Richard Riemerschmid (20 June 1868 – 13 April 1957) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and city planner from Munich. He was a major figure in ''

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 ...

'', the German form 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 ...

, and a founder of architecture in the style. A founder member of both the ''Vereinigte Werkstätte für Kunst im Handwerk'' (United Workshops for Art in Handcrafts) and the

Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (English: "German Association of Craftsmen"; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern arch ...

and the director of art and design institutions in Munich and Cologne, he prized craftsmanship but also pioneered machine production of artistically designed objects.

Life and career

Riemerschmid was born in Munich, the sixth of nine children of Eduard Riemerschmid, who headed the Munich distillery founded by his father Anton Riemerschmid,Winfried Nerdinger, ''Richard Riemerschmid, vom Jugendstil zum Werkbund: Werke und Dokumente. Eine Ausstellung der Architektursammlung der Technischen Universität München, des Münchner Stadtmuseums und des Germanischen Nationalmuseums Nürnberg'', Ausstellungskatalog der Architektursammlung der Technischen Universität München und des Münchner Stadtmuseums 4, Munich: Prestel, 1982
p. 9
and his wife Amalie. After completing his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen yea ...

at the Wilhelmsgymnasium in 1886 and military service in the army, he studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavari ...

under Gabriel Hackl and

Ludwig von Löfftz Ludwig von Löfftz (21 June 1845 – 3 December 1910) was a German genre and landscape painter. Biography He was born at Darmstadt. He was a pupil of August von Kreling and Karl Raupp at Nuremberg, then of Wilhelm von Diez at the Academy of ...

from 1888 to 1890 and then worked as an independent artist and architect. He began as an Impressionist and

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and real ...

painter.Lesley Jackson, ''Twentieth Century Pattern Design: Textile and Wallpaper Pioneers'', London: Beazley, 2002,
p. 30
Antonia Gruhn-Zimmermann

'' Neue Deutsche Biographie'' He produced advertising of various kinds on commission, including series of pictures for albums for the

Stollwerck Stollwerck GmbH is a German chocolate manufacturer. It was founded in 1839 and expanded internationally in Europe and America, becoming the second largest producer of chocolate in the United States by 1900. Since 2011 it has belonged to Belg ...

chocolate company of Cologne, one called "The Seasons" (''Jahreszeiten'') for Album No. 4 of 1899. He was a co-founder of the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (United Workshops for Art in Handcrafts) (1897 or 1898, originally Dresdner Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst, later Deutsche Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst and now

Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau The Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau is a medium-sized furniture-manufacturing business in the Hellerau district of the German city of Dresden. The company archives are deemed a valuable cultural asset and were provided with legal protection. C ...

) and the

(1907), which he headed from 1920 to 1926. From 1913 to 1924, he was director of the Munich Kunstgewerbeschule (which merged with the Academy of Fine Arts in 1946), and from 1926 to 1931 was a professor at and the director of the

Kölner Werkschulen The ''Kölner Werkschulen'' (Cologne Academy of Fine and Applied Arts), formerly Cologne Art and Craft Schools, was a university in Cologne training artists in visual arts, architecture and design from 1926 to 1971. History Origins The origins ...

(an art and design college which was a forerunner of the

Academy of Media Arts Cologne The Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) is an art and film school started 1990 in Cologne, Germany Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-mos ...

). He played an important role in the 1922 German Handcrafts Exhibition in Munich. He published books on art education. Riemerschmid paved the way for the modern artistic handcrafts movement. Influenced by the English Arts and Crafts movement, he created furniture, carpets, fabric and wallpaper designs and glass and porcelain pieces. In all of these his guiding principles were "objective clarity and purpose, solid craftsmanship and the use of simple, inexpensive materials". He created several interior designs, including for the Munich Kammerspiele (1900/01). With Joseph Maria Olbrich and his friend and colleague

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 cam ...

, he designed the 30 luxury cabins of the fast ocean liner ''

SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie SS ''Kronprinzessin Cecilie'' may refer to one of these ships: * SS ''Kronprinzessin Cecilie'' (1893), , ex ''Prinz Waldemar'' (1893), twin screw, steel steamer built Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (often abbreviated ...

'', launched in 1906, at the time one of the most ambitious and successful German passenger vessels, and he, Paul, and

Johann Poppe Johann Georg Poppe (12 September 1837 – 18 August 1915), often called Johannes Poppe by English-speaking writers, was a prominent architect in Bremen during the German Gründerzeit and an influential interior designer of ocean liners for the N ...

, house designer for the North German Lloyd Line, were to have co-designed the interiors of the never finished SS ''Columbus'' of 1914. The furniture in his 1899 show interiors was praised for its style, for varying the repetitive verticals by adding a diagonal note to the framing of a glass-fronted cabinet and having chairs taper upwards from a broad base, and above all for remaining true to simplicity. He began designing furniture because he could not find what he wanted for his flat after his marriage. In 1903-04 he designed a dinner and coffee service for Meissen porcelain, part of their attempt to incorporate art nouveau designs; it was well received by the critics but did not sell well, although some were also sold through the Workshops. It has been reissued as ''Blaue Rispe'' (blue meadow-grass). Haupttreppe in der Villa Hermann von Fischel in Kiel

Haupttreppe in der Villa Hermann von Fischel in Kiel

Riemerschmid designed the site plan, the factory and some of the housing for

Hellerau Hellerau is a northern quarter ''(Stadtteil)'' in the city of Dresden, Germany, slightly south of Dresden Airport. It was the first garden city in Germany. The northern section of Hellerau absorbed the village of Klotzsche, where some 18th cent ...

