Sebastian Osterrieder

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Nativity scene by Sebastian Osterrieder in the parish church of St. Martinus in Oberstadion (Alb-Donau district)
Nativity figurine by Osterrieder
Angels on Obermaier's grave , in Wasserburg am Inn , 1909

Sebastian Osterrieder (born January 19, 1864 in Abensberg ; † June 5, 1932 in Munich ) was a German sculptor. He is considered "the man who rediscovered the Christmas crib and finally brought it to bloom".

Life

The baker's son, brother of the local writer Franz Xaver Osterrieder , was already fascinated by cribs as a child. At first he began to knead figures from bread dough, later he carved with a pocket knife and penknife . He received orders from clergymen and wealthy citizens and was soon known as the "Krippenwastl".

Since his father could hardly work for health reasons, Sebastian had to run his father's bakery for eight years. Shortly after his father's death in 1888, Sebastian moved to Munich. He initially worked in Josef Fischer's workshop and began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Wilhelm von Rümann at the age of 26 . Archbishop Antonius von Thoma , later Cardinal Michael Faulhaber supported him.

For the 44th German Catholic Day in Landshut in 1897 , Osterrieder was commissioned to create a statue of Pope Leo XIII. to make. In order to be able to design this as true to the original as possible, he traveled to Rome , where Joseph von Kopf became his teacher. Osterrieder got to know the Neapolitan nativity scene here. He now began to model his own Christmas cribs. His nativity figurines, for which he developed a special manufacturing process, were quickly sought after. After well-known customers such as Prince Regent Luitpold , Kaiser Wilhelm II and Konrad Adenauer ordered an Osterrieder nativity scene, it spread to Sweden, the USA and Mexico.

In 1904 Osterrieder married Katharina Obermaier, a baker's daughter from Wasserburg . The artist, who always endeavored to depict his figures as lifelike as possible, took part in a study trip by Michael Buchberger to Palestine and Egypt in 1910 , where he studied the country and its people and a. also drew the animals living there. When designing his cribs, however, he not only limited himself to the figures themselves, but also designed the buildings and their surroundings in order to create a “total work of art”.

He created his own catalogs for the distribution of his cribs and maintained a permanent crib exhibition in his studio in Munich. Despite this business activity, he always saw himself as an academic artist .

Already honored as a Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph and given the Cross of Honor of Jerusalem , Pope Pius X gave him the Benemerenti Papal Merit Medal for his nativity work in St. Peter's Basilica and in the St. Barbara Chapel of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome. Sebastian Osterrieder died at the age of 68 after a stroke and was buried in the north cemetery in Munich-Schwabing.

The French hard casting

While Osterrieder carved individual figures for some nativity scenes, he developed a new process for series production for most of the nativity scenes, which became known as French chilled cast iron . To do this, he first carved his figures (usually in several parts) out of wood, varnished them and provided these patrices with a counterpart so that there was a gap between them. This was poured out with gelatin or rubber . The resulting flexible parts were then used as the actual casting mold, which could often only be used a few times or even only once. After inserting wire armouring , the mold was filled with a mixture of champagne chalk , plaster of paris and rabbit glue . The blanks of the figures were then put together, painted and textiles draped over them that were soaked with rabbit glue. Some of the figures also received glass eyes.

Works

Many of his cribs are lost today. Accordingly, there are parishes in Esslingen am Neckar ( Münster St. Paul ), Kempten (Allgäu) , Lautlingen (St. Johannes Baptista), Wangen im Allgäu (St. Martin), Weitnau - Wengen , Haldenwang , Bad Wurzach , Ottobeuren , Krumbach , Munich ( St. Peter , St. Ursula , one of the 12 apostles Laim, St. Johann Baptist Solln ), Biberbach , Herxheim ( St. Mary of the Assumption ) monastery Scheyern , Kloster Holzen , Genderkingen , Türkenfeld , Ingolstadt , Freising , Luxembourg and Bonn proud to be able to show an original Osterrieder nativity scene today. The same applies to the Bavarian National Museum in Munich.

Osterrieder's largest carving was the nativity scene, completed in 1913, for the Cathedral of the Conception of Mary in Linz with more than 40 figures made of lime wood. He created a similarly sized nativity scene for Paderborn Cathedral .

Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly on Kapellplatz in Altötting (Neuguss 2005)

Numerous sculptures by Osterrieder have also been preserved in the pilgrimage site of Altötting , including the Madonna on the dome and four colossal statues on the facade of St. Anne's Basilica . The Brother Konrad fountain next to the basilica was also designed by Osterrieder in 1930.

