Ludwig Nieper

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Ludwig Nieper (around 1890)

Ludwig Nieper (born July 12, 1826 in Braunschweig ; † April 2, 1906 in Dresden-Loschwitz ) was a German painter , wood cutter and director of the Royal Academy of Arts and Arts and Crafts School in Leipzig, as well as the founding director of the Leipzig City Trade School .

Career

Nieper studied at the Dresden Art Academy , the specialist painting . During this time in the revolutionary year of 1848 here in Dresden the students and professors of the academy stood up alongside the citizens against oppression and for civil liberties. The academy gained an upturn in the “Vormärz” thanks to reforms and a rejuvenation of the teaching staff, including the architect Gottfried Semper , the sculptor Ernst Rietschel and the landscape painter Ludwig Richter . But after the victory of the Prussian and Saxon military, the counter-revolution reigned and returned the school to sterile academicism. Nieper was also caught up in these developments during his artistic maturation.

On the one hand, his artistic training related to artistry and rules of experience in the service of biblical or national historicism. On the other hand, during these years Nieper experienced the emergence of new types of technology and the associated industrialization , combined with the development of new rational and emotional mental powers. This upheaval influenced both the artistic work of Nieper and his later attitude towards the training of technicians through commercial educational institutions. In particular, he recognized at an early stage the necessary changes to the curricula, which were urgently required by the growing use of machine technology in commercial production.

From 1861 to 1864, Ludwig Nieper, like many artists of the time, went to Rome to get to know the role models for his artistic work directly.

As director of the art academy

Nieper finally became director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig in 1872 . Originally, this educational institution was opened as an academy for painting (drawing academy) in 1764 in the Leipziger Amtshaus by its founding director Adam Friedrich Oeser . Coming from Dresden, he worked in Leipzig from 1759, became the first director of the new Leipzig drawing academy and held this office for 35 years until his death in 1799.

From 1765 to 1768 Oeser's pupils included the student Johann Wolfgang Goethe , for whom the friendly relationship with the teacher and his family was to be formative. Goethe became friends with Oeser's daughter Friederike Elisabeth (1748–1829) since 1765, and Oeser himself remained in contact with Goethe for life.

In 1872 Nieper was appointed director of this academy, taking over from Gustav Jäger , who was director here from 1847 to 1871. During its historical development, the academy changed its name several times; around 1835 it was renamed the Academy of Fine Arts . From 1876 Nieper headed the facility under the name of the Royal Academy of Arts and Arts and Crafts School in Leipzig .

Nieper first reorganized the academy's departments. In 1893 he set up a new department for photographic reproduction processes , which contributed to another focus of the academy. As a result, Nieper closed the department for architectural arts and crafts in 1894 and the department for sculpture in 1896 . Since 1897, however, the well-known sculptor, painter and graphic artist Max Klinger worked as a professor at the academy.

With the end of Nieper's directorate in 1901, the Leipzig Academy was transformed into the Royal Academy for the Graphic Arts and Book Industry. His successor as rector was Max Seliger , who continued this office from 1901 to 1920.

The academy developed steadily over the long term, so that in 1938 286 students were enrolled here. This made it the third largest art college in the German Empire after Vienna and Berlin.

After the Second World War , the facility was reopened as the Leipzig School of Graphics and Book Art (HGB) in 1947.

Even after the fall of the Wall and the peaceful revolution in the GDR , the Saxon University Structure Act of April 10, 1992 confirmed the tradition-steeped University of Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig. Among art critics worldwide, the HGB is one of the most important German art schools for painting and graphics. It is still located in the traditional school building at Wächterstrasse 11 , which was built under the direction of Ludwig Nieper and which his art academy moved into for the first time.

As the founding director of the trade school

The academy director Ludwig Nieper founded the “Städtische Gewerbeschule zu Leipzig” in 1875. He was convinced that as a result of the changes brought about by industrial machine production, apprenticeship training could no longer be left to the workshops and factories alone. He considered a higher theoretical technical education of the apprentices to be necessary.

Under the direction of Nieper, the first organizational plan of the municipal trade school was developed, according to which a one-year day course with 36 hours per week and two subsequent evening courses (semesters) with 14 hours per week each were completed. Prerequisites for admission to the vocational school were a primary school diploma and a passed entrance examination. In 1875, lessons began with 25 day students and 70 evening students in a building on Lessingstrasse. Due to a lack of space, they soon moved to the community school on Johannisplatz and finally, in 1891, under the directorate of Nieper, to the already completed east wing of the new building at Wächterstrasse 13, right next to the art academy at Wächterstrasse 11, which was also newly built by Ludwig Nieper.