(now part of Dresden), which was the first garden city of the English type to be built in Germany. As an architect, he is known particularly for his houses: his own house in Munich, the Villa Fischel in Kiel, the Fieser villa in

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with France ...

, and the Frank villa in Göttingen and country house in

Witzenhausen Witzenhausen is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It was granted town rights in 1225, and until 1974, it was a district seat. The University of Kassel maintains a satellite campus in Witzenhausen at which ...

, and for the uncompleted "Walddorfstraße" workers' housing complex in Hagen, Westphalia, although his major contribution to Jugendstil architecture was his interior for the Munich Schauspielhaus (playhouse; later the Kammerspiele). At the United Workshops in Hellerau, Riemerschmid developed a programme of machine production of art furniture. For example, a chair in his "music room" exhibit at the German Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1899 was so popular, the Workshops immediately placed it in production, it was also being manufactured and sold by

Liberty's Liberty, commonly known as Liberty's, is a luxury department store in London, England. It is located on Great Marlborough Street in the West End of London. The building spans from Carnaby Street on the East to Kingly Street on the West, whe ...

the next year, and it was widely copied. He subsequently expanded this to the production of house kits. One such house, ordered in 1922 at an exhibition and erected in 1923 in

Rodenkirchen Rodenkirchen () is a southern borough (''Stadtbezirk'') of Cologne (Köln) in Germany. It has about 110,000 inhabitants and covers an area of . The borough includes the quarters Bayenthal, Godorf, Hahnwald, Immendorf, Marienburg, Meschenich, Ra ...

near Cologne from 4,000 parts, mostly wood but including tiles and heating stoves, was disassembled and stored in

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is on ...

in 1978. In 1984 the State of North Rhine-Westphalia declared it a landmark, and research revealed that it was the only example of the model ever built. A grandchild of the original purchaser had the pieces moved in 2004 to

Simbach am Inn Simbach am Inn ( en, Simbach on the Inn) is a town on the river Inn in the Rottal-Inn district of Bavaria, Germany. The Austrian city Braunau am Inn lies on the opposite side of the river from Simbach. History Simbach was one of the first pl ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

and reassembled there at considerable cost, assisted by the

Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz The ''Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz'' ("German Foundation for Monument Protection") is a German private initiative founded in 1985 that works for the preservation of cultural heritage in Germany and to promote the idea of cultural heritage man ...

(German Foundation for Landmark Protection). In 1895, Riemerschmid married the actress Ida Hofmann. They had four children. In 1910, his sister Frieda became the second wife of

Karl Schmidt-Hellerau Karl Camillo Schmidt-Hellerau (1 February 1873 – 6 November 1948) was a German carpenter, furniture manufacturer and social reformer. He was born in Zschopau, and is notable as the founder of Hellerau Hellerau is a northern quarter ''(Stad ...

, the founder of the United Workshops. After the Nazi regime came to power in 1933, Riemerschmid was forced out of the Werkbund, and in 1943 Hitler forbade the award of the

Goethe Medal for Art and Science Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

to him as urged by

Albert Speer Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, h ...

. However, he did receive the medal on 20 July that year. He is buried in the cemetery at

Gräfelfing Gräfelfing is a municipality in the district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. It is located 1 km west of Munich. The name "Gräfelfing" first appears as "Grevolvinga", which as per one hypothesis could possibly name a tribe leader named "g ...

, which he laid out in 1913. His drawings are in the architectural museum at the

Technical University Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

and his other papers in the German Art Archive of the

Germanisches Nationalmuseum The Germanisches National Museum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, it houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day. The Germanisches National ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. The Richard-Riemerschmid-Berufskolleg, a vocational school in Cologne, is named for him in memory of his direction of the Kölner Werkschulen.

Selected works

* 1898-1906: Personal villa in the style of an English cottage,

Pasing Pasing is a district in the city of Munich, Germany, and part of the borough Pasing-Obermenzing. Overview Pasing is located west of the Munich city centre, at the north-western edge of the city's innermost traffic zone. The district is mainly re ...

, Munich. Later extensions: studio and connecting building. Furnishings removed in 2010. * 1899: "Music salon" interior, shown at the German Art Exhibition in Dresden * 1900: "The art-lover's room" interior, shown at the Paris Exposition of 1900 * 1901: Interior design of the Schauspielhaus (later the Kammerspiele) in Munich (architect:

Max Littmann Max Littmann (3 January 1862 – 20 September 1931) was a German architect. Littmann was educated in the Gewerbeakademie Chemnitz and the Technische Hochschule Dresden. In 1885, he moved to Munich where he met Friedrich Thiersch and Gabr ...

