Max Benirschke

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Maximilian August Benirschke (born May 7, 1880 in Vienna ; † September 28, 1961 in Düsseldorf ) was an Austrian architect , craftsman , illustrator , university teacher and anthroposophist .

Life

Benirschke grew up close to nature on the family farm in Moravia ( Cisleithania , Austria-Hungary ). His parents were Willibald Benirschke (1837–1897) and his wife Theresia (1845–1931), daughter of the estate manager Josef Englisch from Mährisch Schönberg . Benirschke's parents had settled there with their many children after their father, "Bureau-Boss" of the kk Staatsbahnen in Vienna, had retired. An older brother of Max Benirschke was Karl Johann Benirschke (1875–1941), who also became an architect.

After high school, Benirschke first attended a weaving class in Mährisch Schönberg from 1895 to 1897. At the age of 18 he went to the Vienna School of Applied Arts , where his teachers included Alfred Roller , Willibald Schulmeister and Josef Hoffmann . Thanks to his zeal and talent, he became one of Hoffmann's favorite students. Benirschke received grants for study trips. His works, especially interior design designs, have been published in magazines, for example in the secessionist magazine Ver Sacrum from Vienna and in the Munich periodical Die Kunst . He was also able to set up his own studio . Among other things, Benirschke designed Art Nouveau patterns for carpets, upholstery fabrics and wallpapers for the company Joh.Backhausen & Söhne at that time . These patterns were inspired by nature photographs by Martin Gerlach . One of the first building contracts was the renovation of the “Bründlhaus” of the Teutschmann family in Kirchschlag near Linz .

When the German architect Peter Behrens came to Vienna in 1903 and was looking for teachers for the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts , Hoffmann recommended his favorite student. Benirschke got a job as an arts and crafts teacher. In addition to Behrens, Josef Bruckmüller (1880–1932), Rudolf Bosselt , Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke and Johannes Ludovicus Mathieu Lauweriks , he gave the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts new impetus. Bernischke's special task there was to teach preparatory class B and the class for architectural drawing. Outside of his teaching post, he designed patterns for Linkrusta , furniture and jewelry, designed art exhibitions and built churches, community and residential buildings. When the Kunstgewerbeschule was dissolved, which took place at the end of the 1918/1919 school year, Benirschke was not taken over into the architecture department of the Düsseldorf Art Academy like other teacher colleagues . After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1934, his teaching and building permits were withdrawn .

On November 30, 1904, Benirschke met the publicist and esotericist Rudolf Steiner when he was giving a lecture in Düsseldorf. Impressed by his teaching, theosophy , he joined a corresponding working group and attended all of Steiner's lectures that took place near Düsseldorf. The architect Bernhard Weyrather , who worked in Benirschke's Düsseldorf architectural office, also came into contact with Steiner's apprenticeship. From then on, this influenced the architecture of both. On August 28, 1913, Benirschke took part in the very first eurythmy performance in Munich . The demonstration had previously been practiced under the direction of Lory Smits at Haus Meer in Büderich near Düsseldorf and coordinated with Steiner. Steiner's concepts also supported Benirschke organizationally, from 1919 to 1928 as branch leader (as successor to Lory Smits' mother, Clara Smits), in 1919 as local group leader of the threefolding work in Düsseldorf. In addition to the "Zweighaus", which was opened in Düsseldorf- Flingern in 1920/1921 , he built a eurythmy room with a skylight.

After the Second World War, in 1946, Benirschke began to build up anthroposophical work in the British occupation zone , from May 1947 in a management position together with Carl Brestowsky (1896–1974), Josef Deibele and others. Benirschke gave numerous lectures, courses and led working groups. In 1948, the artist Joseph Beuys came into contact with anthroposophy in one of these working groups , which broadened the concept of art . Soon Benirschke became a member of the group of representatives of the German national society of the Anthroposophical Society . As a first-class lecturer, he taught at the School of Spiritual Science . Benirschke remained connected to the work of the anthroposophical movement throughout his life.

In 1964 the Free University of Humanities organized a Benirschke commemorative exhibition : his plans and designs were exhibited in the Blue Hall of the Goetheanum , for example for train stations and aircraft hangars, as well as studies on the metamorphosis of forms and other things.

