Liebermann Villa

The Liebermann Villa, 2014

The garden of the Liebermann Villa in summer 2011

Max Liebermann's summer house is known as the Liebermann Villa . It is located in the Berlin district of Wannsee ( Steglitz-Zehlendorf district ), directly on the Großer Wannsee , and has been permanently accessible as a privately run museum since 2006. The museum is run as the Liebermann Villa on Wannsee .

history

Liebermann painting: "The flower terraces in the Wannsee garden to the southwest", 1919

View from the flower garden to the house

Max Liebermann

The painter Max Liebermann (1847–1935) was co-founder and chairman of the Berlin Secession and president of the Prussian Academy of the Arts (1920–1933). He was replaced and ostracized by the National Socialists . Around 200 garden pictures were created in the villa, some of which are on display on the upper floor.

The Villa

In order to be able to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city of Berlin, Max Liebermann acquired an approximately 7260 m² large, narrow water property on the Wannsee in 1909. This was in the area of the Alsen villa colony , which was founded in 1863 by Wilhelm Conrad . On the property at Große Seestraße 24 (from 1933: Am Großen Wannsee 42 ; today: Colomierstraße 3) he had a summer villa built by the architect Paul Otto Baumgarten . "The middle wing of the Godeffroyschen Landhaus - built in 1790 by Christian Frederik Hansen - served as a model for the front, while the back shows similarities to the Roosen and the classicist facade of the Wesselhoeftschen." In 1910, the then 63-year-old successful painter moved into the villa with his family. Liebermann's studio was on the upper floor of the villa; the room has a barrel vault . In the following 25 years he spent the summer months in his "Schloss am See" - far away from his inherited city palace, directly at the Brandenburg Gate .

His immediate neighbors were the publisher Carl Langenscheidt and the AEG director Johann Hamspohn . Opposite was the house of the publisher's founder Ferdinand Springer and not far away lived the surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch .

The garden

He had the large garden stretching towards the lake laid out by Albert Brodersen , who later became the director of Berlin's city gardens, and was advised by Alfred Lichtwark , who was also known as the “garden reformer” and who was then director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle .

The garden is divided by the villa. The central axis of the house and a large lawn area provide an unobstructed view of the Wannsee. There is a garden terrace in front of the house. In front of it there is a lawn that is bordered on the west side by the often picturesquely depicted birch path with its randomly grown trees, on the other side by three hedge gardens. In the rear part of the property is the gardener's house and the perennial and vegetable garden.

Many of the around 250 pictures by the Impressionist that were created here are inspired by the garden and the villa.

The oval hedge garden
rose Garden
Large lawn with a view of the Wannsee, 2008
Newly planted birch trees
Liebermann painting: Birkenweg , 1918

Expropriation and subsequent use

Stumbling block for Martha Liebermann at Pariser Platz 7

In 1940, five years after Liebermann's death, his widow Martha was forced by the National Socialists to sell the villa to the Reichspost at below market value . (An informal letter with the "offer" to sell the villa to the Reichspost and other documents of extortionate exclusion are displayed on the ground floor). The ridiculously low selling price was never paid out to her. From 1944 the villa was used as a hospital .

Martha Liebermann herself committed suicide in 1943 in order not to be deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp . A stumbling block in front of Liebermann's former city villa, today's Max-Liebermann-Haus of the Brandenburg Gate Foundation on Pariser Platz (right next to the Brandenburg Gate ), is a reminder of their fate.

Even after the Second World War , the villa was still used as a hospital until 1969. The heirs in the USA (daughter Käthe Riezler) got the villa back after the war. The State of Berlin acquired the property in 1958 and leased it to a diving club in 1972.

The museum

Emergence

Berlin memorial plaque

It was not until the long-term efforts of the Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft e. V. led to the fact that the villa - after occasional viewing from September 2002 - was opened on April 30, 2006 as the Museum Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee . Although one of the smallest museums in Germany, the entire ensemble including the garden is heavily frequented with around 80,000 visitors a year and a. a recreational destination for the Berlin population.

The renovation, which cost around three million euros, was financed by the Max Liebermann Society and private donations. The renovation in 2004 was subsidized by the German Foundation for Monument Protection . During the restoration, a forgotten wall painting by Liebermann came to light in the loggia. Due to the numerous paintings that captured the garden, the gardens could be reconstructed true to the original. Inside the house, remains of wallpaper and paint gave clues to the original furnishings. The original furniture is no longer available.

structure

ground floor

The ground floor of the Liebermann Villa is used as an entrance and reception area. Here is an information room with media on the life and work of Max Liebermann and his family as well as documentation on the history of the house and the museum. The café is also located on the ground floor. A staircase leads to the upper floor.

