Reimann School

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Building of the Reimann School in Berlin-Schöneberg

The Reimann School , also known as the Reimann School , was a private arts and crafts school in Berlin-Schöneberg . It was founded in 1902 by Albert Reimann and ended with the destruction of the school building on November 23, 1943 during an air raid on Berlin .

history

In 1902 the Reimann School was founded under the name of school workshops for small sculptures . It was later renamed the Reimann School and from 1913 was allowed to use the additional designation arts and crafts school .

Initially, the courses offered focused on drawing , modeling, carving wood , driving metal and designing arts and crafts. Inspired by the new female silhouettes of the fashion designer Paul Poiret , based on antique garments , which Albert Reimann experienced at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 , he started training as a fashion illustrator in the school program in 1910 . This course of study was soon popular and popular. In the tailoring workshops , lessons were expanded to include molding , pattern drawing and cutting . There were also classes for fashion design and illustration, as well as costume studies and textile art .

In 1912, the Higher Technical School for Decorative Art , which had existed since 1910, was affiliated to the Reimann School, after a specialist class for poster art had been set up a year earlier . In 1913, the Higher Technical School for Theater Arts was opened to train set designers . In 1923 the Friends of the Reimann School were founded. In 1927, 31 teachers in 33 classes and workshops taught almost 1,000 students.

In 1928 Albert Reimann added a film department to the range of courses at his school , and an extension was inevitable. In the new rooms, a photo studio was also set up for teaching and production. A workshop was devoted to animation . In 1932 Albert Reimann opened the Higher Technical School for Advertising . A few months earlier he had included a sound film seminar in the teaching program. The training encompassed all professional subjects of the sound film on a technical and artistic basis. In addition, he converted the previously existing workshops into master workshops, which improved the graduates' career opportunities in the industry.

Since Albert Reimann had Jewish parents, his school in Germany was surrounded several times by the SA after 1933 . Teachers and students were temporarily prevented from entering the building. There were house searches and classroom inspections, as well as defamation in the newspaper Das Schwarze Korps . Through all of these measures, teaching suffered considerably, which resulted in a decline in the number of students.

In 1935 Albert Reimann handed over the management of his school to the architect Hugo Häring . He saw here a possibility to give expression and language to his design ideas, although his architecture was defamed as “un-German” by the National Socialists . He received official permission to continue the school from the Ministry of Science, Education and Popular Education a year later. It was renamed to Kunst und Werk - Private School for Design .

In the course of 1943 the school building was hit by bombs several times, so that at the end of August no more classes could take place. On November 23, 1943, it was completely destroyed in an air raid.

Reimann School and Studios in London

The Reimann School and Studios in London were founded in early 1937 by Heinz Reimann, Albert Reimann's son. Like the Berlin Reimann School, it went down when its building was destroyed in the air war in 1944.

Public Relations (selection)

Events

Since 1912, the "Juggler Festival", known as the "Reimann Ball" , has been held regularly during the carnival season . Every year teachers and students make it an outstanding experience. With the surpluses from the proceeds, talented poor students were supported. In 1926, the critic Pem described the ball as the “quintessence of Berlin's amusement” . “Everything is there! At Reimann, if you are unlucky, you can find your entire past gathered together. You meet people who you would otherwise avoid fearfully. "

The "Alt Berlin" car parade held in the summer of 1928 met with enthusiastic approval from the Berlin population and the press. The participants, including many celebrities, drove in Biedermeier -Kostümen in Krems , Landauer , or in old carriages from the Lustgarten on the boulevard Unter den Linden to the festival site at the Kroll Opera . Even the leading newsreel Emelka filmed the spectacle.

School magazine

In 1916 the school magazine “Mitteilungen an die Schüler der Schule Reimann” appeared for the first time monthly, from 1920 under the title “Color and Form, Messages from the Reimann School”, from 1923 “Color and Form, magazine for arts and crafts”, from 1933 "Color and form, the contemporary image of artistic creation". In 1934 the school magazine appeared for the last time with four issues.

