It was a little startling to find Darmstadt included in a short list with Munich, Paris, Brussels and Vienna. But there was a time ….
The time was early 1900s. The list was about Art Nouveau (Jugendstil). It was a time when electrification, cars and mass production were as new as digitalization or artificial intelligence today.
It’s hard to find two art experts who agree on what Art Nouveau was. But I think many would say it was a movement of artists and craftsmen who wanted to make the practical more pleasing by breaking down the distinction between fine arts (e.g., painting and sculpture) and applied arts.
The way it played out in Darmstadt, you might say Art Nouveau tried to make life a little brighter for the common man caught up in some of the dehumanizing aspects of industrialization.
At the beginning of the 19th Century, what began as a park at the highest point of the city (on the Mathildenhöhe) became an artists colony supported by royal money. The local grand duke wanted to promote the arts and crafts of the state, Hesse. Long afterward, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The U.S. military bases were in the southwestern part of Darmstadt, and the drab, rectangular, block-shaped military buildings strike a hard contrast with the 1920s artists colony on the Mathildenhöhe (Mathilden Heights) on the opposite side of the city.
Design and decoration of everyday objects, often taking hints from the curves of plants and flowers, aimed to give everyday objects a more pleasing look. Modern materials such as iron, glass, ceramics and concrete show up throughout Art Nouveau.
Cast iron, for example, was stronger and more flexible than wood or stone, enabling thinner supports and curves with wide windows. Interior design focused on furniture, glass, textiles, ceramics, jewelry and metal work.
Homes
Four exhibitions took place on the Heights from 1901 to WWI. The first displayed modern living and working spaces to the public, perhaps for the first time in an official exhibit.
The exhibit homes were permanent and still exist. That’s the big Gluckert house on the left and the Behrens house on the right, named for two of the original seven artists/architects invited to the art colony.
A model of the Olbrich House sits in the nearby Artists Colony Museum. The house was damaged during WWII and rebuilt somewhat differently. The blue-and-white tiles remind cognoscenti of the original.
You can’t walk in to the houses; they’re homes. But the museum nearby showcases Art Nouveau beds, chairs, table, silverware and decorations over multiple rooms. The artists tried to keep interiors compatible with exteriors and furnishings compatible with interiors.
Exhibition building
The huge exhibition building is the key to the site, showing connections between the colony creations, where they came from and where they led.
Wedding tower
The 150-foot “five finger” wedding tower to one side of the exhibition building has become a symbol of Darmstadt. It was completed in 1908 for the second wedding of the local grand duke.
Two hundred-nine steps take you up to the level of rooms such as the Princes Room, where preparations for civil weddings took place.
Russian chapel
On the same site, just a few feet away and maybe at the same time architects were designing the art nouveau area, the Russian czar built an ornate chapel for the Darmstadt princess who became his wife.
The incense reminded me right away of Russian Orthodox Sundays with my mom and grand-mom.
Waldspirale
The “Waldspirale” (sometimes called the Hundred Waters House) isn’t part of the artists colony, but it seems to be in the right city. About a hundred years after the exhibitions started and 10 minutes away by car, the Waldspirale contains 100 brightly colored apartments. The balconies of the apartments look like wavy shelves. It has some 1,000 windows, and the claim is that not a single one is like any other. Trees grow out of some.
Leave a Reply