingen 1999.
• Reinhard Döhl: Hermann Finsterlin - A cross-section of works , catalog for the exhibition on the occasion of the renovation of the Kurhaus Schömberg and exposure of the frescos, Stuttgart, 2000, ISBN 3-929030-61-6 .
• Günther Feuerstein: Biomorphic Architecture - Menschengestalten und Tiergestalten in der Architektur / Human and Animal Forms in Architecture , Edition Axel Menges, Fellbach 2002, ISBN 3-930698-87-0 .

criticism

In his book The Built, the Unbuilt and the Unbuildable , Robert Harbison writes critically about Finstlerlin's work:

• The most radical of all Expressionists, even if he never built anything, was Hermann Finsterlin. His fantastic, carbuncular studies are the most indivisible and inscrutable 'buildings' that have ever been conceived, they are unbuildable in the most emphatic of all senses. They come in different forms: as perspective drawings, as misshapen models, as floor plans. The perspectives are slightly tinged with color, they seem inflamed, they grow into almost beautiful abscesses, puffy, pregnant, organic, a mixture of plant roots and animal limbs. Finsterlin calls these structures almost without distinction as a church, or as a university or as a mausoleum. Each fulfills a function with a highly symbolic content, but completely unspecific. If you try to imagine the layout of the interior, you quickly notice that this question is completely wrong.

• When we turn to Finsterlin's floor plans, we get solid evidence that these structures are quite consciously imaginary. They show exactly the same shape as the perspectives, except that here the leaf shapes, which form decorative final ornaments there, become splinter-like spaces that run out at the end of a body limb that is becoming narrower. Ground plan and perspective are not related to one another, as is the rule with architectural drawings, where both forms depend on one another and each does not make complete sense on its own.

• In his undeniable irresponsibility, Finsterlin pushes the limits that are set on architecture further; not in the floor plans, where there is a simple misunderstanding that they are pictures, but in the outline drawings. Freer than most sculptures, they simply start at one end, then ask themselves where the building is going to develop, and do not allow themselves to be dictated by the consideration of how to construct it. So there are neither straight lines nor anything standing on the ground. And although Finsterlin's results appear highly organic, there has never been such an asymmetrical and absurd organism. Its buildings are more like fragments or slices of organisms or proliferating clumps of simple life forms such as bacteria, fungi or algae. That is why even the most elegant of them appear unhealthy and parasitic, like outgrowths and not like healthy bodies.

• In order to build it, the most absurd methods would be required, which would be completely at odds with their shape: one would first have to carefully break down the design into sections, then shape each individual part and finally weld everything together in a highly inglorious way - this scenario makes clear how much Finsterlin's designs are pure paper architecture. (Pp. 178–179)

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Finsterlin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Illustrations
• Hermann Finsterlin pages
• Uwe M. Schneede: Finsterlins starry longing. An approach to the utopian architect. (A review of the book by Reinhard Döhl: Hermann Finsterlin. An approach , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 1988)
• Hermann Finsterlin collection in the Hans Scharoun archive in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
• Hermann Finsterlin. In: arch INFORM . (Short biography)

Notes, individual references

1. ^ Hermann Finsterlin. In: arch INFORM ; accessed on December 15, 2016. (References)
2. ↑ Thomas Faltin: A witch's house on the woman's head Stuttgarter Zeitung, July 2, 2015, accessed on December 15, 2016
3. ↑ Reinhard Doehl: Hermann Finsterlin accessed on December 15, 2016
4. ^ Before August 1930 he gave a lecture at the Bauhaus in Dessau . Andreas Hillger ascribes this play on words to him in his novel Gläserne Zeit - A Bauhaus novel .

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