after all, we owe the building of a mansion here in Wendgräben to the birth of a child. With the birth of Hans Jürgen Traugott Dajo von Wulffen on November, 9th 1909, his parents decided to build a house "within the meaning of English country life - proven throughout generations - for German conditions."

Hans Waldemar von Wulffen and his wife Martha, née Löbbecke, the orderers, called Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius as architect. Who was Hermann Muthesius? Which position did Muthesius occupy within his profession at the beginning of the 20th century in the German `Kaiserreich´? How did Muthesius react upon the `Bauhaus´ and its rules of form/design?

"Heimat"

140 years ago Muthesius was born in Groß-Neuhausen. Groß-Neuhausen is a little village on the north-eastern fringe of the "Thüringer Becken" ( = Thuringia Basin). 25 km to the south-west of the village, in Erfurt, the regional government has its seat. Groß-Neuhausen belonged to the great-dukedom of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach since the Congress of Vienna (1815) until it became part of the Free State of Thuringia after 1918. Only a few hundred meters separated Thuringian Groß-Neuhausen from Prussian Kölleda.

Obviously Hermann Muthesius did not care much for his Thuringian nationality. In an allied letter of safe-conduct, issued for the entry into the British Zone during the Weimar Republic, he named Prussia as the state to which he felt affiliated to.

School

In Groß-Neuhausen Muthesius visited the elementary school. The village´s parson taught him French, German and Music. The young man made his apprenticeship as mason in his father´s workshop. After a six month preparatory course in Halle (Saale), four years of college time (1878-82) in the great-ducal town of residence, Weimar, followed. At that time Great Duke Karl Alexander (1818-1901) reerected the Wartburg (1838-90); before he had founded the "Kunsthochschule" (University of Arts, 1860) and build up the "Weimarer Landesmuseum" ( = Regional Museum, 1863).

The examination-committee of the "Realschule I. Ordnung" ( = college) rated Muthesius´ moral conduct as well as his assiduity and scientific interest with the best mark possible ("sehr gut"). 21-year-old Muthesius left the college taking first-class honours and "beste Wünsche für sein ferneres Wohlergehen" (= best wishes for his further well-being). Asked, what profession he aspired to, he answered: "Architekt".

Studies

Muthesius at first studied philosophy and arts, then changing to architecture at the "Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg" ( = Technical High School) . Julius Posener, critic of architecture and Muthesius-enthusiast, wrote in 1989 about the education at Charlottenburg:

"In 1923 studies of architecture at Charlottenburg were managed in the same way as I don't know how long before." (…) "the management was school-like. For each subject the student had to deliver a number of prescribed ´sheets´: five for ´antique´, ten for ´building construction´, eight for ´statics´ and so on. Because these sheets had not changed for a long time, intelligent students copied them above a pane of glass. This was especially the case for the antique-sheets. The professor for the antique, who was accustomed to this, took the sheets and held them against the light in order to see whether points were pierced through by dividers. If he saw such signs of copying, he would fly into a rage and cross out the illustration with a pencil. (…) Later I heard that Erich Mendelsohn had bought all his pre-examination sheets from a fellow-student, who had no more use of them. Only the name was scrupulously extinguished by Mendelsohn. After I knew this (…) I felt confirmed in my rage against the system of ´sheets´ - ours were probably the same as in Mendelsohn´s time." (Posener III, p.141)

Mendelsohn (1887-1953), architect of the Potsdam "Einsteinturm" ( = Einstein-Tower), Chemnitz and Stuttgart Schocken-warehouses and synagoges in Cleveland (Ohio), St. Louis (Miss.) and St. Paul (Minn.), had studied at Charlottenburg one generation after Muthesius.

Hermann Muthesius combined his studies with an apprenticeship at Paul Wallot´s Berlin construction bureau. Here he was in the centre of public building activities: Wallot was the architect of the `Reichstag` (1884-94). In 1902 Muthesius praised Wallot´s style ("unhesitating application of the forms of the past, however no clinging to one style") and work: "With it a new epoch of German architecture begins." (SA & BK, p.44)

Foreign experiences

After his studies, Muthesius was charged to go to Tokio. According to his contract he had to take part in the development of certain "Staatsbauten" (= public buildings), for example the House of Parliament. In Tokio Muthesius planned and executed his first building, a German protestant church. Foremost supporter and sponsor of the building was the Weimar Great-Duke Karl Alexander. Muthesius participated in society; we find his name in a concert-booklet (1889). Here Muthesius is listed as the third member (piano) of a trio playing Mozart (HM WB, p.108).

His travel back to Germany led him through China, Siam, India and Upper Egypt for four months. In several notebooks (today in the Werkbund-Archiv, Berlin) Muthesius described his impressions. After his return he became editor of the section ´surface engineering´ in the "Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung" (= Central Monitor of the Building Administration) and the "Zeitschrift für Bauwesen" (= Journal of Architecture) until 1895. Because Muthesius passed the "Baumeisterprüfung" (= state examination for architects) once again taking first-class honours, he received a journey to Italy as gratification. His report on the journey was published by ministerial order.
In 1896 he took up his post at the German Embassy in London. For over six years he reported about English architecture, art and life to an interested German public. In Germany his reports were published in different journals, ranging from professional to amateur. That is why the name Muthesius was associated with English culture and English life in a short time.

