Werkkunstschule Aachen

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The art school Aachen was originally a drawing and art school founded commercial school in 1927 under its conductor Rudolf Schwarz gained national importance and in 1957 by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry for Werkkunstschule was raised of Aachen.

history

The arts and crafts school was founded in 1904 by the city of Aachen and the Prussian state as a drawing and arts and crafts school and was aimed at craftsmen , graphic artists and interior designers . The founding director was the architect Eberhard Abele . In 1908 a new school building could be moved into on Südstrasse. In 1912 the college consisted of 9 teachers:

Gertrud Weyrather-Engau , the sculptors Lambert Piedboeuf and Gustav Angelo Venth and the then museum director H. Schweitzer had other teaching assignments . Training was given in the areas of construction technology, painting, sculpture, metalworking, lithography, drawing, textile professions and drawing teachers.

Line under black

In 1927, Rudolf Schwarz became the new director of the school - through the recommendation of Romano Guardini and Dominikus Böhm , among others . Under his leadership, it became known far beyond Aachen until its dissolution in 1934. Rudolf Schwarz was able to realize his previously published ideal of a "factory school" at the Aachen School of Applied Arts. He set up specialist departments for architecture, metal processing, painting, sculpture and handicrafts and supplemented them with workshops for u. a. Art blacksmiths, carpentry, monumental painting, tailoring, book printing as well as for goldsmithing, sculpture, architecture and parament embroidery. There was no photography class, but Schwarz was able to win over the photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch to take photographs of the arts and crafts school and numerous sacred buildings. Teachers and assistants for the concept included:

As part of the “Werkschule” or “Werkgemeinschaft” concept, the Aachen School of Applied Arts took part in architecture competitions in which teachers and students were equally involved. The focus was mainly on sacred buildings and their furnishings. This resulted in joint projects such as:

  • House of Youth, Aachen (1928)
  • Heilig-Geistkirche Aachen (1928; only competition)
  • Corpus Christi Church Aachen (1929)
  • Rothenfels Castle Chapel (1929)
  • Social Women's School Aachen (1929)
  • St. Albert Chapel in Kreuzau- Leversbach (1931)
  • Chapel and settler school in Matgendorf (1931; today in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)

Well-known graduates from the time of Rudolf Schwarz are

Hiring and reopening

On April 1, 1934, teaching was discontinued after the number of students had drastically decreased. There is little evidence for the assumption that the National Socialists systematically smashed the school. After the Second World War , the Aachen School of Applied Arts was rebuilt in the 1950s on the initiative of the Aachen painter Carl Schneiders and reopened under the name Aachen Master School . In 1957, when it was recognized as a higher technical school by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Culture, it became the Werkkunstschule of the city of Aachen . From 1951 to 1958 Ernst Günther Grimme gave art history lessons .

In 1971, on the initiative of Hildegard Reitz , the Werkkunstschule merged with the Aachen University of Applied Sciences ( FH Aachen since 2010 ) with its full range of courses as a design department , which is now close to the original location on Boxgraben. On June 19, 2010, the Werk-Kunst-Hof was opened on the site of the former Werkkunstschule .

meaning

With modern-thinking artists, Rudolf Schwarz set new standards in the context of this "public building hut" both in sacred buildings and in their furnishings. After the school was closed, some of the teachers and former students formed loosely organized work groups in the Schwarzer sense and were able to carry on the idea of ​​the arts and crafts school. These included u. a. Fritz Schwerdt and Will Plum with like-minded people in Aachen as well as Anton Wendling , Hans Schwippert and Maria Eulenbruch in Raeren, Belgium . Results from this post-applied arts school phase are:

  • Design and furnishings of the "German St. Michael Altar" in the "Pavillon Catholique Pontifical" of the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 (including Schwippert, Schwerdt, Schickel and Wendling)
  • Equipment of the new seminary in Aachen (including Schwerdt, Schickel, Giesbert and Wendling)

Publications (selection)

  • Rudolf Schwarz (Hrsg.): Crafts and Applied Arts School Aachen. Aachen School of Applied Arts, Aachen undated [around 1928].
  • Anton Schickel: The work of the Aachen School of Applied Arts. In: Die Form - magazine for creative work. 5th year, issue 21/22. Reckendorf, Berlin 1930.
  • Rudolf Schwarz: About the constitution of a factory school. Aachen School of Applied Arts, Aachen 1932.
  • Rudolf Schwarz (Hrsg.): Aachen School of Applied Arts / New cult device. Work classes Wilhelm Giesbert and Anton Schickel. Aachen School of Applied Arts, Aachen 1932.
  • Anton Wendling: Anton Wendling and his class. Aachen School of Applied Arts, Aachen 1932.
  • Hans Schwippert: New household items. Aachen School of Applied Arts, Aachen 1932.

Web links

swell

  • P. Gregor Hexges (Hrsg.): Anno sancto 1933/34 - Furnishing art in the house of God. Bauwelt-Verlag, Berlin 1934.
  • Adam C. Oellers : Mainly sacred art. On the situation of the Werkkunstschule Aachen. In: Klaus Honnef (Ed.): From the rubble. Art and culture in the Rhineland and Westphalia 1945–1952. New beginning and continuity. Rheinland-Verlag, Bonn 1985, ISBN 978-3-7927-0871-2 .
  • Adam C. Oellers and Sylvia Böhmer: Being moderate means organizing sensibly. Rudolf Schwarz and Albert Renger-Patzsch. Museums of the City of Aachen, Aachen 1997, ISBN 3-929203-17-0 .