Friedrich Karl Adolf Wichert (born 22 August 1878 in

Mainz-Kastel Mainz-Kastel is a district of the city Wiesbaden, which is the capital of the German state Hesse in western Germany. Kastel is the historical bridgehead of Mainz, the capital of the German state Rhineland-Palatinate and is located on the right si ...

; died 24 January 1951 in

Kampen (Sylt) (Söl'ring: Kaamp) is a municipality and seaside resort on the island Sylt, in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located north of the island's main town, Westerland. The municipality is part of the ''Amt'' '' ...

) was a German art historian. He was director of the

Kunsthalle Mannheim The Kunsthalle Mannheim is a museum of modern and contemporary art, built in 1907, established in 1909 and located in Mannheim, Germany. Since then it has housed the city's art collections as well as temporary exhibitions – and up to 1927 those ...

and the Frankfurt

Städelschule The Städelschule (), Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, is a tertiary school of art in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It accepts about 20 students each year from 500 applicants, and has a total of approximately 150 students of visual a ...

and also participated in

New Frankfurt New Frankfurt (German: ''Neues Frankfurt'') was an affordable public housing program in Frankfurt started in 1925 and completed in 1930. It was also the name of the accompanying magazine that was published from 1926 to 1931 dedicated to interna ...

Career

Wichert, who completed his doctorate in 1907 in Freiburg, became first director of the

as early as 1909, where he expanded the collection to include paintings from the 19th century with a focus on French Modernism. One of the most important acquisitions for the museum was

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

‘s ''

The Execution of Emperor Maximilian ''The Execution of Emperor Maximilian'' is a series of paintings by Édouard Manet from 1867 to 1869, depicting the execution by firing squad of Maximilian I of Mexico, Emperor Maximilian I of the short-lived Second Mexican Empire. Manet pro ...

''. During the First World War, Wichert belonged to the diplomatic service. After the war, he returned to the Mannheim Kunsthalle and put the collection focus on the

Expressionists Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

. In 1923, Wichert was appointed as director of the

in Frankfurt.

Weblinks

* Commons: Neues Frankfurt – Portfolio with pictures, videos and audio documents

References

External links

F. Wichert: In: 7. Jahrgang, Heft 39. März-Verlag, München 27. September 1913, S. 442–456.Documentation on Fritz Wichert in the Mannheim City Archives
Directors of museums in Germany German art historians 1878 births 1951 deaths {{Germany-art-historian-stub