) * 1902–1903: Fieser villa in Baden-Baden * 1904: "Rector's room at the Industrial School in Nuremberg" interior, shown at the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds totaling $15 mi ...

in St. Louis * 1904–05: Fischel villa in Kiel * 1905: Rudolph villa in Dresden (destroyed) * 1905–06: Sultan villa in Grunewald, Berlin, commissioned in 1904 by Berlin industrialist Adolf Sultan, father of pianist

Grete Sultan Grete Sultan (born Johanna Margarete Sultan) (June 21, 1906June 26, 2005) was a German-American pianist. Born in Berlin into a musical Jewish family, she studied piano from an early age with American pianist Richard Buhlig, and later with Leonid ...

; demolished 1965. * 1906: Frank villa in Göttingen * 1906: Fritz Frank country house in Witzenhausen * 1907–10: Walddorfstraße Workers' Settlement for Hagener Textilindustrie Gebrüder Elbers AG in Hagen (only 11 houses built of the planned 87 buildings)Walddorf-Siedlung in Hagen
Route der Wohnkultur, Baukunst-NRW * 1909–10: Scholten villa in Duisburg (demolished) * 1909–11: Manufacturing plant, Deutsche Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst, Moritzburger Weg 67, Hellerau, Dresden * 1909–11: Hoffmann villa in Halle * 1909–13: Wieland villa in

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no ...

* 1910: "Dining room" and "lady's chamber" interiors, shown at the 1910 International Exposition in Brussels * 1910–12: Schwalten villa at Schwaltenweiher,

Ostallgäu Ostallgäu is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts of Oberallgäu, Unterallgäu, Augsburg, Landsberg, Weilheim-Schongau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and by the Aus ...

* 1910–12: Carl villa, for the publisher Hans Carl, Höhenbergstraße 35,

Feldafing Feldafing () is a municipality in Starnberg district, Bavaria, Germany, and is located on the west shore of Lake Starnberg, southwest of Munich. History The history of Feldafing begins on the Roseninsel or Rose Island, the only island in La ...

* 1911: Naumann villa in

Riesa Riesa is a town in the district of Meißen in Saxony, Germany. It is located on the river Elbe, approximately northwest of Dresden. History The name ''Riesa'' is derived from Slavic ''Riezowe''. This name, romanised as "Rezoa", appears first i ...

* 1914: Interior design and furniture for the villa in the Werkbund exhibition at Cologne * 1922: Factory building for Anton Riemerschmid Liquors on Prater Island, Munich * 1924: War memorial, Schloßstraße, Ismaning * 1925: Exhibition hall at the German Transport Exhibition in Munich * 1928: Pavilion for Hermann Reckendorf GmbH, publisher, at the "Pressa" international press exhibition in Cologne * 1928–29: Schaffer villa in Klingenmünster * 1929–31: Wefelscheid villa in

Bendorf Bendorf () is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. north of Koblenz. Structure of the town The town consists of the following districts: *Bendorf *Sayn *Mülhofen *S ...

Selected publications

* ''Wege und Irrwege unserer Kunsterziehung''. Berlin: Reckendorf, 917* ''Künstlerische Erziehungsfragen''. Flugschriften des Münchner Bundes. 2 vols. Munich: Müller, 1917, 1919

Honours

* 1914: ''Geheimrat'', Kingdom of Bavaria * 1924: ''Geheimer Regierungsrat'', Bavaria * 1943: Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft * 1951: City of Munich architecture prize * 1952: '' Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz'' (Commander) * 1952: City of Munich grand prize for art * 1954: Honorary membership in the

* 1955: Honorary doctorate in engineering, ''Technische Hochschule Stuttgart'', now the University of Stuttgart

References

Sources

* Michaela Rammert-Götz. ''Richard Riemerschmid, Möbel und Innenräume von 1895-1900''. Schriften aus dem Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität München 22. Munich: Tuduv, 1987. * Bernhard Graf. ''Richard Riemerschmid, Bayerischer Architekt zwischen Jugendstil und Werkbund''. Documentary.

Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...

2006 * Maria Wüllenkemper. ''Richard Riemerschmid: "Nicht die Kunst schafft den Stil, das Leben schafft ihn"''. Regensburger Studien zur Kunstgeschichte 6. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2009. * Detlef Lorenz. ''Reklamekunst um 1900. Künstlerlexikon für Sammelbilder''. Berlin: Reimer, 2000. * Thomas Nitschke. ''Die Geschichte der Gartenstadt Hellerau''. Dresden: Hellerau, 2009.

External links

*
Examples of his art and design
at ArtNet
Examples of his work and biography from ''Grove Art Online''
at MOMA
Textilarbeitersiedlung Walddorfstraße
Themenroute 9 - Industriekultur an Volme und Ennepe, Metropoleruhr
Das Richard-Riemerschmid Berufskolleg in Köln
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riemerschmid, Richard 1868 births 1957 deaths 20th-century German architects 19th-century German painters 19th-century German male artists German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists People educated at the Wilhelmsgymnasium (Munich) Architects from Munich People from the Kingdom of Bavaria Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni Art Nouveau architects