Works (selection)

Tower facade of the Lukaskirche Cologne-Porz

buildings

  • 1905: Veranda of the Villa Teutschmann in Kirchschlag near Linz
  • 1909: Facade of the municipal orphanage and poor house in Bocholt
  • 1912: Design for the Dr. Dreher in Düsseldorf- Pempelfort , Alt-Pempelfort 7 (not preserved)
  • 1912–1913: Haarzopf Evangelical Church with rectory in Essen - Haarzopf , Raadter Straße 79 (with design of the colored glazing) (under monument protection)
  • 1914–1927: Evangelical St. Luke Church in Cologne-Porz, Mühlenstrasse
  • 1920/1921: Eurythmy room in the garden of the house at Ackerstraße 92 in Düsseldorf- Flingern
  • 1928: Villa Horzeyschy in Linz (Danube), Roseggerstraße 11

Fonts

  • Book decorations and surface patterns . In: Martin Gerlach (Ed.): Die Quelle , Volume II, Verlag Martin Gerlach, Vienna and Leipzig 1900
  • Art and technology - from one letter . In: Messages from the anthroposophical work in Germany , Michaelmas 1960, p. 157 f.

Illustrations and book decorations

  • Joseph August Lux : The modern apartment and its equipment . Vienna / Leipzig 1904 (five color plates, several illustrations)

template

literature

  • Joseph August Lux : Max Benirschke . In: The art. Monthly books for free and applied arts . Eight volume, F. Bruckmann publishing house, Munich 1903, p. 471 ( digitized version ).
  • Kathrin Nessel: The separated piece of the world: studies on the work of Max Bernischke (1880–1961). Spatial art, church building and anthroposophy in the early 20th century . Dissertation Free University of Berlin, Berlin 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jindřich Vybíral: Young Masters. Architects from Otto Wagner's school in Moravia and Silesia. (= Ars Viva , Volume 11.) Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77573-7 , p. 100 ff. ( Limited preview on Google Books )
  2. ↑ Michael Ortner: Geometry of Nature . Article from April 20, 2014 in the derstandart.at portal , accessed on December 5, 2015
  3. ^ Wilhelm Schäfer : The new arts and crafts school in Düsseldorf . In: Die Rheinlande , issue 1 (October 1903), p. 63. ( digitized version )
  4. ↑ John V. Makiuika: Before the Bauhaus. Architecture, Politics and the German State, 1890–1920 . Cambridge University Press, New York City 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-79004-8 , p. 121. ( Google Books )
  5. ^ Stanford Anderson: Peter Behrens and a New Architecture for the Twentieth Century . MIT Press (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Cambridge (Massachusetts) 2000, ISBN 0-262-01176-X , p. 281, footnote 18. ( Google Books )
  6. ↑ 1907/1908: Design of a showcase cabinet, in: Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (Ed.): Düsseldorf. A big city on the way to the modern age. (= The West German impulse 1900–1914. Art and environmental design in the industrial area. ) (Exhibition catalog) Düsseldorf 1984, p. 67, fig. 75.
  7. ^ Collier, around 1908 , data sheet in the emuseum.duesseldorf.de portal , accessed on December 4, 2015
  8. ^ Holger Rescher: brick architecture of the 1920s in Düsseldorf . Dissertation, Rheinische Friedrichs-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn 2001, p. 47. ( PDF )
  9. ^ Kathrin Nessel: The building projects of Max Benirschke (1880–1961) in Bocholt . In: Unser Bocholt , issue 3/1998, pp. 15-23
  10. ↑ Dr. Dreher, Alt Pempelfort No. 7 , data sheet in the emuseum.duesseldorf.de portal , accessed on December 4, 2015
  11. ↑ Haarzopf: Church on Raadter Straße is a listed building , website in the portal www1.ekir.de , accessed on December 4, 2015
  12. ↑ a b Werner Franzen: Places of worship in change. Protestant church building in the Rhineland 1860–1914. Dissertation, Gerhard Mercator University Duisburg, 2002,
    Part IV ( Figures for the directory of new Protestant church buildings in the Rhineland 1860–1914 (1927) ) ,
    No. 234 Evangelical Church Essen-Haarzopf, Figures 456 and 457 (PDF page 34),
    No. 251 Lukaskirche Cologne-Porz, figures 491 and 492 (PDF page 51).
  13. ↑ Colored glazing in the Evang. Church of Haarzopf on the website of the Research Center for Glass Painting of the 20th Century , accessed on December 5, 2015
  14. ↑ Nadine Carstens: Evangelical St. Luke Church. Reinforced concrete for the Art Nouveau. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from May 14, 2014, accessed on December 4, 2015
  15. ↑ Entry on Evangelical Lukaskirche Porz in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on August 3, 2017.
  16. ↑ Manfred Helbig: Zweiggeschichte (October 2004) , website in the portal michaelzweig.wordpress.com , accessed on December 4, 2015
  17. ↑ The source , website in the graphicarts.princeton.edu portal , accessed on December 5, 2015
  18. ↑ Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde. Rare Books and Documents. Catalog 140 . Ars Libri Ltd., Boston / Massachusetts, p. 37 ( PDF )
personal data
SURNAME Benirschke, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benirschke, Maximilian August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian architect, craftsman, illustrator, university lecturer and anthroposophist
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1961
Place of death Dusseldorf