Presentation of student work / participation in exhibitions

Teacher

A list of the teachers at the Reimann School and the Kunst und Werk school - private school for design - has been published in Swantje Wickenheiser's dissertation. Some of them belonged to the artistic avant-garde . They were members of various artists' associations such as the New Secession (NSe), the Novembergruppe (NG) or the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (AfK). They included Rudolf Ausleger (NG), Heinz Fuchs (NG), Oswald Herzog (NG), Bernhard Klein (NG), Moriz Melzer (Nse, NG, AfK), Georg Muche (NG), Kurt Hermann Rosenberg (NG) and Georg Tappert (Nse, NG, AfK).

Other important teachers were Ludwig Kainer (fashion drawing), Paul Scheurich (life drawing and modeling), Annie Offterdinger (fashion drawing), Rolf Niczky (fashion drawing), Kenan (fashion design, fashion drawing), Maria May (decorative painting, textile art), Erna Hitzberger (textile art ), Erna Schmidt-Caroll (costume design), Gerda Juliusberg (textile art, embroidery, weaving), Ina von Kardorff (textile handicrafts), Elisabeth von Stephani-Hahn (shop window design), Georg Fischer (shop window design), Julius Klinger (poster design), Jupp Wiertz (poster design), Max Hertwig ( commercial art ), Josef Seché (poster design), Else Taterka (poster design), Karl Heubler (metal design), Werner Graeff (photography), Walter Nuernberg (photography) and Wilhelm Deffke (book trade and batik).

student

An estimated 15,000 students received their artistic training at the Reimann Schools in Berlin and London between 1902 and 1943. A list of 750 names and short biographies of former Reimann students, among whom many well-known designers and artists can be found, is given in the book by Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser, published in 2009.

Appreciation

The Reimann School in Berlin was established in the same year as the Debschitz School in Munich as a privately run workshop school as part of the reform movement of the arts and crafts schools .

It all started with the establishment of state arts and crafts schools in the second half of the 19th century. They were supposed to counteract the decline in artistic creation caused by industrial mass production. However, training in "applied" art was often limited to the drawing and shaping of ornaments, rosettes, lions' heads and column capitals, as Albert Reimann had experienced during his studies at the teaching institute of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin . With this historicizing style imitation ( historicism ), the artist alienated himself from his own time.

The reform movement postulated that every artist - including the artistic craftsman - should shape their works out of the feeling of the prevailing zeitgeist . The "free" art, which was represented by the art academies , should therefore be combined with the "applied" art in a holistic, practice-oriented teaching concept.

Following this educational goal, the basics such as drawing and painting, but also nudes , portraits and nature studies as well as color theory were taught in the preliminary classes . The students acquired their craftsmanship in the workshops and learned about the properties of the material to be processed. The individual expressiveness, imagination and inspiration of the student was then further developed in the various departments and specialist classes. In order for the pupils to learn to assess the public acceptance of their products manufactured in the workshops, they also had the opportunity to sell their workpieces in the school's own shop. The fact that the Reimann School preferred to employ artists as teachers who were trained in the craft and were successful in their own studio or company resulted in a close relationship between training and the demands of the business world.

In addition, as a private school, the school was able to react more flexibly to certain industrial changes in trade and society than state schools. The Reimann School was the first arts and crafts school in Germany to open a department for fashion drawing and design. She took up efforts for an independent German fashion.

Reimann recognized early on that the shop window design - the "art of the street" - could shape the street scene as well as an architecturally successful building facade. With the affiliation of the Higher Technical School for Decorative Art, he succeeded in integrating art into the everyday life of the population and thus having a general effect on taste. The shop window design should underline the advantages of the exhibited product in a factual and artistic form. The apprenticeship as a window dresser was unique in Germany at the time and developed here as an example for Europe.

In the textile department, the fabric design techniques of batik and spray decoration were tried out and developed to perfection under the direction of Maria May . The spray decoration technology in particular met the requirements and wishes of the industry. Commissioned work, carried out with the spray decor technique in the textile workshops of the Reimann School, gained a good reputation under the name “May fabrics” and “May wallpaper”.

