Leonids (Association)

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Carl Seffner, Hans Zeißig: Leonidentafel , 1919. Commemorative plaque for Edwin Bormann and Georg Bötticher on the occasion of the ten-year existence of the Society of Leonids they founded
Bruno Héroux: Menu for the Leonid Festival 1930

The Leoniden was the name of a sociable association that was founded by artists, scientists and interested citizens in Leipzig in 1909 .

history

founding

When the Stalactite Association , in which the Leipzig Friends of the Fine Arts and Sciences had come together for social intercourse for 15 years, dissolved in the winter of 1908 , the former members Georg Bötticher , Edwin Bormann , Arthur von Oettingen and Bruno Héroux decided , Adolf Lehnert , the Leipzig doctor Ernst Eggebrecht and James Derham to set up a new association with similar goals. It should be composed of artists, men of the learned world and friends of art and science .

They formed the so-called seven-man committee , which was mainly intended to recruit like-minded people for the club's work. On March 3, 1909, the constituent meeting, consisting of 12 former stalactites and 30 newly acquired members, took place in the Berg wine restaurant on Ritterstrasse. Each Wednesday evening, the meetings took place in various Leipzig locations and from 1934 exclusively in the Leipziger Künstlerhaus , where the club room, in which all books, certificates, gifts and the handwritten chronicle were now kept, in honor of the deceased old master Carl Seffner in the Seffnerstube was named. The regular weekly meetings were combined with the wish that the members get to know each other well and that they use spiritual stimulation to raise the conversation above the level of everyday chatter .

On May 24, 1909, at the suggestion of Arthur von Oettingen, the unanimous decision was made to name the new association after the shooting star swarm Leonids . In a poem about naming it says: The name says that you know that it is forever incomprehensible to the Philistines , philistines and brothers and sisters.

The association initially had neither a statute nor a board. The number of members was limited to 40. But it was possible that guests and friends took part in the events. A small membership fee was only charged in later years, which made the office of cashier necessary. However, voluntary donations or gifts from members and friends were part of the good tradition.

Leonid Festival

Since the Leonids appear as a heavenly phenomenon in November, the association celebrated its Leonidenfest every year in this month in the then well-known artist's hermitage Simmers Weinstube in Petersstrasse . Our artists and poets should show what they can give to their colleagues and their guests. The festival was prepared and directed by an informally elected speaker who remained in office . On the occasion of the first annual festival on November 13, 1909, each member was awarded a Leonid plaque made by the sculptor Hans Zeißig (1863–1944). On this occasion, Edwin Bormann read the approval rules for Leonids and those who want to become one . In his celebratory lecture Shakespeare and his relationship to the Leonids , Bormann made the humorous claim that William Shakespeare's prophetic spirit already knew all Leonids.

Every Leonid appeared at the festival in robes, around their heads they wore an ivy wreath with a rose. One talked to one another as Master . The spokesman reported on special incidents among the members, awards, promotions or family events. Special thought was given to the deceased members. Candidates for admission were presented to the Leonids in detail by an advocate in order to be unanimously elected as new members. The highlight of the Leonid Festival was the handing over of the festive gifts to the members: artistically designed menus, lyrics, poems, compositions, books in elegant furnishings with original graphics of the members or plaques.

During the First World War , the celebration of the Leonid Festival was waived.

During the Third Reich , the Leonids came under suspicion of being a lie-like association. However, the impending dissolution could be averted. Political debates were taboo in order to avoid any misunderstanding. The sense of humor that we have always cultivated also reconciled opposing views. One of our last table songs, which ironized the struggle against degenerate art, would hardly have met with approval from the regiment of the time , Heinrich Siber described the atmosphere under the Leonids during the National Socialist era in 1947 . The Leonidenfest was celebrated in the Künstlerhaus until 1940. The artist's house and the Seffnerstube were destroyed by the bombing on December 4, 1943.

The Association of Friends and Scholars, which was reserved exclusively for men until Arthur von Öttingen's death, continued to exist until 1950.

Leonid table

On the occasion of their tenth anniversary in 1919, the Leonids dedicated a memorial plaque designed by Carl Seffner and Hans Zeißig to their two deceased founders, Georg Bötticher and Edwin Bormann, which is still located at the rear entrance of Leipzig's Old Town Hall on Naschmarkt . The portrait of Georg Bötticher was created by Carl Seffner, the relief by Edwin Bormann was modeled by Hans Zeißig. Hans Zeißig designed the table itself. It bears the text: The memory of two Leipzig poets who, with cheerful words and familiar sounds, set a delicious memorial to their homeland love, dedicate this simple panel in difficult times. The Leonids. Nov. 1918 .

Testimonies

Germanic monument

In addition to the memorial plaque on the old town hall, medalists Hans Zeißig, Bruno Eyermann and Carl Seffner designed Leonid plaques for the members. Until the Second World War , each member was given a silver Leonid plaque on their 60th birthday. In 1924, the engineer Bernhard Ahlfeld and the landlord of Simmerns Weinstube , Hans Schmidt, gave the Leonids a bronze vessel designed by Bruno Eyermann as a table symbol for Wednesday evening meetings. At the annual festival of the association, publications were published regularly containing numerous original contributions by the members in words and pictures. Most of them were private prints that never went on sale.

A Germanic monument that was ceremoniously unveiled in front of the New Town Hall by Carl Seffner and Richard Tschammer on the occasion of Otto von Bismarck's 100th birthday on April 1, 1915, could not be made in bronze due to a lack of financial resources. It stood there for about 14 days, then the model disappeared from the perspective of the people of Leipzig.