In 2005 a new cast of an equestrian statue for Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly , which Osterrieder had modeled before the First World War , was set up in front of the Chapel of Mercy . Because of Tilly's role in the Thirty Years' War ( butcher of Magdeburg ), this is still causing plenty of strife.

For a niche in the choir of the parish church of St. Michael in Bayerdilling , a district of Rain am Lech , Osterrieder created a larger than life Pietà in stone cast in 1910 , which has been preserved. He created a holy grave for the parish church of St. Ambrosius in Hergensweiler . In Niederumelsdorf (district of Siegenburg ) there is his so-called Deutschmeister monument in memory of those killed in the 1809 battle of Abensberg of the K. and K. Infantry Regiments Hoch- und Deutschmeister No. 4 (with the crucified as a bronze cast on a wooden cross) 1911.

In addition to religious figures and monuments, Osterrieder also designed three-dimensional diagrams ( dioramas ) for the German Museum in Munich from 1911 , such as the depiction of a camel caravan resting ( goods transport by camel caravans in the Orient ), which is no longer in the museum's holdings today. In preparation, Osterrieder undertook a trip to the Orient - with financial support from the Deutsches Museum.

The Abensberg City Museum keeps a large part of Osterrieder's estate on permanent loan and shows two nativity scenes in the permanent exhibition, one of which is the so-called “Kaiserkrippe”, which according to oral tradition was said to have been in the possession of Kaiser Wilhelm II . Osterrieder's tools for making the nativity figurines and his awards can also be seen. On the occasion of his 150th birthday, the museum also showed a special exhibition from November 12, 2014 to February 2, 2015.

The actor Johannes Heesters bought a nativity scene by Sebastian Osterrieder . During the Christmas season it is exhibited in the parish church of Perchtoldsdorf.

literature

  • Crib and Chapel Association St. Agidius, Abensberg City Museum (Ed.): Sebastian Osterrieder. Festschrift for the 150th birthday. Abensberg 2014.
  • Heiner Meininghaus, Sebastian Osterrieder: Nativity figure in electroplating technology. Historical Association, Ingolstadt June 2010.
  • Ferdinand Steffan: Wasserburger crib book. Wasserburger Bücherstube, Wasserburg 2010, p. 13ff u. 24ff.
  • Hermann Vogel : Sebastian Osterrieder - The innovator of the artistic Christmas crib. Life and work. 2nd improved edition. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-89870-562-2 .
  • Gertraud Lamla: The Osterrieder crib in Blieskastel, parish of St. Sebastian . In: Saarpfalz-Hefte. Sheets for history and folklore. 1996, No. 51, pp. 5-10.
  • Markus Walz: Christmas cribs in the Cologne area. Distribution history, function assignments, design. Böhlau / Cologne a. a. 1988, ISBN 3-412-06088-7 , pp. 88, 110 (= Rheinisches Archiv, 120) (plus dissertation; University of Bonn, 1987).
  • Erich Lidel: The Swabian crib. Konrad Verlag, Weißenborn 1978, ISBN 3-87437-148-4 , pp. 64, 72, 93 (= contributions to regional studies of Swabia, vol. 5).

Web links

Commons : Sebastian Osterrieder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Osterrieder crib from 1910 in the parish church of St. Theodor and Alexander, Haldenwang; according to Konrad Meisburger among others: The churches and chapels of Haldenwang-Börwang. Josef Fink, Lindenberg 2003, ISBN 3-89870-113-1 , p. 14 f.
  2. Anette Krauss: Munich cribs . Ed .: Münchner Krippenfreunde eV Munich 2016, p. 1-35 .
  3. Wolfgang Sachsenhofer: The Linz Cathedral Crib by Sebastian Osterrieder and the tradition of the Christmas crib in Upper Austria. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets . Linz 2013, pp. 169–189, PDF on land-oberoesterreich.gv.at.
  4. Crib and Chapel Association St. Giles, Abensberg City Museum (ed.): Sebastian Osterrieder. Festschrift for the 150th birthday. Abensberg 2014
  5. ^ Wilhelm Füßl, Andrea Lucas, Matthias Röschner: Gallery of beauties. In: Culture & Technology: Journal of the Deutsches Museum Munchen. 4/2016, ISSN 0344-5690.
  6. Osterrieder. Emperor of the nativity scene. In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung. November 12, 2014, accessed February 1, 2020 .