Karl Schaefer (art historian)

Karl Schaefer

Karl Schaefer (born March 3, 1870 in Mannheim , † December 16, 1942 in Munich ) was a German art historian and museum director.

Life

Schaefer attended high schools in Karlsruhe and Freiburg . In 1888 he moved to the university there to study ancient languages , history and archeology . He was a student of Adolf Furtwängler , then in Berlin , and Franz Studniczka . He listened to art history with Herman Grimm , Franz Xaver Kraus and Henry Thode . With an architectural painter friend he practiced measuring and depicting buildings.

Schaefer passed his state examination as a Baden senior teacher in March 1893 as a classical philologist . With an examination of the architectural history of the Freiburg Minster he graduated in the summer of 1894 at Thode to Dr. phil. After a short teaching activity at the Freiburg grammar school , he switched to the Germanic Museum in Nuremberg as a research assistant . Under the direction of Gustav von Bezold , he was introduced to museum practice. He was mainly occupied with cataloging and writing the guide . In addition, he was busy with local history studies such as the old city maps of Nuremberg, its walls and gate or the sculpture of the 15th century.

In 1898 Schaefer was appointed assistant to the museum director August Töpfer at the Bremen Trade Museum . The activity he developed there radiated in its defining way into the art life of the empire . In lectures, journalistic work and by organizing lectures, he carried out propaganda for the new knowledge of forms in architecture and the arts and crafts. At the invitation of Eduard Kulenkamp , he gave a lecture on "German Town Hall Buildings" on November 23, 1905 in the house of the Association of Art Friends in Lübeck . When he was given the independent management of the Bremen collection in 1906, from then on he published the “Yearbook of the Bremen Collections” every year to reflect his achievements. He also became a member of the German Werkbund . When the modern style movement got into calmer tracks, he turned completely to the museum. In the years that followed, its systematic structure should make good progress. He endeavored to win back Bremen products for the museum that had previously been alienated from their homeland. He collected the types of neighboring peasant art of the same - so he organized the costume festivals of Scheeßel - up against the Dutch border , carvings of the Renaissance , faience and Bremen types of furniture of the 17th and 18th century . In addition, since Bremen did not yet have a conservator at that time , he voluntarily developed a rich activity for the preservation of monuments and homeland security .

Although the funds for the museum purchases were plentiful, the endeavors of the museum director to build up the collected treasures in a suitable new museum building proved to be futile. His polemically propagated efforts around 1909 to separate the trade museum from the art school and merge it with the historical museum were trend-setting. Bremen's state finances did not allow a thorough reorganization of the museum to be considered for years to come.

After Theodor Hach's death , whose high service to Lübeck's art and cultural history only found recognition in the last years of his life, a new office was created with the director of the “Kunsthistorisches Museum” and the “Gewerbemuseum”. The board of directors of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities - they owned the museums at the time - unanimously elected Schaefer as the new museum director at their meeting on December 13, 1910 after the legislative bodies had decided to assume the salary at state expense . On the morning of April 1, 1911, he was then introduced to his office by the museum committee in the lecture hall of the Museum of Art and Cultural History. At the meeting on November 14th of the same year, Schaefer was elected head of the women's trade school in place of the outgoing Senator Cay Diedrich Lienau .

When Schaefer in January 1914 from the Verein für Kunstfreunde in a supplementary election for the regularly retiring Dr. Franck had been elected to the board of directors, he assured the club that he did not want to put any obstacles in his way. Instead, mutual cooperation was promised. In November, the Senate awarded the director the title "Professor".

Commemorative coin

From the two museums it was necessary to create a new museum of Lübeck art and cultural history, which had to present the rich treasures from the heyday of Lübeck art and history , which had previously been stored in the museum storage building at the cathedral and had been neglected . This was found in the rooms of the St. Anne's Monastery, which was completed shortly before the Reformation . In a chronological order, Schaefer built up Lübeck's culture from the Romanesque to around the time of the Wars of Liberation . The St. Anne's Museum, bearing Schaefer's stamp , was opened in 1915 during the First World War to great applause from the museum-loving world of Germany and Sweden . It was thanks to him that the museum had become a place for the promotion of local and general cultural values ​​and not a mere refuge for art scholars who valued art only because of its scientific processing possibilities. At the general assembly on November 9, 1915, the award of the silver medal to Baltzer , Struck and Schaefer was subsequently approved on the occasion of the opening of the Museum of Cultural History.

Schaefer saw his task not only in building and caring for the museum. All efforts to promote art preservation, homeland security or arts and crafts activities found in him a tirelessly active protector and sponsor. In his much-attended lectures, the lectures of the high school authorities and other places, he let the people of Lübeck participate in the wealth of his knowledge and artistic education every year. His work in connection with the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Volkshaus, special exhibitions in the old museum and the awakening for the old Lübeck sculpture, which is mainly due to him, should be pointed out.