The reception of Muthesius´ work in Germany

Paul Schultze-Naumburg, architect by profession, wrote in 1903, the last year of Muthesius´ residence in London, in the conservative journal "Kunstwart":

"Muthesius is architect and technical attaché at the German Embassy in London. In this function he lives there for seven years now and has become a profound connoisseur of English architecture. Most of what has become German "Geistesbesitz" (= mental ownership) lately, we do owe him." (p.125)

Why do I put so much strain on this statement? Since 1900 Schultze-Naumburg was famed for his "Kulturarbeiten" (= cultural works). In these books Schultze-Naumburg presented photographical confrontations showing examples of "good" and "bad" architecture. Put to the point, Schultze-Naumburg´s critic of the mansion-building architects of that time read: "Houses are made on the drawing-board and planted somewhere." He wished the adjustment of the house to the natural surroundings, not the other way round. Schultze-Naumburg became "a not unimportant representative of national-socialist cultural thought." (Posener II, p.302). In 1934 he was charged to build the "Nietzsche-Gedächtnishalle" (= Nietzsche Memorial) in Weimar (Simon/Ritz, pp. 171)

To sum up: Even the "Kultur-Nationalist" Schutze-Naumburg paid reverence to the mediator between Germany and England, Hermann Muthesius.

Foundation of the "Deutsche Werkbund" (= German Work Federation)

Nevertheless, the equation of Muthesius with England led to severe accusations on the part of the "Fachverband für die wirtschaftlichen Interessen des Kunstgewerbes" (= professional association for the economic interests of arts and crafts) in 1907. The association as well as the sensational press complained about Muthesius: During a speech he had - it was rumored - made clear that German "Kunstindustrie" produced too much "Schund" (= trash). At the same time Muthesius demanded more solid and more beautiful work by that industry. The association´s reaction was clear-cut: Muthesius, who was termed as a "Nichtskönner" (= uncapable person) and a friend of England (!), should be prohibited to speak and write in public. The Berlin merchants corporation and the chamber of commerce were urged to take away from Muthesius his new professorship at the "Handelshochschule" (= commercial academy).

Direct consequence of these accusations was the withdrawal of the Hellerauer Dresdener Werkstätten (Karl Schmidt), the Königliche Manufaktur Nymphenburg and
industrialist Peter Bruckmann from the association. Indirectly the so-called "Muthesius-Hetze" (= agitation against Muthesius) led to the foundation of the Deutscher Werkbund. The English Arts and Crafts Movement had seen a contradiction between art and industrial methods of art-production. The Werkbund aimed in the first place to bridge this contradiction without denying the reality of industrial production. The Germans spoke "of the artist on the one, of the worker on the other side" - they accepted the reality of the division of labour (Posener I, p.24)

In 1904 Muthesius had been appointed "Regierungs- und Gewerbeschulrat" (= a civil-service-rank). In that year he build his first country-house in Knesebeck-street (Berlin-Zehlendorf). The house became a sensation; people went on a pilgrimage to see "das englische Haus" (= the English house).

Protection of Monuments

During those years Muthesius fought tooth and nail against the "´Wiederherstellung´ von Baudenkmälern" (= recovery of monuments). As examples for the recovery of monuments Muthesius was acquainted with the termination of the "Kölner Dom" (= Cologne Cathedral) as well as with the renewal of the Wartburg, finished in 1890, by Weimar Great-Duke Karl Alexander. In 1902 a discussion about the recovery of Heidelberg Castle was at its climax. The desire to converge a ruin - by the greatest possible recovery - into its original state would destroy the historical substance of a building, Muthesius reflected (NDR, p.166). The smaller the obvious difference between old and new, the bigger the loss of historical substance. It made much more sense, Muthesius declared, to impress the character of "a building of our times" on the "Neuschöpfung" (= new creation).

Against "Jugendstil" - for houses adequate to living demands

At the same time Muthesius condemned the Art Nouveau Movement from Belgium, which itself was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. "Jugendstil" ignored the inherent structures of "Material" (= natural products): "The sentimental swinging of all lines (…) does not take into consideration any material. It compels the ornament of a book, a brass-chandelier and any furniture to follow its rules in the same way." (SA & BK, p.59) Modern architects would glue "vegetable ornaments and little-tree-motives" on old buildings, without having changed the interior structure. Muthesius saw a solution in the "correspondence of content and form" of a building; a house would have to be designed "exactly fitting for the function" it had to serve (p.50).

"A house is to live in, not to look at" (Francis Bacon)

This was Muthesius´ motto, under which he fought for an "autonomous civic culture" (KG & A, p.35). The roots for an autonomous civic culture Muthesius found in one´s own house, in one´s own flat: "Everyone of us has it in his hands to design the room in which he lives "vernünftig-künstlerisch" (= according to rational and artistic measures, SA & BK, p.60). Nevertheless, Muthesius stated, "the German" had - in comparison to "the English" - "no proper house". Muthesius felt it to be his personal but also official task to build a house for "the German", which should suit his demands.

