Georg Hirth (13 July 1841 in Tonna – 28 March 1916 in

Tegernsee Tegernsee () is a Town#Germany, town in the Miesbach (district), Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the banks of Tegernsee (lake), Lake Tegernsee, which is 747 m (2,451 ft) AMSL, above sea level. A spa town, it is su ...

) 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 Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

Biography

Hirth was born in Tonna, present-day

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

in 1841, studied to be an economist in

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

and in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, and after a career working as a journalist at

Münchner Neueste Nachrichten ''Münchner Neueste Nachrichten'' (Munich's Latest News) was a German daily newspaper published in Munich between 1848 and 1945. The paper was first published on 9 April 1848 as cheap way to inform the masses. After its purchase by , the newspap ...

he founded the magazine '' Jugend: Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben'' (''Youth: the illustrated weekly magazine of art and lifestyle of Munich''). This publication, which reflected the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

ideals that were circulating at the time among artists, was instrumental in promoting the style of Art Nouveau in Germany. As a result, the magazine's name was adopted as the most common German-language term for the movement: ''Jugendstil'' ("''Jugend''-style"). Hirth also coined the term "

Secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

" to represent the spirit of the various modern and reactionary movements of the era. He died in

''Die kleine Enzyklopädie'', Encyclios-Verlag, Zürich, 1950, Vol. 1, p. 721. in 1916.

Selected works

*Herausgeber: ''Tagebuch des deutsch-französischen Kriegs'' (Leipzig 1870–1874) – ''Diary of the Franco-Prussian War'' *''Der Formenschatz der Renaissance'' (1877 ff., seit 1879 unter dem Titel ''Der Formenschatz'') – published in English as ''Art Treasure'' *''Das deutsche Zimmer der Gotik und Renaissance etc.'' (3. Auflage 1886) – ''The German Gothic and Renaissance Room'' *''Kulturgeschichtliches Bilderbuch aus drei Jahrhunderten'' (1883 ff.) – published in English as ''Picture book of the graphic arts, 1500–1800'' *Published a series of

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...

reproduction Reproduction (or procreation or breeding) is the biological process by which new individual organisms – "offspring" – are produced from their "parent" or parents. There are two forms of reproduction: Asexual reproduction, asexual and Sexual ...

s of German

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

prints and drawings by

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer ( , ;; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer or Duerer, was a German painter, Old master prin ...

Hans Holbein the younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; ; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He ...

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder ( ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of German ...

Jost Amman Jost Amman (June 13, 1539 – March 17, 1591) was a Old Swiss Confederacy, Swiss-German artist, celebrated chiefly for his woodcuts, done mainly for book illustrations. Early life Amman was born in Zürich, the son of a professor of Cl ...

Virgil Solis Virgil Solis or Virgilius Solis (1514 – 1 August 1562), a member of a prolific family of artists, was a German draughtsman and printmaker in engraving, etching and woodcut who worked in his native city of Nuremberg. Biography His prints ...

and others in the ''Liebhaber-Bibliothek alter Illustratoren'' (1880 ff.)

References

Bibliography

Neue Deutsche Biographie (''NDB''; Literal translation, literally ''New German Biography'') is a Biography, biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 27 volumes published thus far co ...

, vol. 9, pp. 239–241, and vol. 12, p. 217

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirth, Georg Art Nouveau German editors German art critics German art historians 19th-century art collectors 20th-century German art collectors 1841 births 1916 deaths German male non-fiction writers German magazine founders