On March 5, 1918, the bank director John A. Rehder was elected at the Society's meeting as the successor to Schaefer, who was leaving his post as head of the women's trade school. In the same month, Schaefer's call to found the Overbeck Society, which still exists today and which was once the “Association of Art Friends”, appeared in the Lübeckische Blätter . He managed to create a center for the maintenance of modern art here. Thus the Hanseatic city was now in regular exhibitions - Schaefer was to initiate 20 exhibitions for the Overbeck Society before his departure - in direct contact with German art life. In doing so, he filled a gap that was felt with the falling level of the "large" art exhibitions in St. Catherine's Church , which take place every two years, and the decreasing interest in those events.

In the Lübeck memorial debate after the First World War, Schaefer favored the city-owned Katharinenkirche as the central hall of fame for memorials of all social groups in the city, but could not prevail with this idea against the more particular way of thinking. But this may be wrong. Shortly before the unveiling of the memorial in the Jakobikirche based on the design by Fritz Behn , the Lübeckische Blätter reported that Schaefer had reported on the memorial with the greatest zeal in the sheets.

On April 1, 1920 Schaefer was appointed to Cologne . Carl Georg Heise was his successor in the Hanseatic city. At Schaefer's farewell evening on March 22, 1920 in the Great Hall of the Society's house , its director, Senior Johannes Evers , announced a special decision. As a special honor to Schaefer, the memory of his work will be kept permanently alive in the form of a relief portrait based on a design by Fritz Behn at the site of his effectiveness. The bronze was handed over in January 1922.

Schaefer was to remain particularly lifelong connected to Lübeck even after his departure. This was evident, for example, the fact that he will be of Fritz Endres issued the 700th anniversary of the city in 1927 history of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck to part history of the visual arts in Lübeck took over.

The director of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Cologne, Josef Poppelreuter , died in 1919. Luise Straus-Ernst was now in charge of the museums on an interim basis. In April 1920 she left the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum with Schaefer's appointment. Because of an affair with his colleague Elisabeth Moses , he was dismissed in 1928 and put into temporary retirement because of an alleged incapacity for work. The reinstatement of the employee who was also dismissed contributed to his rehabilitation.

Schaefer moved to Munich and became a research associate at the new German Academy there .

Fonts

• Hieronymus Braun's prospectus for the city of Nuremberg from 1608 and its forerunners. In: Communications of the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg , Issue 12, Department 1, 1896
• Bremen. ( Places of Culture , Volume 3), Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig undated [approx. 1910]
• The future of the Bremen Trade Museum , in: Die Güldenkammer, a Bremen monthly , 1, 1910/11, p. 589 ff.
• Guide through the Grand Ducal Painting Gallery in the Augusteum in Oldenburg. The main works of the gallery and accompanying text , Oncken, Oldenburg 1912
• Early works of sculpture and painting of the 15th century , in: Yearbook of the Museum for Art and Cultural History in Lübeck , 1, 1913, pp. 7–24
• Guide to the Museum of Art and Cultural History in Lübeck , 1915
• The triptych of Lübeck councilor Hinrich Kerckring from 1520 in the Museum zu Riga , in: Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 55 / new series 31 (1920), pp. 74–76
• Hamburger Staatsbauten by Fritz Schumacher , 2 volumes, Architekturverlag Der Zirkel, Berlin 1919 and 1921
• History of the Cologne School of Painting , Nöhring, Lübeck 1923
• The W. Clemens Collection , Museum of Decorative Arts of the City of Cologne, Marcan-Block, Cologne 1923
• History of the fine arts in Lübeck , in: Fritz Endres (Hrsg.): History of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Otto Quitzow, Lübeck 1926, pp. 113–170 (reprint Weidlich, Frankfurt 1981, ISBN 3-8035-1120-8 )
• The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne in: Velhagen & Klasings monthly books, 41st year 1926/27, issue 4, December 1926, pp. 353–368
• Julius Wiegand , Hans Joachim Moser , Max Wundt , Karl Schaefer: Deutsche Geistesgeschichte im Grundriß , 1932
• The Lübeck sculptor Claus Berg. In: Der Wagen 1937, pp. 27–43.
• Memories from the years when the museum in St. Anne's Monastery was built , in: Der Wagen 1940, pp. 109–121.

literature

• Hieronymus Braun's prospectus for the city of Nuremberg from 1608 and its forerunners. In: Communications of the Association for the History of the City of Nuremberg , Issue 12, Department 1, 1896
• Bremen. ( Places of Culture , Volume 3), Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig undated [approx. 1910]
• The future of the Bremen Trade Museum , in: Die Güldenkammer, a Bremen monthly , 1, 1910/11, p. 589 ff.
• Guide through the Grand Ducal Painting Gallery in the Augusteum in Oldenburg. The main works of the gallery and accompanying text , Oncken, Oldenburg 1912
• Forgotten masterpieces of Lübeck sculpture from the beginning of the 15th century , 29. – 31. Annual report of the Association of Art Friends in Lübeck, 1912
• Early works of sculpture and painting of the 15th century , in: Yearbook of the Museum for Art and Cultural History in Lübeck , 1, 1913, pp. 7–24
• Museum yearbook 1913

1. Early works of sculpture and painting of the 15th century.
2. Furniture from the Gothic period.
3. Further additions to the collections.

