United State Schools of Fine and Applied Arts

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The United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg was an art college and existed from 1924 to 1939 . From the merger of the " Academy of the Fine Arts " with the " educational establishment of Decorative Arts emerged" who were United State Schools (VS) from the optimism of the Weimar period and thoughts of the German Werkbund coined. Until 1933, the VS stood for reformist, practical teaching models and artistic cosmopolitanism. “Free” art, reproductive handicrafts and architecture were all under one roof. Sometimes taught in joint classes and mutual exchange between students is encouraged. The founding director was the architect, caricaturist and designer Bruno Paul .

Later headquarters of the VS at Steinplatz in (Berlin-) Charlottenburg, 1914

history

As early as 1919, the director of the educational establishment , Bruno Paul, had suggested the “amalgamation of the entire artist training, both for the 'free' and for the 'applied' arts in the unified art school for architecture, sculpture and painting”. This was consistently implemented at the United State Schools from 1924 . The merger corresponded to the state's austerity policy and was at the same time part of reforms that should help the arts and crafts direction to gain more recognition and closer links with academic subjects.

Around 1930 there were around 300 students enrolled at the VS who, in addition to a specialization department ( free or applied arts or architecture ), attended joint classes and workshops, e.g. B. Art history, drawing, writing, anatomy, perspective, painting, printing. Similarly structured were z. For example, the then Baden State Art School in Karlsruhe , the Cologne Werkschulen or the Bauhaus : The contradiction between art and craft should be overcome and art should find its way into the everyday life of the population.

In the house at Hardenbergstrasse, which is still used today as a university building. 33 at Steinplatz in Berlin-Charlottenburg there was a lively cultural life. A student council organized exhibitions and charity events for needy fellow students, including spectacular costume parties (“Zinnober”) and Christmas fairs. Many up-and-coming talent came to prominence and their first assignments through collaboration in professors' projects and the granting of a master's atelier . Most famous today are probably: Fritz Cremer (master student of Wilhelm Gerstel , creator of the Buchenwald monument ) and Felix Nussbaum (expressionist painter, master student of Hans Meid , murdered in Auschwitz in 1944).

Expressionism , Surrealism , Cubism and New Objectivity gained significant impulses from VS circles. The political conflicts of the Weimar Republic left their mark on the university, as did the anti-Semitism that emerged in the 1920s . Because of his attempt to appoint the (Jewish) graphic artist Lucian Bernhard , director Bruno Paul himself was denounced as a “Jew” in 1932.

In April 1933 the Nazi functionary Max Kutschmann took over the office of director, smashed the structures of the Weimar period and ensured that by 1936 Jewish teachers and teachers critical of the regime were dismissed. In 1939 it was restructured into the State University of Fine Arts , and in 1945 it was re-established as a University of Fine Arts . In 1975 it became the University of the Arts (HdK) through a merger with the Musikhochschule and the Hochschule für Darstellende Künste, and in 2001 it became today's University of the Arts Berlin (UdK).

Directors

Well-known teachers

Well-known students (selection)

See also

Publications (in selection)

  • Exhibition of master and student works from ceramic teaching and experimental workshops, in the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts. Edited by Nicola Moufang; German Ceramic Society. Edler & Krische, Hannover / Berlin 1927. 73 p., Ill.
  • Glass and metal as building material: Glass as an instrument, object of daily use, decorative material: Exhibition of the Working Group for German Craft Culture combined with the special exhibition "The New Kitchen" of the architects' association "Der Ring": in the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts, Berlin-Charlottenburg. Edited by Ernst Böhm; Working group for German craft culture. Berlin 1929. 56, 19, 8 pp.

literature

  • Christine Fischer-Defoy: Art makes politics. The Nazification of the art and music colleges in Berlin. Elefanten Press, Berlin 1988. pp. 301, 335, etc.
  • Akademie der Künste Berlin (ed.): "Art has never been owned by one person". Three hundred years of the Academy of the Arts and the College of the Arts. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1996.
  • Hainer Weißpflug: United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts . In: Hans-Jürgen Mende , Kurt Wernicke (Hrsg.): Berliner Bezirkslexikon, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf . Luisenstadt educational association . Haude and Spener / Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-7759-0479-4 ( luise-berlin.de - as of October 7, 2009).
  • Wolfgang Ruppert (ed.): Artists in National Socialism. 'German art', art politics and the Berlin art college. Böhlau, Cologne 2015, ISBN 978-3-412-22429-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ z. T. after Julia Witt, cf. online ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ↑ cf. "The United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts, 1924-1933" (UdK Berlin, see web link)
  3. ↑ On January 30, 1946, executed for war crimes as deputy local commander of Orsha in Minsk .