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 a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

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 exper ...

and city planner from

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He was a major figure in ''

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

'', the German form of

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 ...

, 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 (; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The ''Werkbund'' became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, parti ...

and the director of art and design institutions in Munich and

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, 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 year ...

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 (, 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 Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

under Gabriel Hackl and Ludwig von Löfftz from 1888 to 1890 and then worked as an independent artist and architect. He began as an

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and

Symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

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

''

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 ...

'' He produced advertising of various kinds on commission, including series of pictures for albums for the Stollwerck chocolate company of

, 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) 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 (an art and design college which was a forerunner of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne). 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 The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

, 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 The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstraße (Munich), Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three ...

(1900/1901). 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 ca ...

, he designed the 30 luxury cabins of the fast ocean liner '' SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie'', launched in 1906, at the time one of the most ambitious and successful German passenger vessels, and he, Paul, and Johann Poppe, 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 Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first Europe, European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's ...

, 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 Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

), 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 Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, the Fieser villa in

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

, and the Frank villa in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

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 was a district seat. The University of Kassel maintains a satellite campus in Witzenhausen, which offer ...

, and for the uncompleted "Walddorfstraße" workers' housing complex in

Hagen Hagen () is a city in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, on the southeastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme meet the Ruhr (river), Ruhr. In 2023, the ...

, 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 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 near

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. The city is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan ...

in 1978. In 1984 the State of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

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,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

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 ma ...

(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, the founder of the United Workshops. After the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

came to power in 1933, Riemerschmid was forced out of the Werkbund, and in 1943

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

forbade the award of the Goethe Medal for Art and Science 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 Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of W ...

. 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 "gr ...

, 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; ) is a Public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied science, applied and natural sciences. Est ...

and his other papers in the German Art Archive of the

Germanisches Nationalmuseum The ''Germanisches Nationalmuseum'' 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 museum is Germany' ...

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. 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, 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) * 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 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; 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 Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

(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 * 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 ...

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

Feldafing Feldafing () is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in Starnberg (district), 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 Ros ...

* 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 f ...

* 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 Ismaning () is a municipality in Bavaria, Germany, located near Munich. Geography In 2016 it had 16,770 inhabitants. The town is located about seven kilometers northeast of Munich on the right high bank of the Isar River that flows into the Dan ...

* 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 *St ...

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 The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

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

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. * Freyja Hartzell. ''Richard Riemerschmid's Extraordinary Living Things''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2022.

External links

*
Examples of his art and design
at ArtNet
Examples of his work and biography from ''Grove Art Online''
at

MOMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

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 Artists 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