Members (selection)

Fonts (selection)

  • Edwin Bormann: Shakespeare and his relations with the Leonids. Lecture for the annual festival of the Leonids, Leipzig, November 13, 1909. Artistic equipment by Bruno Héroux , Hesse & Becker, Leipzig 1909
  • Felix Hübel, Bruno Héroux (Ill.): The wolves. Printed material for the Leonids , Leipzig 1920
  • Felix Hübel, Hans Domizlaff (Ill.): Pastel. Printed for the Leonids , Kurt Säuberlich, Leipzig 1921
  • Sway from the Nile. BD Fellah. Dedicated to the Leonids for the annual festival , Leipzig 1927
  • Max Mendheim, Bruno Héroux (Ill.): Rhyming and inconsistent. Printed for the Leonids for the annual festival 1928 , Borna, Leipzig 1928
  • Pantheon Leonidarum: The latest list of members of the gentlemen Leonids in 41 literary silhouettes. Good, less good u. naughty rhymes by Hans Haas , Borna, Leipzig 1928
  • Hans Haas: Night army show. Pictures from the world of stars for the presentation of the Leonids at the Jahrthing 1929 , Leipzig 1929
  • Twenty years of Leonids. A memory book in songs for the members and guests of the society "The Leonids" in Leipzig , O. Brandstetter, Leipzig 1929
  • Song texts for the annual festivals of the Leonids in Leipzig. Leipzig 1909–1930 , Leipzig 1930
  • Bruno Héroux: ups and downs. Dedicated to the participants of the Leonidenfest 1930 , Leipzig 1930
  • Bruno Héroux: Tasty items in artificial clothing and reflections from my garden. Printed for the Leonids for the annual festival in 1933 , Leipzig 1933
  • Hans Haas: A basket of windfalls. More and less serious things. Poems for the Leonidenfest November 1934 , Leipzig 1934
  • Bruno Héroux: All kinds of contemplative things from the garden, forest and field. Printed for the Leonidenfest in Leipzig in 1935, Leipzig 1935
  • Eugen Mogk: 25 years of the Leonids. For the 25th anniversary of the Leonid Monastery Festival as a donation from P. Schmutzler , Leipzig 1935

literature

  • Angelika Wilhelm: The humor poet Georg Bötticher and the Leonids in Leipzig , in: Meisterhaft-Musterhaft. Georg Bötticher - the almost forgotten artist and father of Joachim Ringelnatz , catalog of the exhibition for the 1050th anniversary of the city of Wurzen, Städtische Galerie am Markt, May 15 to September 18, 2011, Wurzen 2011
  • Walter Pape: Joachim Ringelnatz. Parody and self-parody in life and work. With a Joachim Ringelnatz bibliography and a list of his letters , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1974, p. 19f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eugen Mogk: 25 years Leoniden , p. 4
  2. ↑ First they met in the Berg restaurant , from 1912 they had a regulars table in the Ratskeller , from 1914–1918 they met in the theater restaurant , and from 1920 in a separate room in the Mauricianum university building .
  3. ↑ Mogk: 25 years of Leonids , p. 7
  4. ↑ Quoted from: Heinz Mielke: Geschichtliches von den Leoniden
  5. ↑ Mogk: 25 Years of Leonids , p. 5
  6. ↑ Georg Bötticher held the office of spokesman until 1918, followed by Rudolf Bewer, and in 1930 Heinrich Siber took his place.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Angelika Wilhelm: The humor poet Georg Bötticher and the Leonids in Leipzig
  8. ↑ This brown patinated bronze bowl with a foot and heavy bronze lid, which has been lost since the end of the Second World War and is crowned by a naked female figure sitting on an enthroned lion, the one bowl in the right, protruding one on the lion's head hand, was offered for sale by a Leipzig dealer on eBay in May 2015 . The auction was ended prematurely on the grounds that there was an error in the offer .
  9. ^ Mogk: 25 years of the Leonids , p. 14
  10. ↑ (1859–1929), lawyer, 1902–1929 deputy chairman of the Gewandhauskonzert directorate , chairman of the Bach Society, close friend of Max Reger
  11. ↑ Actor and director at the Leipzig City Theater
  12. ↑ (1844–1927), Belgian consul general in Leipzig
  13. ^ Ottmar Dittrich in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
  14. ↑ Dr. med., general practitioner, father of Axel Eggebrecht , one of his patients was the young Hans Fallada
  15. ↑ (1851–1918), publisher and commission bookseller
  16. ↑ (born January 18, 1876), musician (viola), 1904–1941 in the Gewandhaus Quartet; 1918–1945 teacher at the conservatory, honorary member of the Gewandhaus orchestra
  17. ↑ (1883–1950), resident in Leipzig since 1907, tobacco merchant, Swedish consul general in Leipzig, president of the International Fur Association and honorary senator of the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences
  18. ↑ (1867–1942), actor and director, in Leipzig since 1897
  19. ↑ (1898–1971), painter, graphic artist, etcher, typesetter, art teacher in Leipzig and Dresden
  20. ↑ (1864–1957), painter and graphic artist
  21. ↑ (1851–1931), painter and graphic artist
  22. ↑ singing teacher, composer and music writer; Author of the biography of the Norwegian composer Johan Peter Selmer
  23. ↑ (* May 31, 1870), Leipzig merchant, owner of Specks Hof
  24. ^ Martin Seydel in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
  25. ↑ (1881–1950) musicologist and composer (including the operettas: Die Königin vom Naschmarkt and Der Glücksstern ), taught Italian language and music theory at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1923 until his death in 1950 , where his estate is now also located.
  26. ↑ (1856-1911), music writer
  27. ↑ (1875–1948), composer, professor at the Leipzig Conservatory
  28. ↑ (1878–1939), Leipzig painter, graphic artist, teacher, son of Gustav Wustmann , pupil of Heinrich Knirr and Carl von Marr , held the office of first chairman of the Leipzig Art Association