Julius Lessing

Julius Lessing, 1907

Julius Lessing, ca.1908

Julius Lessing (born September 20, 1843 in Stettin ; † March 13, 1908 in Berlin ) was a German art historian and the first director of collections at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts .

Life

Julius Lessing was born the son of a Jewish trader in clothing and marine equipment and was raised by his mother after the early death of his father. He attended the Marienstiftsgymnasium in Stettin and studied classical philology and classical archeology at the universities of Berlin and Bonn . During his studies in 1863 he became a member of the Arminia fraternity in Berlin . After receiving his doctorate in Bonn in 1866, he went on long trips and from 1870 taught the history of the arts and crafts at the Berlin Building Academy and at the Trade Academy as a professor. Even after the two academies were merged to form the Technical University in 1879, he continued teaching until 1894.

Julius Lessing participated in the Association of the German Industrial Museum in Berlin , which was founded in 1867 and which, since January 12, 1868, has been running a teaching institution together with two collection rooms in the former Gropius Diorama on the corner of Georgenstrasse and Stallstrasse, today's Universitätsstrasse. He was temporarily in charge of building up the collection and in 1872 was responsible for the exhibition of arts and crafts from the Kunstkammer, various castles of the royal family and from private property under the patronage of Crown Prince Friedrich in the Berlin armory . The success of the exhibition prompted the establishment of an actual arts and crafts museum , initially under the name of the Deutsches Gewerbemuseum as a separate department next to the educational establishment. From 1872 until his death in 1908, Julius Lessing was director of collections at the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts.

During his long term in office, in 1885 the initially private arts and crafts museum was integrated into the Royal Museums in Berlin and in 1881 the collections were moved to the new building of the arts and crafts museum at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 7 (today Niederkirchnerstraße ) according to the plans of the architects Martin Gropius and Heino Forging . Through transfers from royal property and targeted purchases, the collection achieved international importance under his leadership. Important expansions were the transfer of 7,000 objects from the Kunstkammer in around 1875, previously kept in the Neues Museum , the purchase of the Guastella glass collection in 1872 or the council silver of the city of Lüneburg in 1874.

The aim of the Association of the Deutsches Gewerbemuseum zu Berlin, to make the tools of art and science accessible to the local art industry , included not only building up the collection but also the publication of exemplary craft models. Starting in 1888, Julius Lessing wrote over twenty booklets in the series of model booklets from the Kgl. Decorative Arts Museum .

tomb

Julius Lessing is buried in the Schönhauser Allee Jewish cemetery .

Publications (selection)

• The arts and crafts at the Vienna World Exhibition . E. Wasmuth Berlin 1874
• Ancient oriental carpet patterns: Based on images and originals from the XV.-XVI. Century drawn by Julius Lessing , E. Wasmuth, Berlin 1877 (new edition: Wasmuth 1926)
• Reports from the Paris World's Fair in 1878 . E. Wasmuth Berlin 1878
• The silver work by Antonius Eisenhoit from Warburg ; Collotype by Albert Frisch, Berlin 1879
• Prototype booklets from the Kgl. Decorative Arts Museum . E. Wasmuth, Berlin 1888-1905
  • 1: Frame delivery 1: Italy XV. – XVI. Century.
  • 2: Frame delivery 2: Italy and Germany XVI. Century.
  • 3: Frame delivery 3: XVII. Century.
  • 4: frame delivery 4: beginning of XVIII. Century.
  • 5: Chairs delivery 1: XVI. – XVII. Century.
  • 6: Chairs delivery 2: XVII. – XIX. Century.
  • 7: Candelabra: XVI. – XVII. Century.
  • 8: Gothic furniture.
  • 10: Skylight grille made of wrought iron and related items XVI. – XVIII. Century.
  • 11: Persian-Turkish faience: plate.
  • 12: Italian chests 15th-16th centuries Century.
  • 13: Oriental carpets.
  • 14: Italian furniture: XVI. Century.
  • 15: Thueren.
  • 17: Furniture of the XVII. Century.
  • 18/19: Berlin porcelain of the XVIII. Century.
  • 20: Frame delivery 5: XVIII. Century.
  • 21: Louis XVI period furniture: plait style.
  • 22: 18th century bronzes
  • 25: The tapestries from the life of the archfather Jacob.
  • 26: Equipment made of precious metal: XVIII. Century.
  • 29: Chinese bronze vessels.
• The dining room and other festive gifts, offered to Her Imperial and Royal Highnesses to the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of the German Empire and Prussia at the celebration of the silver wedding anniversary on January 25, 1883, made with the participation of the Royal. Decorative Arts Museum in Berlin . E. Wasmuth Berlin 1886

literature

• Konrad Feilchenfeldt:  Lessing, Julius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 350 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 453–454.
• Barbara Mundt: 125 years of the Kunstgewerbemuseum. Concepts, buildings and people for a collection (1867-1939) , in: Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, Vol. 34, 1992, pp. 173-184.

Web links

Commons : Julius Lessing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Julius Lessing in the catalog of the German National Library
• Julius Lessing at www.luise-berlin.de
• Sabine Thümmler: How Julius Lessing became the first director of the Kunstgewerbemuseum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berlin III death register, 1908, entry no.295
2. ↑ Quoted from: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung Vol. 2, No. 40, October 7, 1882, p. 364 ( digitized version ).