Many of the professional fields offered, such as fashion and textile art as well as shop window and interior decoration, also supported the emancipatory women's movement at the beginning of the 20th century. The extraordinary achievement of the Reimann School was the popularization and dissemination of the ideas of the Bauhaus School and the efforts of the German Werkbund . This was achieved due to the high number of graduates and the acceptance achieved in many areas of practical art such as clothing , textile design, graphic design, decoration and advertising .

Looking back on his life, Reiman wrote at the age of 90: “Art will exist as long as a human being still feels artistically. There must be industry as long as there is economic competition. One doesn't hinder the other, it promotes it. (...) the Reimann School has shown (...) ways that have happily united the arts and crafts and industry ”.

literature

  • Tilmann Buddensieg : Berlin 1900–1933. Architecture and design. (Catalog of the Cooper Hewitt Museum ) Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1987, ISBN 0-910503-55-9 .
  • Herbert A. Strauss , Werner Röder (overall management): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945. Vol. II, Part 2: L - Z, The Arts, Sciences and Literature. (Ed. by the Institute for Contemporary History, Munich, and by the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration, New York) KG Saur, Munich 1983.
  • Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902–1943). A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime. Aachen 2009, ISBN 978-3-86858-475-2 .
  • Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902–1943). With special consideration of fashion and textile design. Dissertation , Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , 1993.
  • Hans M. Wingler (Ed.): Art School Reform 1900–1933. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-7861-1191-X .
  • Schule Reimann 1902-1943 , Kabinettdruck 46, catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Berlin 2016, Edition Galerie Brusberg

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Albert Reimann: The Reimann School in Berlin. (= Writings on Berlin Art and Cultural History , Volume 8.) Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1966, p. 14 f., P. 34.
  2. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 54.
  3. ^ H. Wingler: Art School Reform 1900–1933. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1977, p. 259.
  4. ^ H. Strauss, W. Röder: International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933–1945. KG Saur, Munich 1983, p. 954.
  5. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 454 ff.
  6. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 462.
  7. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993.
  8. ↑ Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902–1943). A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime. Aachen 2009.
  9. ↑ Teachers at Reimann School, London , accessed March 31, 2020 at www.artbiogs.co.uk
  10. ^ Paul Marcus (d. I. Pem ): Reimann-Ball . In: Der Junggeselle , No. 4 (January 4, 1926), p. 7.
  11. ^ Albert Reimann: The Reimann School in Berlin. (= Writings on Berlin Art and Cultural History , Volume 8.) Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1966, p. 50 ff.
  12. ^ H. Wingler: Art School Reform 1900–1933. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1977, p. 256.
  13. ↑ Poster for the advertising show in the exhibition halls on Kaiserdamm ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Deutsches Historisches Museum accessed on January 31, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dhm.de
  14. ↑ Poster for the 1929 advertising show in Berlin, designed by F. Rosen and L. Bernhard , accessed on March 31, 2020 at eMuseum / Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
  15. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 587 ff.
  16. ↑ Swantje Kuhfuss-Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902–1943). A Jewish company for international art and design training up to its destruction by the Hitler regime. Aachen 2009, pp. 511-580.
  17. ^ Albert Reimann (Ed.): 25 years of the Reimann School. Verlag Farbe und Form, Berlin 1927, p. 15.
  18. ↑ Max Deri in: Albert Reimann (Ed.): 25 years Reimann School. Verlag Farbe und Form, Berlin 1927, p. 145.
  19. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 50.
  20. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 35 f.
  21. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 59.
  22. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943) . Bonn 1993, p. 48, p. 316 ff.
  23. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 204 ff.
  24. ↑ Swantje Wickenheiser: The Reimann School in Berlin and London (1902-1943). Bonn 1993, p. 34, p. 329.
  25. ^ H. Wingler: Art School Reform 1900–1933. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1977, p. 17.
  26. ^ Tilmann Buddensieg: Berlin 1900-1933. Architecture and design. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1987, p. 99 ff., P. 203.
  27. ^ Albert Reimann: The Reimann School in Berlin. (= Writings on Berlin's art and cultural history , Volume 8.) Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1966, p. 61.