Until his death Muthesius planned and executed 69 country houses, seven city and business houses, suburban colonies in Dresden-Hellerau, Duisburg, Emden, Alt-Glienecke, Halberstadt, Leipzig-Lößnig and - Marienbrunn, Stettin, Königsberg, Herleshausen, Berlin-Tempelhof, Vacha, Nauen and Grünberg. The 1919 exhibition "Sparsame Bauweise" (= The Economic kind of Building) saw the newest development of the country house architect - a worker´s home (HM WB, p.121)

The Wendgräben mansion is one of the houses Muthesius build in the frontiers of today´s Sachsen-Anhalt. Others are located in Freist (Dryander), to the north-west of Halle (Saale), and in Halberstadt (Klamroth). Both are used (hotel/private) and are thereby protected against decay. Wendgräben is - after a formulation by Julius Posener - "an English country house (…) in programme and after the ground-plan." (Posener II, p.133)

Muthesius with his son Eckhart and daughter Renata

After the Revolution

Although Muthesius´ activity after the fall of the "Kaiserreich" happened to a much smaller degree in the limelight, he and his literary work remained terms of reference to the architectural discussion. Around 1925 the young student of Charlottenburg Technical High School, Posener, together with his parents, visited the grey-haired master builder:

"Muthesius showed everything to us, always stressing the practical part of things. I was very impressed to see him opening up a small door in one of the wardrobes, fetching a ladder which served as a vehicle to unlock the almost hidden upper partitions of that wardrobe (…) Subsequently we drank tea in that extended room and Muthesius spoke about van de Velde. (…)

A certain embarrassment governed during the visit. Muthesius, who did no longer belong to the leading architects of the time, was quite satisfied to find that a young architect wanted to see him. On the other hand he must have felt it to be odd, too. (…) On my part, I couldn't know that at that time Muthesius was a deeply disillusioned man. He didn't understand the modern movement of the twenties and denied his own experience by building houses like the one across Technical Highschool, ´Haus Tuteur´." (Posener III, p.154)

It was the same reproach Muthesius addressed to the modern movement of the twenties as in 1902 against Art Nouveau. The "Bauhaus-Moderne" would in the end be an appearance which soon had to fall victim to the change of fashion: "Every new current is proclaimed with sacred eagerness and persuasive loyality as "das Wahre" (= the truth) by the artists and corroborated through manifests."

The two reasons of "Bauhaus-Moderne" as functional and economic challenged Muthesius. Was it not him, who repeatedly had called for houses which should be designed exactly according to the function, they were destined to accomplish? The modern architects description of new buildung projects - form follows function - Muthesius could not accept.

In reality, wrote Muthesius, forms followed very different requirements: owners of a house in course of construction made the architect follow the demand to design neat front-sides. Women, said Muthesius, "take up every inconvenience, indeed, every absurdity of fashion if they only can achieve to be good-looking." (KU & MS, pp.496)

This was the practical knowledge of an architect who had learned in England that one fundamental condition of a good building is a self-conscious "Bauherr" (= building owner). Only the "Bauherr" who renounced the exhibition of wealth could build a mansion which came close to the ideal of an English country house.

Norbert Böhnke, M.A.

Literature:

HM WB = Hermann Muthesius im Werkbund-Archiv. Eine Ausstellung des Werkbund-Archivs im Martin-Gropius-Bau vom 11.Oktober-11.November, Werkbund-Archiv i.Z.m.d. Museumspädagogischen Dienst Berlin, Berlin: 1990; Posener I = Julius Posener: Anfänge des Funktionalismus. Von Arts and Crafts zum Deutschen Werkbund, Berlin: Ullstein, 1964; Posener II = Berlin auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Architektur. Das Zeitalter Wilhelms II. München: Prestel, 1979, pp.127-150; Posener III = Julius Posener: Fast so alt wie das Jahrhundert (Erweiterte Neuausgabe), Basel/Berlin/Boston: Birkhäuser, 1993; Simon-Ritz/Ulbricht = Frank Simon-Ritz und Justus H. Ulbricht: "Heimatstätte des Zarathustrawerkes", in: Wege nach Weimar, Hans Wilderotter und Michael Dorrmann (Hrsg.), Berlin: Jovis, 1999

Sources:

KG & A = Kunstgewerbe und Architektur, Jena: Diederichs, 1907; KU & MS = Kunst und Modeströmungen, in: Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst, 1928, pp. 496-498; NDR = Die `Wiederherstellung´ von Baudenkmälern, in: Neue Deutsche Rundschau (Freie Bühne), H. 1+2, 13.Jg., 1902, pp. 156-168; SA & BK = Stilarchitektur und Baukunst: Wandlungen der Architektur und der gewerblichen Künste im 19. Jahrhundert und ihr heutiger Standpunkt, 1902