Max Littmann

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Max Littmann (1912)

Bernhard Max Littmann (born  January 3, 1862 in Schloßchemnitz (today part of Chemnitz ), †  September 20, 1931 in Munich ) was a German architect . The best known is his Munich Hofbräuhaus , but his most important achievement was the reform of the stage construction .

Life

Max Littmann came as the son of the businessman Johann Bernhard Littmann and his wife Hulda Emilie geb. Heurig to the world.

In Chemnitz , where his father had opened a hardware store, Littmann made an apprenticeship as a bricklayer and was a student at the Chemnitz Business Academy (1878–1882). From 1883 to 1885 he studied architecture in Dresden at the Royal Saxon Polytechnic . In 1885 he moved to Munich, where he met Friedrich Thiersch and Gabriel von Seidl and, after study trips to Italy and Paris, settled down as a freelance architect in 1888.

Wedding photo of Max Littmann and Ida Heilmann (1891)

In 1891 he married Ida Heilmann, the daughter of the building contractor Jakob Heilmann . The couple's two sons died in childhood, as did the three children of Littmann's only daughter Gertrude. From 1891 to 1908 Littmann was a partner in the construction business of his father-in-law Jakob Heilmann, Heilmann & Littmann oHG (later GmbH) with the focus on design. He now emerged primarily through the creation of representative buildings such as theaters, department stores and health resorts and thus complemented himself well with his father-in-law, who specializes in apartment and house construction.

Littmann reformed theater construction; his theaters were less court or state theaters than civil theaters. So he organized the auditorium in an amphitheatrical way, reducing or omitting the boxes in order to give all theater-goers a good view of the stage. In the Hoftheater Weimar (1906/08) he installed a variable proscenium for the first time, which included the possibility of covering or opening the orchestra pit. This enabled a Littmann theater to respond to the various demands of drama and opera. His main work are the court theaters in Stuttgart, a two-house complex that consisted of a large house for the opera (still used today by the Stuttgart State Opera) and a small house for the theater that was destroyed in World War II. Stylistically, Littmann's buildings can be assigned to neoclassicism.

In 1934 Littmann was included in the Encyclopaedia Judaica . However, biographers found no Jewish ancestry. Research in the city ​​archive of Chemnitz shows his ancestors as a Protestant family in Oschatz ( Saxony ) until 1760 . They are said to have belonged to the Protestant minority of Poland in the city of Bojanowo before 1750 . Franz Menges , however, assumes that his father was an assimilated Jew who was baptized Lutheran in the mid-19th century. Littmann himself was therefore not interested in religious questions.

After his death, his estate went to the Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich and the German Theater Museum .

plant

Buildings (selection)

Max littmann roman mayr 1905-1.png
Max littmann roman mayr 1905-2.png
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In his 1905 designs for the Roman Mayr department store in Munich, Littmann experimented not only with various design elements typical of the epoch, but above all with very different concepts for structuring the facade
Opera in Poznan

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Georg Jacob Wolf : engineer J. Heilmann and the construction business Heilmann and Littmann. A look back at forty years of work. Munich 1911.
  • Georg Jacob Wolf: Max Littmann 1862–1931. The life's work of a German architect. Knorr & Hirth, Munich 1931. (digitized version)
  • Wilhelm Wegener: The Reformation of the Schaubühne. A technical and dramaturgical interpretation of the theaters by the Munich architect Max Littmann and their significance for the development of the German stage. Munich 1956 (also dissertation, Munich 1957)
  • Bernd-Peter Schaul: The architect Max Littmann. His contribution to the reform of theater building around 1900. Dissertation. University of Tübingen, Tübingen 1978.
  • Judith Breuer: The former court theater in Stuttgart. Main work of the architect Max Littmann, building history and importance . In: AIT = architecture interior design technical expansion , 92nd year 1984, pp. 18–21.
  • Hans Reuther :  Littmann, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 711 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Franz Menges : Max Littmann (1862–1931), architect. In: Manfred Treml , Wolf Weigand (ed.): History and culture of the Jews in Bavaria. Resumes.
  • Brigitte Reuter: The architect and his house. Architectural houses in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland from 1830 to 1918. VDG, Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-89739-202-X , pp. 131–137. (The ideal house by the architect Max Littmann von Heilmann & Littmann)
  • Cornelia Oelwein: Max Littmann (1862–1931). Architect, building artist, entrepreneur. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-86568-923-8 .

Web links

Commons : Max Littmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Breuer: The former court theater in Stuttgart. 1984, p. 19f
  2. ^ Christian Kaißer, Petra Habelt: Max Littmann , AG Geschichte Kaßberg, Altendorf and Schloßchemnitz
  3. ^ Franz Menges : Max Littmann , in: Manfred Treml , Wolf Weigand (Hrsg.): History and culture of the Jews in Bavaria. Volume II CVs . Munich: Saur, 1988, pp. 203-206.
  4. ^ Architecture Museum of the Technical University of Munich: Max Littmann
  5. ^ Theaterforschung.de: German Theater Museum Munich
  6. ↑ Cornelia Oelwein: The Orlandoblock at Münchner Platzl. History of an architectural monument. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56507-9 .
  7. ↑ Bernd-Peter Schaul: The Prinzregententheater in Munich and the reform of the theater building around 1900. Max Littmann as a theater architect. (Workbooks of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation , Volume 37). Lipp, Munich 1987.
  8. ↑ Christian Hecht: Dispute about the correct modernity. Henry van de Velde, Max Littmann and the new building of the Weimar Court Theater. Circle of Friends and Patrons of the Weimar City Museum, Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-910053-39-4 .
  9. ^ Joseph August Lux: The City Theater in Posen, built by Max Littmann. A memorandum. Werner, Munich 1910.
  10. ^ Judith Breuer : The old opera in Stuttgart in the context of the theater architecture by Max Littmann and the decorative painting by Julius Mössel . (Exhibition by the Württemberg State Theaters in the Small House (Upper Foyer) from May 5 to June 11, 1984.) Stuttgart 1984.
  11. ^ Dorothea Weiss-Vossenkuhl: The opera house in Stuttgart by Max Littmann (1910-1912). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-608-91017-4 .
  12. ↑ Georg Jacob Wolf: The state-municipal spa center Bad Reichenhall, built by architect Max Littmann, Munich. A memorandum. Bruckmann, Munich 1928.
personal data
SURNAME Littmann, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Littmann, Bernhard Max (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz Castle
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1931
Place of death Munich