• The importance of Lübeck for the art of the Baltic countries at the end of the Middle Ages. Schleswig-Holstein Art Calendar, 1913
• Guide to the Museum of Art and Cultural History in Lübeck , 1915
• 1916 Museum of Art and Cultural History.

II. Yearbook 1914/15.

1. Lübeck portraits.
2. The jewels of the Queen of Denmark in Lübeck. 1482.
3. Two faience vessels from 1660 from the Lübeck council pharmacy.

• Claus Berg and Lübeck. Yearbook of the Royal Prussian Art Collections, 1917, Book III
• The Lübeck painter Hans Kemmer . A contribution to the history of the Cranach School. Monthly Bulletins for Art Science, Volume X, Book I, 1917
• On the life story of the Lübeck sculptor Claus Berg. Announcements from the Lübeck Association for History and Antiquity, 1918.
• Stockelsdorf faience. in Cicerone, XI. Volume, issue 1/2, 1918/19.
• North German painting. Monthly notebooks for art history - lecture on CG Heise's work on North German painting, 1919,
• The triptych of Lübeck councilor Hinrich Kerckring from 1520 in the Museum zu Riga , in: Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 55 / new series 31, year 1919, pp. 74–76
• New contributions to Hanseatic art history. Presentation, art chronicle, 1919.
• Hamburger Staatsbauten by Fritz Schumacher , 2 volumes, Architekturverlag Der Zirkel, Berlin 1919 and 1921
• History of the Cologne School of Painting , Nöhring, Lübeck 1923
• The W. Clemens Collection , Museum of Decorative Arts of the City of Cologne, Marcan-Block, Cologne 1923
• History of the fine arts in Lübeck , in: Fritz Endres (Hrsg.): History of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Otto Quitzow, Lübeck 1926, pp. 113–170 (reprint Weidlich, Frankfurt 1981, ISBN 3-8035-1120-8 )
• The Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne in: Velhagen & Klasings monthly books, 41st year 1926/27, issue 4, December 1926, pp. 353–368
• Julius Wiegand, Hans Joachim Moser, Karl Schaefer: Deutsche Geistesgeschichte im Grundriß , 1932
• The Lübeck sculptor Claus Berg. In: Der Wagen 1937, pp. 27–43.
• Memories from the years when the museum in St. Anne's Monastery was built , in: Der Wagen 1940, pp. 109–121.

Web links

• portrait

Individual evidence

1. ^ Schaefer's local historical studies from Nuremberg appeared in treatises.
2. ↑ Weekly chronicle from Lübeck and the surrounding area. In: Vaterstädtische Blätter , year 1905, No. 48, issue of November 23, 1905, p. 200.
3. ↑ From 1918 to 1924, his efforts from 1909 were to be realized in the form of the new Focke Museum .
4. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter ; 75th volume, number 51, edition of December 18, 1910, p. 786.
5. ↑ Weekly Chronicle. In: Father-city sheets. Year 1911, No. 15, edition of April 9, 1911, p. 60.
6. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter ; Volume 76, number 47, edition of November 19, 1911, p. 690
7. ^ Association of Art Friends. In: Lübeckische Blätter ; Volume 79, number 4, edition of January 25, 1914, p. 66.
8. ↑ Local Notes. In: Lübeckische Blätter ; Volume 79, number 47, edition of November 22, 1901, p. 761.
9. ↑ On the parting Prof. Dr. Karl Schaefers from the Lübeck Museum Service. in: Lübeckische Blätter , vol. 62, number 14, edition of April 4, 1920, p. 211.
10. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter ; Volume 80, number 46, edition of November 14, 1915, p. 666
11. ^ Society for the promotion of charitable activities. In: Lübeckische Blätter ; Volume 83, number 10, edition of March 10, 1918, p. 114.
12. ↑ Enns 1978, pp. 19. 168-169.
13. ↑ Enns 1978, p. 170.
14. ↑ Enns 1978, p. 55
15. ↑ A war memorial for the Jakobikirche. by Karl Schaefer in: Lübeckische Blätter , vol. 60, number 50, edition of December 15, 1918, pp. 631–632.
16. ↑ Memorial of the Jakobikirche. in: Lübeckische Blätter , 63rd year, number 36, edition of December 4, 1921, p. 498.
17. ↑ Luise Straus
18. ↑ Elisabeth Moses