First floor

The upper floor was air-conditioned and lit according to museum standards. Originals can therefore only be shown here. In Liebermann's former studio with its distinctive barrel vault, paintings and works on paper by the artist from the museum's possession are shown. The focus of the collection is on Liebermann's works with Wannsee motifs that were created on site. Another focus of the collection is on Max Liebermann's portraits of other artists. Few of the works are owned by the house. The majority are in the collection as permanent loans, including pieces from the Alte Nationalgalerie , with which the Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee cooperates. In the other rooms, up to three temporary exhibitions on various topics are shown each year. Between the temporary exhibitions, all the rooms on the upper floor with works from the collection are hung according to various concepts.

Gardener's house

At the Gärtnerhaus
(museum ticket office and shop)

The museum cash desk and the museum shop are located in the former gardener's cottage.

garden

Like the building itself, the garden of the Liebermann Villa is an “exhibit” of the museum. On the street side is the vegetable and flower garden, on the lake side the decorative garden with lawns, flower beds, hedge areas, birch avenue, an otter sculpture by August Gaul , tea house and landing stage.

team

The Museum Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee works with a few full-time employees and more than 120 voluntary employees who work in the museum shop, cash desk and garden and accompany visitors through the museum as tour guides. The founding director of the Liebermann Villa on Wannsee was Martin Faass , who managed the house from 2006 to 2018. In February 2020, has a doctorate British lawyer and provenance researcher Lucy Wasensteiner over the management of the Liebermann Villa.

Sponsorship

The Liebermann Villa on Wannsee is a private museum. The museum is run by the Max Liebermann Society. V. In 2008 the Max-Liebermann-Gesellschaft e. V. was awarded second place in an EU- related monument protection prize, the Europa Nostra Award, for its great civic engagement . The Liebermann Villa on Wannsee has so far had to do without institutional funding from the public sector. All funds are generated through donations, membership fees and income from admissions, sales and rentals and are raised through sponsorship and third-party funding.

Previous special exhibitions (selection)

London 1938 - With Kandinsky, Liebermann and Nolde against Hitler , 7 October 2018 - 14 January 2019
Max Liebermann and Paul Klee - Pictures of Gardens , June 10th - September 17th, 2018
Liebermann and Van Gogh , April 26 - August 10, 2015
Lost treasure. Max Liebermann's art collection , November 24, 2013 - March 3, 2014
The idea of the house in the country. Max Liebermann am Wannsee , April 25 - August 15, 2010
The Jesus scandal. A Liebermann picture in the crossfire of criticism , November 22, 2009 - March 1, 2010
Martha Liebermann - Pictures of Life , November 25, 2007 - February 25, 2008

Source:

literature

- Alphabetical -

Florian Bolk, Anke Stemmann: Max Liebermann Villa on Wannsee Berlin. (= Die Neue Architekturführer , Nr. 82.) Stadtwandel, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-937123-88-1 , (brochure about the use and opening as a museum).
Marion F. Deshmukh: Max Liebermann: Modern Art and Modern Germany. Routledge, London / New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-4724-3415-9 , limited preview in Google Book search.
Reinald Eckert: An artist's garden - Max Liebermann's country residence on the Großer Wannsee in Berlin . In: Die Gartenkunst 9, 1997, No. 1, pp. 195–212.
Martin Faass, Petra Wandrey (ed.): The idea of the house in the green. Max Liebermann at Wannsee. Max-Liebermann-Veranstaltungs-GmbH, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9811952-4-8 .
Ingo Krüger : Country houses and villas in Berlin & Potsdam. No. 3: Großer Wannsee, Colonie Alsen, Villa Liebermann. Aschenbeck & Holstein, Delmenhorst 2005; 2009, ISBN 978-3-932292-77-4 .
Nina Nedelykov, Pedro Moreira (Ed.): Back at the Wannsee. Max Liebermann's summer house. Transit, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-88747-181-4 .
Birgit Pflugmacher: The correspondence between Alfred Lichtwark and Max Liebermann . Edited and edited with an introduction. by Birgit Pflugmacher (= studies on art history , 146), Georg Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich 2003, ISBN 978-3-487-11775-1 , online file from the University of Hamburg (PDF; 2.8 MB).

Films (selection)

The Liebermann Villa on Wannsee. TV report, Germany, 2019, 4:27 min, script and director: Charlotte Pollex, production: rbb , editing: rbbKultur - Das Magazin , first broadcast: May 18, 2019 on rbb television , film text by rbb, ( memento from 5. September 2019 in the web archive archive.today ), online video from rbb. In conversation with Wolfgang Immenhausen , Chairman of the Liebermann Society

The garden of the Liebermann Villa. TV report, Germany, 2019, 5:33 min, book and director: Anna Tschöpe, production: rbb, editing: rbbKultur - Das Magazin , first broadcast: May 18, 2019 on rbb television , film text by rbb, ( memento from 5. September 2019 in the Internet Archive ), online video by rbb, from 5:45 to 11:18 min

Liebermann Garden in Berlin-Wannsee. Documentary, Germany, 2014, 6:24 min, moderation: Hellmuth Henneberg , production: rbb , series: rbb Gartenzeit , first broadcast: May 25, 2014 on rbb television , synopsis by ARD . Garden tour with Wolfgang Immenhausen, Chairman of the Liebermann Society