Hermann Mitterer
Hermann Joseph Mitterer (born October 8, 1762 in Altenmarkt , Osterhofen , Niederbayern ; † April 25, 1829 in Munich ) was a German drawing teacher , founder of the "Holiday Drawing School" in Munich (1792) and co-founder of the Munich Holiday School (1793), the Forerunner of the later vocational schools . On Mitterer's initiative, drawing lessons were made mandatory in all schools in Bavaria as early as 1789. He also founded the First Lithographic Art Institute.
Childhood and youth
Hermann Joseph Mitterer was born as the son of the baker and monastery grocer Anton Mitterer and his wife Magdalena Krenn in the Hofmark Altenmarkt, near the Osterhofen monastery . First he attended the Vornbach monastery as a choirboy , then he went to Passau and finally to Munich, where he graduated from high school in 1784 after the death of both parents under difficult circumstances. Intended for theology, he tended to mathematics and physics during his studies in Passau and also received drawing lessons. In Munich he then attended Johann Jakob von Dorner's drawing academy .
Drawing teacher and school founder
From 1791 he worked as a drawing teacher at the grammar school in Munich and gave drawing lessons to interested craftsmen and apprentices. Since he was convinced that the art of drawing was important for technical workers, he applied for an official school permit. It was granted to him on March 26th, 1792 for the establishment of a "drawing school for holidays". Shortly afterwards, in 1793, another school was founded in Munich by Mitterer's friend, Franz Xaver Kefer . As a holiday school, it should train male apprentices and journeymen in a job-related manner.
Kefer's and Mitterer's schools were merged in 1798, as they recognized how helpful and necessary artistic and technical drawing was for all professions. In addition, he participated in the founding of the Munich building trade school .
Development of lithography
In order to create inexpensive templates for drawing lessons that were previously only available in the form of copperplate engravings that were five times as expensive , Mitterer developed lithography further. Until then, it had only been used for printing sheet music and for writing. Mitterer refined the process invented by Alois Senefelder in 1778 in the chemistry laboratory and in the mechanical workshop of the Munich holiday school , with full support from the directorate and colleagues of the institute. With improved technology, it was now possible to produce colored printed matter with fine halftones.
Since the previous bar press was unfavorable for chalk printing, Mitterer invented the so-called roll or star press with the help of Alois Ramis , the teacher for practical mechanics at the holiday school, which ensured even pressure and became the model for all later presses: The stone lay on a movable surface and was pulled through with this under the fixed grater.
The Lithographic Art Institute
On November 7, 1804, Senefelder's brothers and employees, Theobald and Georg, sold the “secret of lithography by means of a contract to the holiday school for an annual salary of 700 guilders for both of them”. Mitterer, familiar with lithography, became curator and "professor for stone engraving" of the "first lithographic art institute". Mitterer, as well as the Senefelder brothers, committed themselves to “keeping art secret and inviolable secrecy” when signing the contract.
The commercial success of the "lithographic art products", which were sold beyond the borders of Germany, contributed significantly to the financial security of the Munich holiday school . Senefelder, who returned to Munich from Vienna in 1806, failed in his attempt to close the First Lithographic Art Institute. He only achieved that Mitterer's privilege was limited to the "production and publishing of such art articles", which related to sample books and artist lithographs for teaching purposes. From October 1805, the "Art Spreading Institute" started its work. For a long time, Munich was considered the center for the technical perfection of lithography.
An important task of the lithographic art institute was the production of suitable blackboards for the schools. Samples as templates for drawing lessons were also printed. This was a particular concern of Mitterer. At Mitterer's initiative, drawing lessons had become compulsory at all Bavarian elementary schools from 1798.
When the ordinance on land surveying in Bavaria was issued on January 27, 1808 , Joseph von Utzschneider insisted on reproducing it with lithography rather than copperplate engraving . The imposing map series was created with Mitterer's instruction and help. In 1815 the "First Lithographic Art Establishment" became the property of Mitterer.
Mitterer as editor
As early as 1797, on Hermann Mitterer's initiative, sheets with “poisonous plants for schools” were printed. In 1804, Mitterer published the "Beginnings of figure drawing in hand-drawing manner for self-learning". The publication of the "lithographic art products", lithographs of "landscapes, flowers, figures, heads ... after the most famous masters in hand-drawing style, by the best Munich artists" from the years 1805 to 1807 marks the beginning of lithographic art production in Germany.
Works (selection)
- 1820 Instructions for hydraulics for practical artists and foremen with an excellent focus on the fountain system . Publishing house of the Feyertags School in Munich.
- 1822 Instructions for mechanics for practical artists and foremen with an excellent focus on mill construction . Publishing house of the Feyertags School in Munich.
- 1824–1826 instructions for bourgeois architecture and architectural drawings accompanied by the most necessary principles . Publishing house of the Feyertags School in Munich.
- 1825 The German art of carpentry as a continuation of bourgeois architecture and architectural drawings . Publishing house of the Feyertags School in Munich.
Honors
Mitterer was an honorary member of the Munich Royal Art Academy and was awarded the larger Medal of Honor of the City of Munich in 1797. Mittererstrasse in Ludwigsvorstadt near Munich Central Station is named after him.
End of life
A few years before his death, Mitterer suffered a stroke , with hemiplegia from which he did not recover.
tomb
The tomb of Hermann Mitterer is on the old southern cemetery in Munich (Wall Links Course at 97 cemetery 3) Location .
Known students (selection)
literature
- Hyacinth Holland : Mitterer, Hermann Joseph . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 23-25.
- Franz Menges: Mitterer, Hermann Joseph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 582 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Jürgen Wurst: Hermann Josef Mitterer . In: Wurst, Jürgen and Langheiter, Alexander (Ed.): Monachia . Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-88645-156-9 , p. 170.
- Franz Maria Ferchl, History of the establishment of the first lithographic art institute at the holiday school for artists and technicians in Munich, Munich, 1862.
- Conversation lexicon; or, Concise Encyclopedic Dictionary for the Educated Estates ..., 1816.
- Johann Nepomuk Holg, Die Handwerks-Gesellen and Männliche Central Holiday School in Munich, Munich, 1863.
- M. Weichselbaumer, First Decade of Holiday School, 1793–1803.
swell
- ↑ Hermann Mitterer's birth entry in the church register of the Altenmarkt monastery near Osterhofen, online with Matricula
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mitterer, Hermann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mitterer, Hermann Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German drawing teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 8, 1762 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Osterhofen |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1829 |
| Place of death | Munich |