Valentin Weidner

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Valentin Weidner
Weidner bust in the entrance area of ​​the Herz-Jesu parish church .
Weidner's house at the former Max-Platz 1 (today Valentin-Weidner-Platz 1 ), built by Carl Krampf
Weidner's studio, built by Carl Krampf

Valentin Weidner (born January 12, 1848 in Würzburg , † April 1, 1919 in Bad Kissingen ) was a German sculptor .

Life

Valentin Weidner's parents were the court clerk Karl Weidner (born June 12, 1812 in Eisingen ; † March 27, 1884 in Bad Kissingen) and Margaretha Weidner, née. Hupp (* 1812 in Höchberg ; † January 11, 1860 in Kissingen). Karl Weidner was transferred several times; According to the birthplaces of Valentin Weidner and his siblings, the family lived in Neukirchen (Lower Bavaria) , Würzburg, Römershag and finally (from 1858) in Kissingen. After the death of Valentin Weidner's mother, Karl Weidner married the widow Barbara Eichelmann, born in 1860. Eckert. Nothing is known about Valentin Weidner's youth.

According to family tradition, Weidner studied with Ferdinand Miller the Elder. Ä. graduated as an "academic sculptor" and was then brought to Bad Kissingen by the sculptor Michael Arnold , whose pupil he became. On September 23, 1873 Valentin Weidner married the cleaner Maria Elisabeth Seitz (* February 22, 1851 - April 21, 1882 in Kissingen) from Kupperichshausen (near Lauda). The couple had sons Karl Michael Weidner (* June 18, 1874; † 1957 in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate ) and Johann Nepomuk ("Hans") Weidner (* August 7, 1875; † 1953). Hans Weidner later also worked as a sculptor in Bad Kissingen and became his father's workshop successor. He was the more artistically skilled sculptor while his father was the better businessman.

After taking the oath of allegiance to the Bavarian constitution, Valentin Weidner acquired Bavarian citizenship on July 24, 1876.

After the death of his wife Maria Elisabeth, Weidner married Anna Mathilde Reuss on October 25, 1883 (born July 2, 1861 in Kissingen as the daughter of master tailor Andreas Reuss and his wife Appollonia, née Schmück; † January 1, 1923 in Bad Kissingen). Five children were born to the couple. The firstborn Valentin Andreas and his sister Rosa Mathilde died in childhood. The other three children were daughters. The second youngest, Rosa Maria Weidner (* July 2, 1889 in Bad Kissingen, † April 17, 1982 in the St. Gertrudis retirement home in Bad Kissingen) married the owner of the spa, Johann Fridolin Hofmann, on November 11, 1912.

In 1875 Weidner took over the studio of his teacher Michael Arnold, which is located in today's Hartmannstraße. In 1884 Valentin Weidner had to cede part of his property for the construction of the Herz-Jesu-Stadtpfarrkirche . The Hotel Federbeck was later built at the location of Weidner's studio and later became the Institute of the English Misses. Today the Catholic parish center is located there. Weidner was involved in the artistic interior design of the Herz-Jesu parish church, although Georg Dengler, who was responsible for the erection of the altars, had reservations about Weidner, whose figures reminded him of "flour sacks" and which he considered to be "cold and boring" .

After Weidner had made a fortune through his work, he moved in 1903 to the property he built according to plans by the architect Carl Krampf and which still exists today , at that time Maxplatz 1 (today Valentin-Weidner-Platz). On October 5, 1903, he applied for the construction of a "garden shed with studio rooms in the Moorish style". Carl Krampf built this too.

Weidner was very committed to society. From 1895 to 1912 he was deputy fire brigade commander and was elected to the community college in November 1887 and, following this activity, a member of the city council in December 1911, of which he was a member until his death in 1919. The plan made in December 1918 by the parishioners to give Weidner honorary citizenship for his services to the community was officially resolved in January 1919 and Valentin Weidner was communicated orally on February 2, 1919.

However, Weidner died on the afternoon of April 1, 1919 in his villa before the planned presentation of the honorary citizenship certificate. The Bad Kissinger Saale-Zeitung published an obituary on April 2, 1919 and a detailed report on April 4, 1919 about the funeral in the chapel cemetery, where his son Hans was later buried. A few years after his death, Weidner's heirs were forced by inflation to sell his villa.

meaning

Valentin Weidner, who was a member of the Munich Association for Christian Art , was a busy sculptor, successful and enterprising, active in all of Lower Franconia , but still of rather regional importance. He mainly worked in the historicist style , as can still be seen from the numerous tombs in the Bad Kissingen chapel cemetery or the pulpit and baptismal font in the city's Protestant Church of the Redeemer . Other church furnishings have now been lost. In the period from 1890 to 1892 he manufactured new choir stalls, confessionals and two rear prayer stalls for the Catholic parish church of the city of Klingenberg am Main for 4,840 marks.

At that time, Weidner was also able to make a living from the boom for war memorials. Before the First World War , such monuments were made in his workshop for Großwenkheim (1887), Stadtlauringen (1888), Kleinbardorf (1895), Mittelstreu (1896), Bastheim (1897), Bischofsheim (1903), Bad Brückenau (1911) and Geldersheim (1911) ), another in Poppenlauer .

Works (selection)

literature

  • Gerhard Wulz: The chapel cemetery in Bad Kissingen. A guide with short biographies. Bad Kissingen 2001, ISBN 3-934912-04-4 .
  • Werner Eberth : Valentin Weidner. In: Kissinger Hefte. Volume 1, Theresienbrunnen-Verlag, Bad Kissingen 1992, DNB 920517749 .
  • Werner Eberth: Valentin and Hans Weidner (1848–1919), (1875–1953). Sculptor of historicism in Franconia. Supplements to the Kissinger booklet. Volume 1, supplement to the exhibition: "The Bad Kissinger Sculptor Valentin Weidner" 1992. Theresienbrunnen-Verlag, Bad Kissingen 1996, OCLC 164759770 .
  • Werner Eberth: Michael Arnold (1824–1877), a sculptor of the late classicism. With additions to earlier publications about his students Valentin Weidner and Balthasar Schmitt. At the same time accompanying book for the exhibition from October 5 to November 18, 2001 in the Old Town Hall and in the Wandelhalle (Bad Kissingen) . Theresienbrunnen-Verlag, Bad Kissingen 2001, DNB 964035766 .
  • Werner Eberth: Weidner and the economic boom of the empire. In: Saale newspaper . November 9, 2010.

Web links

Commons : Valentin Weidner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Parish registry Kissingen, Family Book II
  2. ↑ Baptismal matriculation Kissingen 1860-1883, p. 121 No. 49
  3. ^ Franz Warmuth: 100 Years of the Herz Jesu Parish Bad Kissingen - Contribution to the history of the Parish Bad Kissingen. Bad Kissingen 1984, p. 113, note 43
  4. ^ Bötsch-Hahn: Bad Kissingen. Historical postcards 1890–1910. P. 118.
  5. ^ Association for Christian Art in Munich (ed.): Festgabe in memory of the 50th year. Anniversary. Lentner'sche Hofbuchhandlung, Munich 1910, p. 169.
personal data
SURNAME Weidner, Valentin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1919
Place of death Bad Kissingen