For Leipzig, the trade school is the historical root for technical and scientific training in the two new fields of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering . This vocational school, in conjunction with extensive workshops, offered technical lessons supported by practical craftsmanship. A newly built structure in Wächterstrasse 13, right next to the academy building, was completed in 1894 especially for these needs and included its own machine shop. This building later became the headquarters of the Leipzig University of Engineering (IHL), a root of what would later become the TH Leipzig (THL).

In addition to its intellectual roots, the TH Leipzig also has several institutional roots, such as the "Drawing, Mahlerey and Architecture Academie zu Leipzig", founded over 250 years ago in 1764 by the painter Adam Friedrich Oeser (he painted the Nikolaikirche in the current form), the " Royal Saxon Building Trade School Leipzig" founded in 1838 , the "Municipal Trade School in Leipzig" (founded in 1875 by Ludwig Nieper) and the "Technical School for Library Technology and Administration Leipzig" (founded 1914).

During Ludwig Nieper's directorate, August Föppl was one of the important teachers of this new trade school from 1877 to 1892, who was finally appointed to the University of Leipzig , from here to the TH Munich in 1894 and continued to work there very successfully. Already in Leipzig he made an outstanding contribution to the theoretical penetration of technical processes. His textbook "Lectures on Technical Mechanics" was published in six volumes from 1898 to 1910 in Leipzig. We owe to him the closed vector-analytical representation of the theory of electricity ( Maxwell's equations ).

Leipzig, Wächterstraße 11 (back: University of Graphics and Book Art ) and Wächterstraße 13 (front: University of Technology, Business and Culture , Wiener-Bau )

Nieper was therefore able to state in his first statement of accounts from 1878: "The purpose of the trade school is to raise the level of trade by teaching in general scientific, and especially in those technical subjects within which thorough training is particularly necessary for the trade."

As director of the art academy, which had also devoted itself particularly to the book trade, Nieper took care of the foresight in 1890 for the establishment of a photo department as a rational and technical side for the visual arts. Just 3 years later, he developed a photomechanical institute from this, which helped reproduction technology achieve its breakthrough in the graphic arts industry. Since 1940, forty years after Nieper resigned as director of the art academy, the "Institute for Color Photography" has made significant contributions to the development of this technology by testing new photographic materials.

The academy and trade school had their headquarters together for many years in the so-called academy wing of the Pleißenburg (today the New Town Hall ), changed from 1886 to 1890 to the Old Nikolaischule and then to the New Academy building at Wächterstraße 11 (today the College of Graphics and Book Art HGB, right next to it the former main building of the Leipzig IHL engineering college, the former section building of the TH Leipzig and today's Viennese building of the HTWK Leipzig at Wächterstraße 13). In the same or adjacent classrooms, the teachers from both schools worked to the benefit of both parties.

In 1893, the personal union in the management of the art academy and the trade school was dissolved, and the architect Paul Schuster took over the directorate of the trade school, while Nieper continued as director of the academy until 1901. This took better account of the increasing industrial development of Leipzig, especially in the fields of machine and electronics industries. Despite the contradictions in his dual function, Nieper had tried to adapt commercial education to the requirements of his time as best as possible, but was overtaken by the rapid technical-industrial development in the early years.

Ludwig Nieper retired to Dresden-Loschwitz when he was old and died there on April 2, 1906 at the age of almost 80.

Nieper adoration

Leipzig, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 132, former headquarters of the University of Civil Engineering and the Technical University of Leipzig , today HTWK headquarters as Geutebrück building, in whose axis the Nieper building was built in 2014

The painter and wood cutter Ludwig Nieper is now particularly well known to art historians, and some of his portraits can be found in Leipzig museums. In the Friedenskirche in Leipzig-Gohlis there are still the choir windows that he created. The founding rector of the Leipzig University of Technology, Economics and Culture, Klaus Steinbock, has erected a memorial for him with a portrait, which is in the technical gallery of the HTWK. The oil painting was created by the Dresden artist Klaus H. Zürner . It shows Nieper as an artist doing a woodcut and at the same time uses a plate camera to symbolize his services to reproduction technology. The reference to Nieper's place of work is established through the view from the window of the building Wächterstrasse 13 (Wiener-Bau) used today by the HTWK , which was rebuilt during his directorate for the trade school and moved into in 1891 in the already completed east wing.

