''Jugend'' (German: "Youth") (1896–1940) was an influential German arts magazine. Founded in Munich by

Georg Hirth Georg Hirth (13 July 1841 in Tonna – 28 March 1916 in Tegernsee) was a German writer, journalist and publisher. He is best known for founding the cultural magazine '' Jugend'' in 1896, which was instrumental in popularizing Art Nouveau. ...

who edited it until his death in 1916, the weekly was originally intended to showcase German

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

, but became famous for showcasing the German version of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

instead. It was also famed for its "shockingly brilliant covers and radical editorial tone" and for its avant-garde influence on German arts and culture for decades, ultimately launching the eponymous

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

("Youth Style") movement in Munich, Weimar and Germany's

Darmstadt Artists' Colony The Darmstadt Artists’ Colony refers both to a group of Jugendstil artists as well as to the buildings in Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt in which these artists lived and worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The artists were largely fi ...

. The magazine, along with several others that launched more or less concurrently, including '' Pan,

Simplicissimus :''Simplicissimus is also a name for the 1668 novel Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, Simplicius Simplicissimus and its protagonist.'' ''Simplicissimus'' () was a satire, satirical German language, German weekly magazine, headquartered in Munich ...

'', ''

Dekorative Kunst ''Dekorative Kunst'' (meaning ''Decorative Art'' in English) was a German avant-garde art magazine published from October 1897 to 1929. The magazine promoted the Jugendstil or Art Nouveau style and was founded by Julius Meier-Graefe. The publisher ...

'' ("Decorative Art") and ''Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration'' ("German Art and Decoration") collectively roused interest among wealthy industrialists and the artistocracy, which further spread interest in Jugendstil from 2D art (graphic design) to 3D art (architecture), as well as more applied art. Germany's ''

gesamtkunstwerk A ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' (, literally 'total artwork', translated as 'total work of art', 'ideal work of art', 'universal artwork', 'synthesis of the arts', 'comprehensive artwork', or 'all-embracing art form') is a work of art that makes use of al ...

'' ("synthesized artwork") tradition eventually merged and evolved those interests into the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

movement.

History

George Hirth founded the journal in 1896 to launch a new cultural renaissance in Munich. From the start, he intended the magazines to be collectible, and therefore distinct. In the first seven volumes, he featured more than 250 artists, the vast majority unknown. After the First World War, the magazine went out of style with young artists. Among its regular contributors was

Bruno Paul Bruno Paul (19 January 1874 – 17 August 1968) was a German architect, illustrator, interior designer, and furniture designer. Trained as a painter in the royal academy just as the Munich Secession developed against academic art, he first ca ...

. Hirth helmed the magazine for 20 years and died in 1916.

Franz Schoenberner Franz Schoenberner (December 18, 1892April 11, 1970) was a German editor and writer. Life and works Franz Schoenberner grew up as the eleventh child of a pastor in Berlin. From 1911 to 1914, he studied literature and art history in Berlin and Muni ...

was made publisher, and an array of art editors played a role in its cover and illustrations, including Hans E. Hirsch, Theodore Riegler and Wolfgang Petzet, with Fritz von Ostini and Albert Matthew editing the text, and Heinrich Franz Lang serving as photo editor.

Associated influences

As the early arts and crafts ambitions faded and German Art Nouveau took hold of the magazine's aesthetic, iconic imagery of nude youth in idealized nature scenes were depicted more frequently. Along with other symbols of nature at its most magical — nymphs, centaurs, and satyrs — the associations between Jugendstil and the

Lebensreform ''Lebensreform'' ("life-reform") is the German generic term for various social reform movements, that started since the mid-19th century and originated especially in the German Empire and later in Switzerland. Common features were the criticism ...

