Karl Engelbrecht

Karl Engelbrecht (born September 18, 1858 in Kassel , † February 12, 1902 in Hamburg ) was a German art glazier .

Life

After his birth on September 18, 1858, Karl Engelbrecht spent his childhood and youth in a family of craftsmen in Kassel. On February 19, 1883, he moved to Hamburg, where in 1884 he registered a trade as a glazier at Lindenstrasse 30–32 in St. Georg . Engelbrecht acquired Hamburg citizenship on September 14, 1889 .

Karl Engelbrecht was married to Louise Henriette Alma Kemnitz (born 1852) since 1890. The couple had a total of five children, two of whom died early. 1893, 1895 and 1898 were the birth years of two daughters and a son. Engelbrecht died of cancer at the age of 43.

Works

Karl Engelbrecht created numerous works that brought him international renown. In 1893 Engelbrecht was a member of a delegation of Hamburg traders who participated in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago . Inspired by the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany , which he had seen in Chicago, Engelbrecht imported the types of glass used from the companies L. Heidt from Brooklyn and Kokoma from Indiana . In 1896 Engelbrechts had the sole rights to sell in Europe, "with the exception of England, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal". Engelbrecht also made windows from opalescent glass himself from 1896. He developed into a pioneer of the new work technique, which was controversially discussed at the time. Hans Christiansen , with whom Engelbrecht was a close friend, provided designs for at least 200 glass windows. Engelbrecht reported on their joint work in the autumn of 1896 as part of an exhibition in the Hamburg Museum of Art and Commerce.

In addition to his own work, Engelbrecht taught other glass artists, including Miksa Roth from Budapest and FW Holler from Krefeld . Between 1897 and 1902 Engelbrecht took part in all major exhibitions for glass and applied arts. This included exhibitions in Berlin , Brno , Brussels , Darmstadt , the Arnold Gallery in Dresden , Karlsruhe , Krefeld, Copenhagen , the Glass Palace in Munich , Paris and Turin . The Design Museum Danmark in Copenhagen dedicated a solo exhibition to the artist in 1897. In 1900 he received a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris , which was his greatest award in his life.

In 1901 Engelbrecht created several windows for the "Villa Rosen". Hans Christiansen's building on Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt was destroyed during the Second World War. According to plans by Peter Behrens , Engelbrecht worked on the roof glazing for the Hamburg lobby, which was to be exhibited at the 1902 arts and crafts exhibition in Turin . Engelbrecht did not live to see the completion of the building.

Engelbrecht designed several windows of the council arbor of the Hamburg town hall . In addition to the Copenhagen Art Industry Museum , his works can be seen in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum and the Hessian State Museum . Further Engelbrechts glasses are in private ownership in Hamburg.

The authorized signatory Karl Hölle briefly continued the glassmaking business before going into business for himself. The Engelbrechts glazier is mentioned for the last time in the exhibition catalog on "Room art in the modern country house", which took place in 1909 in the Museum of Art and Industry .

literature

• Rüdiger Joppien: Engelbrecht, Karl . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 113-114 .