The HTWK Leipzig also honors Ludwig Nieper as one of its ancestors by choosing him as the namesake for the Nieper building, which was built in 2013/2014 and inaugurated in 2015, in the extension axis of its main building at Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 132 and thus set a permanent monument to him.

Publications (selection)

  • Ludwig Nieper; Anton Springer: The Royal Art Academy and School of Applied Arts in Leipzig. Festschrift and official report. With a scientific treatise on "the tasks of the graphic arts" by Anton Springer. Printing: Leipzig: Drugulin 1890.
  • Ludwig Nieper: Illustrations. In: Albrecht Gerstell: Pictures from the dream world. Leipzig: JJ Weber 1852.

literature

  • Lothar Hiersemann: Jacob Leupold - a pioneer of technical education in Leipzig (a contribution to the prehistory of the Technical University of Leipzig). Scientific reports of the Technical University, No. 17, Leipzig 1982, ISSN  0138-3809 .
  • Lothar Hirsemann: The development of electrical engineering in Leipzig up to the subject at the municipal trade school. Scientific reports of the Technical University, Volume 3, Leipzig 1988, ISSN  0138-3809 .
  • Lothar Hirsemann: On the history of civil engineering education in Leipzig and its importance for civil engineering training at the Technical University of Leipzig. Scientific reports from the Technical University, No. 4, Leipzig 1988, ISSN  0138-3809 .
  • Uta Schnabel: The architecture department at the Leipzig Art Academy from 1764 to 1838. Scientific reports from the Technical University, Issue 4, Leipzig 1988, ISSN  0138-3809 .
  • Helmut Gast: On the history of the technical educational institutions in Leipzig. Colloquium "On the historical development of technical sciences and technical education in Leipzig" on October 27, 1988. Scientific reports of the Technical University, No. 12, Leipzig 1989.
  • Author collective of the THL, management and overall editing Norbert Kammler, Helmut Gast: Technical education in Leipzig - from the beginnings to the present. Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1989.
  • Lothar Hiersemann: The development of automation technology from ancient Greece to the invention of the hand wheel clock in the 10th century. Contributions to the history of technology and technical education, volume 2. Technische Hochschule, Leipzig 1991.
  • Werner Kriesel , Hans Rohr, Andreas Koch: History and future of measurement and automation technology. VDI-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1995, ISBN 3-18-150047-X .
  • Hubertus Milke , Kerstin Hebestreit, Timo Kretschmer (ed. And overall editor): 50 years of building colleges in Leipzig. HTWK, Faculty of Construction, Leipzig 2004.
  • Lothar Hiersemann: Ludwig Nieper - painter, wood cutter and first director of the Leipzig City Trade School. In: University of Technology, Economics and Culture Leipzig. The rector Hubertus Milke (ed.): Leipziger technician portraits. Printing and binding Gebr. Klingenberg Buchkunst Leipzig 2007.
  • Klaus Holschemacher (eds.), Kerstin Hebestreit, Timo Kretschmer, Johanna Panse, Bernd Reichelt (ed.): Festschrift 175 years of architecture from Leipzig. HTWK, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Leipzig 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kristina Gräfe: Adam Friedrich Oeser and the establishment of the art academy in Leipzig. In: Topfstedt, Thomas; Zwahr, Hartmut (Ed.): Leipzig around 1800. Contributions to social and cultural history. Beucha: Sax-Verlag, 1998, pp. 127-142.
  2. ↑ Lothar Hiersemann: Ludwig Nieper - painter, wood cutter and first director of the Leipzig municipal trade school. In: University of Technology, Economics and Culture Leipzig. The rector Hubertus Milke (ed.): Leipziger technician portraits. Printing and binding Gebr. Klingenberg Buchkunst Leipzig 2007, p. 174.
  3. ↑ Lothar Hiersemann: Ludwig Nieper - painter, wood cutter and first director of the Leipzig municipal trade school. In: University of Technology, Economics and Culture Leipzig. The rector Hubertus Milke (ed.): Leipziger technician portraits. Printing and binding Gebr. Klingenberg Buchkunst Leipzig 2007, p. 177.
personal data
SURNAME Nieper, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and wood cutter, director of the art academy and the Leipzig trade school
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1906
Place of death Dresden-Loschwitz