("life reform") movement, which encouraged a return to a "natural" life-style, grew. In addition to modern illustrations and the ornamentation of Art Nouveau, the magazine featured

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

expressionist 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 ...

art, as well. The journal also covered satirical and critical topics in culture, such as the increasing influence of the churches (especially Catholicism), and the political right in the Centre Party. The

Yale Literary Magazine The ''Yale Literary Magazine'', founded in 1836, is the oldest student literary magazine in the United States and publishes poetry, fiction, and visual art by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year. Notable alumni featured in the magazine whi ...

critic summarized the editoral attitude by noting that "''Jugend's'' political and social platform asone opposition—opposition to everything." For all that, ''Jugend'''s contribution to the literature of the early modern period remained modest, especially compared to

Albert Langen Albert Langen (8 July 1869 – 30 April 1909) was a German publisher and founder of the satirical publication '' Simplicissimus''. Early years Langen was, after Martha and Martin, the third of four children born to Antwerp industrialist Friedrich ...

's competing journal ''

'', which was also founded in 1896. ''Jugend's'' editorial identity originally focused on national and Bavarian regional issues. That changed in the mid-1920s, when it began catering to, and then entered into dialogue with groups of young artists breaking with traditional approaches to art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Jungendstil in multiple German cities, as well as a series of so-called secessions in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

and elsewhere. After 1933, the magazine was forced to cater to the Nazis, which restricted its editorial vision to the neoclassical propaganda approved by the regime, in the Great German Art Exhibition of 1937, which was presented in counterpoint to the 650 pieces confiscated from German museums in the Degenerate Art Exhibition.

Legacy

* The use of integrating and matching typefaces into the illustration continues to influence graphic design. *Germany's ''

'' ("synthesized artwork") tradition, which came to the fore in German Art Nouveau led to a reexamination of "how to reconcile art with industry, ornamentation with functionalism."

Gallery

(Selection was limited by availability.) File:Jugend magazine cover 1896.jpg, The magazine's inaugural cover in 1886 depicts a

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

listening to a pan pipe played by Pan himself File:Otto Eckmann - Jugend Nr. 14, 1896.jpg, 1896 cover by Otto Eckmann. File:Ludwig Raders - Jugend.jpg, A Ludwig Raders cover in 1897. File:Titelblatt der Zeitschrift Jugend 1896, Nr. 12 von Ludwig von Zumbusch.jpg, An 1896 cover by Ludwig von Zumbusch File:Gloeden, Wilhelm von (1856-1931) - n. 0354.jpg, "Sicilian boy", an 1896 cover by

Hans Christiansen Hans Christiansen may refer to: * Hans Christiansen (sailor) * Hans Christiansen (artist) Hans Christiansen (6 March 1866 in Flensburg – 5 January 1945 in Wiesbaden) was a German craftsman and painter of the Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("You ...

is in a style reminiscent of the

File:Fritz Dannenberg - Jugend. Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift, 1897.jpg, Fritz Dannenberg's illustration of a gleeful woman hanging onto an ejaculating champagne bottle -from 1897 File:Christiansen Andromeda.jpg,

's " Andromeda", 1898. File:Heinrich Kley - Loreley - Jugend 1911.jpg,

Heinrich Kley Heinrich Kley (15 April 1863 in Karlsruhe – 1945 in Munich) was a German illustrator, editorial illustrator and painter. Kley studied "practical arts" at the Karlsruhe Akademie and finished his studies in Munich. His early works were conventio ...

's interior illustration of the opera heroine

Loreley The Lorelei ( ; ), spelled Loreley in German, is a , steep slate rock on the right bank of the River Rhine in the Rhine Gorge (or Middle Rhine) at Sankt Goarshausen in Germany, part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...

appeared in 1911 File:Paul Rieth - Jugend 1915 - vol 1.jpg, A cover by Paul Rieth from 1915 depicting a German soldier File:Titel Jugend 1930 32.JPG, A 1930 cover depicting another German soldier

References

External links

''Jugend'' – Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben – digital version
at

University Library Heidelberg The University Library Heidelberg (german: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg) is the central library of the University of Heidelberg. It constitutes together with the 83 decentralized libraries of the faculties and institutes the University Lib ...