Oscar Wittenstein

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Oscar Jürgen Wittenstein , also Oskar Jürgen Wittenstein (born September 28, 1880 in Barmen ; † September 3, 1918 in Rudow near Berlin) was a German entrepreneur , art collector and aviation pioneer . He was a co-initiator and founding member of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM) and is also mentioned in the literature on the Blue Rider .

Life

Family and career

The "Villa Wittenstein" in Wuppertal-Unterbarmen

Oscar Wittenstein came from a long-established, wealthy merchant family from Barmen. His father Eduard Gustav Wittenstein (1848–1909) was the owner of the G. Wittenstein-Troost yarn dyeing factory . His mother Klara (née Boelling, 1856–1886) was the daughter of Friedrich Engels ' sister Hedwig. He grew up in the " Villa Wittenstein " in today's Friedrich-Engels-Allee , a representative, two-and-a-half-story building that was built in 1861 by his grandfather Gustav Wittenstein (1805-1883) and expanded by his father in 1899.

After finishing school, Wittenstein attended business school in Lausanne . He then studied chemistry, philosophy and art history at the University of Heidelberg , where he received his doctorate in 1903 . In 1904 he moved to Munich, where he shared an apartment with his friend and extended relative, Adolf Erbslöh . He studied music with Max Reger . As a follower of Goethe , he also attended lectures on philosophy and German literature at Munich University .

Wittenstein married the textile heiress Elisabeth Vollmöller (1887–1957) in May 1918. Their only son Jürgen Wittenstein was born after his father's death, he later joined the “ White Rose ” resistance group . Elisabeth Wittenstein-Vollmöller's sister was the painter Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann , who was married to Hans Purrmann .

Act

In 1909 Wittenstein became one of twenty-one founding members of the New Munich Artists' Association (NKVM). When his friend Erbslöh was elected first chairman of the NKVM in February 1911, “Dr. Oscar Wittenstein, Tonkünstler ”as his deputy. His art collection included the painting Wasserburg am Inn by Alexej von Jawlensky from around 1907 .

In parallel to his musical activities, Wittenstein was trained as a pilot in 1909 by the French aviation pioneers Henri and Maurice. On March 18, 1911, he also passed a pilot's test on a Farman biplane at the Puchheim airfield in the Fürstenfeldbruck district . His “German pilot's license” was issued on April 29, 1911 in Munich and bears the number 81. He was the first person to fly over the city of Munich, he was financially involved in the first association for airship travel. Around 1911, Wittenstein and Adolf Erbslöh founded the Flugzeugwerk Deutschland in Munich and the Luftschiffbau-Gesellschaft Veeh mbH , named after the inventor Paul Veeh from Apolda . In 1910/1911 a three-decker with staggered wings was built, but no flights are known. Also around 1911, a monoplane with a 50 HP Argus engine , two elevators and an uncovered tubular steel fuselage was made, which is said to have flown in 1911. For financial reasons they soon had to give up the company. Wittenstein took part in numerous flight competitions, including with his wife's brother, Hans Robert Vollmöller . So it started in 1911 with the first German flight .

In 1916 Wittenstein in Munich was involved in the construction of the giant R 21/16 aircraft for AEG and was considered an employee of the company. The aircraft, equipped with 4 × 260 hp Daimler engines in the center of the fuselage in two rows side by side and with a wingspan of 36 meters and a length of 19, crashed on September 3, 1918 due to engine damage, with seven people, including the young pilot lieutenant Brückmann as a pilot , the engineer Otto Reichardt (1885–1918) and Oskar Wittenstein met their deaths. His last military rank was lieutenant in the reserve .

From a correspondence between Wittenstein and the then AEG director Walther Rathenau in 1914 it is known that he sent him the typescript of his book On the Power of the Mind or on Human Freedom , which dealt with the reception of Spinoza .

Fonts

  • Extraction and use of empty spaces without an air pump. Inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate in a high degree in natural science-math. Faculty of Heidelberg. Printed by J. Flörning, Heidelberg 1903.
  • From the power of the mind or from human freedom. Strecker & Schröder, Stuttgart 1921. Edited by Constantin Brunner (as an unfinished manuscript from the estate, printed in 200 numbered copies)

literature

  • Bruno Lange: The book of German aviation technology , Volume 1. D. Hoffmann, 1970.
  • George William Haddow, Peter Michael Grosz: The German Giants. The story of the R-planes. 1914-1919. Putnam, 1969, p. 78.
  • Wassily Kandinsky: Our friendship. Memories of Franz Marc. In: Klaus Lankheit: Franz Marc in the judgment of his time. Texts and Perspectives. Cologne 1960.
  • Wolfgang Macke (eds.): August Macke / Franz Marc. Correspondence. Cologne 1964.
  • Annegret Hoberg, Titia Hoffmeister, Karl-Heinz Meißner: Anthology. In: The Blue Rider and the New Image. From the “New Munich Artists' Association” to the “Blue Rider”. (Exhibition catalog) Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1999, p. 27 ff.
  • Annegret Hoberg: "New Artists' Association Munich" and "Blauer Reiter". In: The Blue Rider and the New Image. From the “New Munich Artists' Association” to the “Blue Rider”. (Exhibition catalog) Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1999, p. 13 ff.
  • Antje Birthälmer: Adolf Erbslöh (1881–1947). From expressionism to a new feeling for nature. (Exhibition catalog) From the Heydt Museum Wuppertal, Wuppertal 2000.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, list of dissertations 1903, Oskar Wittenstein
  2. ↑ Oscar's aunt Laura Erbslöh, b. Wittenstein, was the wife of Adolf Erbslöh's uncle Julius Erbslöh.
  3. ^ United Trikotfabrik L. Vollmoeller AG
  4. ^ Annegret Hoberg: New Artists' Association Munich and Blauer Reiter. 1999, p. 39.
  5. ↑ Annegret Hoberg, Titia Hoffmeister, Karl-Heinz Meißner: Anthology. 1999, p. 30 f.
  6. ^ Offer at Sotheby's
  7. ↑ Antje Birthälmer: Adolf Erbslöh (1881–1947). From expressionism to a new feeling for nature. Wuppertal 2000, p. 158.
  8. ↑ Peter Supf: The book of German flight history , Volume 2. Drei Brunnen, 1958.
  9. ↑ Gisela Kleine: Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky, biography of a couple. Frankfurt am Main 1990, p. 729, note 57.
  10. ↑ Antje Birthälmer: Adolf Erbslöh (1881–1947). From expressionism to a new feeling for nature. Wuppertal 2000, p. 159.
  11. ↑ Air Sports , June 28 1911s. 438ff.
  12. ↑ Peter Supf: The book of German flight history , Volume 2. Drei Brunnen, 1958, p. 490, p. 526.
  13. ↑ Alexander Jaser, Clemens Picht, Ernst Schulin (ed.): Walther Rathenau, letters: 1914–1922. Droste, 2006, ISBN 978-3-77001620-4 , p. 1325 ff.
  14. ↑ Jürgen Stenzel: Philosophy as anti-metaphysics: to Constantin Brunner's picture of Spinoza. Volume 10 of the series of publications by the Spinoza Society , Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2002, ISBN 978-3-82602071-1 , p. 407.
personal data
SURNAME Wittenstein, Oscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wittenstein, Oscar Jürgen (full name); Wittenstein, Oskar Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, art collector and aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Barmen
DATE OF DEATH September 3, 1918
Place of death Rudow near Berlin