Oskar Seyffert (folklorist)

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Oskar Seyffert (born February 19, 1862 in Dresden ; † February 22, 1940 ibid) was a German painter , illustrator , folklorist and professor at the Royal School of Applied Arts in Dresden .

Child portrait of Oskars Seyffert's mother Agnes

Life

Oskar Seyffert was born as the son of a grocer from Bernstadt auf dem Eigen and the daughter of a well-known Dresden master butcher in the inner Dresden Neustadt . He attended the fourth Dresden citizen school, the Dreikönigschule and the applied arts school, where he studied theater painting with Ermenegildo Antonio Donadini, among others . Seyffert saw his own talent in drawing rather than painting. So he later became professor for decorative drawing at the Dresden School of Applied Arts .

Seyffert had a son, who on 18 July 1918 as a battery commander of the 4th Field Artillery Regiment 48 in. World War I died.

Oskar Seyffert was buried in 1940 in the Tolkewitz urn grove in Dresden.

Act

Oskar Seyffert was best known for his extensive work in researching the Saxon homeland. In his capacity as a folklorist , he traveled to the Saxon villages and cities and wrote down his impressions, observations and stories. In his work Aus Dorf und Stadt , Seyffert expresses himself in the following words:

“Searching and finding makes you happier than finding it. And the […] stories speak of that time. [...] They are perhaps more valuable through time than through their content, because the customs and traditions, of which some report, have changed or have died out, and some popular things now have to be laboriously searched for in archives, in libraries and museums before happily in life it was green and blooming. And if it weren't to be found in museums, we would have no idea of ​​the wealth of days gone by. "

He participated with drawings in the exhibition of Saxon handicrafts and applied arts in 1896 .

On February 14, 1897, together with Karl Schmidt and Eugen Mogk, he founded the Association for Saxon Folklore . During his hikes he found many old pieces worth preserving. His "first acquisition" was a cradle.

Jägerhof Dresden

In 1908, Seyffert founded the Saxon Heritage Protection Association with senior building officer Karl Schmidt . He had the idea of founding a museum for Saxon folk art . For this purpose, the Jägerhof , which was threatened with demolition, was inspected and renovated from 1911 to 1913. Seyffert justifies the realization of a museum for Saxon folk art in the introductory text of his work From the Cradle to the Grave as follows:

“The peoples of the globe certainly had their place of honor in the ethnographic collections, arts and crafts and antiquity museums probably opened their state rooms to the rich treasures from bourgeois and aristocratic property, but the Saxon people and their art were not given a home. The obvious is unfortunately very often forgotten or underestimated. "

- p. 4

Now Professor Seyffert found worthy rooms for his long-term collection, which was opened with 8000 exhibits on September 6, 1913. He became the first director of the museum. Between 1927 and 1949 this museum was named "Oskar Seyffert Museum" in his honor. Looking back in 1924, Seyffert comments on the Museum of Saxon Folk Art in the preface to his work of the same name, The State Museum of Saxon Folk Art :

“I'm getting on in the years where you look more into the past than think about future plans. I have often read and heard people say that the State Museum is my life's work. Now I believe it, so it is. "

- p. 1

The issue of Seyffert and his colleagues, but above all the buildings and art treasures of Saxony, became known nationwide through the magazine Mitteilungen of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz , which was published from 1908 to 1941 .

One of Oskar Seyffert's students was Georg Erler , who was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Applied Arts for 24 years until 1937 .

Awards and honors

Works

  • Drawings (with Franz Rowland) in Friedrich Bernhard Störzner : What the homeland tells: legends, historical images and memorable events from Saxony. Contributions to Saxon folklore and local history. Arwed Strauch, Leipzig 1904.
  • From the cradle to the grave: A contribution to Saxon folk art. Gerlach & Wiedling, Vienna 1905.
  • A Saxony book for the German prisoners of war. Compiled by Hofrat Prof. Oskar Seyffert… Verlag der Bücherzentrale für German prisoners of war, Bern 1919.
  • From village and city: Folklore pictures. Reissner, Dresden 1920.
  • (with Walter Trier ) Toys. Wasmuth, Berlin 1922.
  • The State Museum for Saxon Folk Art. Verlag des Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Dresden 1924.

literature

Web links

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Wikisource: Oskar Seyffert (folklorist)  - sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Seyffert, Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and folklorist
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1940
Place of death Dresden