Wilhelm Hornung

Entry of King Karl von Württemberg into Tübingen on June 1, 1865. The studio of Hornung & Sinner in Wöhrdstrasse (today Uhlandstrasse) can be seen as a pavilion on the far left of the picture. (Colored woodcut by Wilhelm von Breitschwert)

Back of a portrait photo of Sophie Bülow with her son Friedrich, cabinet format by Wilhelm Hornung, 1882

Sophie Bülow with son Friedrich, photograph by Wilhelm Hornung, 1882

Paul Wilhelm Hornung (born December 10, 1834 in Tübingen ; † July 18, 1884 there ) was a Württemberg painter and photographer in Tübingen. He was the father of the Tübingen photographer Julius Wilhelm Hornung .

Life

Hornung and Sinner

Paul Wilhelm Hornung, who called himself Wilhelm Hornung, was a son of the Tübingen red tanner Johann Georg Hornung and his wife née. Payer. He was originally a painter - although the reverse of his photographs provided information about this until the 1880s, nothing is known about his work as a painter. In 1864 he was also - probably for several years - Tübingen municipal council. At this point, at the latest, he met Paul Sinner , who was still living in Stuttgart at the time. Hornung gave Sinner an endorsement and supported him in the local council when the latter applied for permission to marry the daughter of a Tübingen butcher.

It can be assumed that Hornung and Sinner will soon, i. H. before November 1864, when Sinner settled down with his wife in Tübingen, agreed to work together. In December, Hornung's father-in-law, master glazier Wilhelm Kieß, applied for a construction permit for a studio pavilion in the garden of his house on "upper Wöhrdstrasse " (today's Uhlandstrasse ). The local council met several times - there were concerns about the "shapeless roof", especially since it was a new representative district - until it finally granted approval in March 1865. The studio with the name "Hornung & Sinner, Painters and Photographers, Neckarvorstadt" started operations on May 5, 1865. It was the first permanent photo studio in Tübingen. The studio pavilion was located southwest of Kieß's house, on the edge of the square where the Uhland monument was erected in 1873 . The low building had walls made of "timber framework and glass [...] on foot walls". The roof of the pavilion was covered with "wide tiles and glass". The company gave the impression of a joint venture, in reality it belonged to Hornung alone. Paul Sinner was Hornung's employee until he settled down as a photographer in Tübingen almost two years later. It can be assumed that it was during this time that Hornung learned to photograph from Sinner.

The studio took photos of traditional costumes almost from the start. A favorable opportunity to do this came in the summer of 1865 when the new King of Württemberg, Karl , paid homage to him in Tübingen, to whom 34 pairs of farmers in Steinlachtal costumes were presented, because the costumes were almost no longer used at that time. The photos were then sold in Sinner's shop on Neckargasse .

Sole business activity

After separating from Sinner, Hornung ran the “heated glass salon” on his own until he added floors to his house at Uhlandstrasse 11 in 1874 and set up a studio on the top floor there.

In the first few years of self-employment, Hornung was, according to Wolfgang Hesse, more successful than Sinner in the field of portrait photography. Over the years Hornung has clearly become the leading portrait photographer in Tübingen. Hornung's second specialty was joke and joke montages for student associations. His customers also included associations and workforces from companies.

Hornung also dealt with postcard photography: In contrast to postcards from other publishers, it was photo montages with local cut. Based on individual motifs, it can be seen that he made his own photos available to other manufacturers for the design of postcards. On the other hand, Hornung neglected taking photos of traditional costumes: he only did that occasionally and left this section of the market to Sinner.

On the occasion of the Franco-Prussian War , Hornung created a paper based on Friedrich Brandseph , probably from the usual business card portraits, which depicted all the members of the Tübingen Association Normania who died in the war . On the sheet referred to as the “Memorial”, the names of the fallen and the names of the significant battles were shown. Despite respectful praise for this work, which could be bought at the Osiander bookstore , Hornung did not enjoy the public recognition that Paul Sinner received.

In addition to painting and photography, Hornung was a hop farmer - typical for craftsmen of the time. Hop cultivation was only introduced in Tübingen in the 1840s, when investments in viticulture were no longer worthwhile. In the summer of 1845, 20 citizens of Tübingen - including Hornung's father - founded a "hop growing company" which initially managed the common land on the Öhlerbach (tributary of the Käsenbach ) that had been bought by the city . Hop growing spread quickly. Hornung had his hops grown on the Waldhäuser Höhe and dried in his storage facilities in the Wöhrdstrasse . Hornung did not neglect his appearance in public and was a long-time chairman of the choral society "Sängerkranz" and chairman of the citizens' committee.

When Wilhelm Hornung died too early in 1884 at the age of 49, his son Julius Wilhelm took over the photo studio. Since the son continued the father's tradition in the same studio and kept the father's name in the first few years, there were occasional mix-ups between the two.

Famous works

• 1871 Memorial to the fallen members of the "Normania" association.
• From 1880 onwards, several photographs by Hornung in the William C. Darrah Collection of business card portraits from the period 1860-1900 , which are kept in the library of the Pennsylvania State University .
• 1881 Photo of the inauguration ceremony of the Hölderlin memorial in the [Old] Botanical Garden in Tübingen
• 1882 Portrait photo of Sophie Bülow, b. Haug with her son Friedrich, wife of Oskar von Bülow

bibliography

• Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia. Art, country and people in photos by the first Tübingen photographers and the photographer Paul Sinner (1838-1925) , Metz brothers  : Tübingen 1989, ISBN 3-921580-79-X
• ... and give my regards to the world. Tübingen - a university town on postcards , ed. by Udo Rauch and Antje Zacharias, Stadtmuseum Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-910090-78-1

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Hornung  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ Year data: Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 101; Exact dates and place of birth added from the Tübingen death register in 1884, entry no.202
2. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 36 (Stadtarchiv Tübingen A70 / F5 / 120/1 - the municipal council approved Sinner's request in the meeting on June 18, 1864).
3. ↑ The quarter was between the old town and the train station, which opened in 1861 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 37
5. ↑ In 1959 the square was named Monthey City Square .
6. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 51
7. ↑ ^{a b} ... and give my regards to the world. Tübingen - a university town on postcards , p. 18
8. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 39
9. ↑ ... and give my regards to the world. Tübingen - a university town on postcards , p. 34
10. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 50
11. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 71
12. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p .46
13. ↑ The other Tübingen. Culture and way of life in the Lower Town in the 19th century , Tübingen: TVV 1978, pp. 75–77.
14. ↑ ... and give my regards to the world. Tübingen - a university town on postcards , p. 82
15. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 35 with reference to "Tübinger Chronik" from July 20 and 22, 1884
16. ↑ List of photographs ( memento of March 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
17. ↑ Wolfgang Hesse: Views from Swabia ... , p. 44