Karl Federlin

Karl Wilhelm Christian Federlin (also: Carl ; * January 27, 1854 in Ulm ; † February 1, 1939 there ) was a German sculptor of historicism , who in his work always developed a style from neo-Gothic Nazarism to classicist echoes and neo-baroque more hardening monumental style. A substantial part of his work is connected with the Ulm Minster , for which he created 45 larger-than-life sandstone sculptures.

life and work

From 1860 he attended elementary school in Ulm as preparation for secondary school. After an apprenticeship as a sculptor in Stuttgart, he emigrated to Vienna as a journeyman . He did his military service in the Württemberg Infantry Regiment 124. In Ulm he first worked in the Münsterbauhütte. In 1879 Federlin enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and studied with the financial support of the Central Office for Trade and Commerce in Stuttgart and the Ulm Minster Building Authority. From 1880 Federlin received his first orders for models, then for the execution of large stone sculptures on the choir towers of Ulm Minster. This work dragged on until 1894.

In 1883 Federlin set up a studio - which was expanded just three years later - and opened a sculptor and stonemason business. Starting in the 1890s, apostles and prophets statues for the pillars in the central nave of the Ulm Minster as well as another cycle of figures of important personalities for the city of Ulm or the Protestant church to the side aisles were created in a process that took years.

In addition, Federlin created numerous tombs and portrait busts of industrialists, politicians and members of the Württemberg royal family. With the groups of figures at the main portal of the new justice building in Ulm (the goddess Themis as protective justice and Dike as punitive justice) Federlin reached the peak of his artistic work.

With a patent from King Wilhelm II of Württemberg on February 25, 1903, Federlin was appointed court sculptor. However, his creative power soon waned: in 1912 his last sculpture was installed in the interior of the Ulm Minster, although the iconographic program formulated by the church in 1877 had not yet been fully implemented. The memorial to the Russian soldiers who died in captivity at the Ulm cemetery was his last work in public space.

After the end of the First World War, Federlin struggled with increasing financial difficulties. The former court sculptor lived in the meanwhile dilapidated studio and died almost forgotten just a few days after his 85th birthday. His urn was buried in the Ulm cemetery not far from his statue of the Blessing Christ made of white marble; the grave leveled in 1970.

literature

• Rudolf Pfleiderer: Münster book. The Ulm Minster in the past and present , Ulm 1907
• Karl Höhn (Ed.): Ulmer Bilderchronik , Vol. 2 Ulm 1931, Vol. 2 Ulm 1933, Vol. 4 Ulm 1934
• Hermann Baumhauer, Joachim Feist: The Ulm Minster and its works of art , Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart, Aalen 1977, ISBN 3-8062-0164-1
• Joachim Mertens, Michael Zeller: "Peace to your ashes comrades". The memorial to Russian prisoners of war of the First World War in the Ulm main cemetery , Ulm 1992
• Joachim Semler: On the construction history of the justice building in Ulm In: Materials for the exhibition "Hundred Years of Justice Building Ulm" , Ulm 1998
• Dankmar Trier: Federlin, Karl . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 37, Saur, Munich a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-598-22777-9 , p. 402.
• Hans Eugen Specker: Federlin, Karl. In: Maria Magdalena Rückert (Ed.): Württembergische biographies including Hohenzollern personalities. Volume I. On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-17-018500-4 , pp. 72–73 ( online )
• Frank Raberg : Biographical Lexicon for Ulm and Neu-Ulm 1802-2009 . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft im Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7995-8040-3 , p. 100 .

Web links

Commons : Karl Federlin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• in Ulm Minster: sculptures by Karl Federlin