DOI article:
Deubner, Ludwig: German architecture and decoration
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41875#0138
GERMAN ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION
disciplined force which, thanks to the support received from
manufacturers, had at its command abundant resources, and was
advancing unceasingly and triumphantly along the path towards
its clearly defined goal. In the short space of six weeks during
which the exhibition was open the sales of these modern German
art productions in Paris alone amounted to something like a
hundred thousand marks, while the sales of similar productions at
the Brussels Exhibition of the same year also reached an enormous
total.
There is another point which the writer ought not to ignore
and on which he touched a year ago, /.<?., the split which has arisen in
the modern school of arts and crafts in Germany, symptoms of which
already began to show themselves at the Brussels Exhibition, a
split which has assumed not inconsiderable proportions, but which
as regards its consequences it would be easy to over-estimate.
Everyone who knows how much the singleness of purpose and
achievement displayed by the artists has contributed to the astonish-
ing success of the modern movement will deplore this rupture,
yet bearing in mind the diverse individualities of the artists partici-
pating, it must be regarded as inevitable. The new school has
hitherto based its organic laws on the three factors of purpose,
material, and workmanship ; but there were many gifted natures
to whom this materialistic conception could not give permanent
satisfaction, and another factor in bringing about the secession we
are now witnessing was the perception that the new ideas have failed
to elicit the sympathy of wide circles among our countrymen, whose
requirements in the shape of ornament and greater luxuriousness have
been so little accommodated by the new school. This fission, in
itself quite natural and not at all surprising to those who have
followed the movement, would have claimed but little attention if
it had not emanated from artists who at one time were among the
most ardent champions and uncompromising advocates of the prin-
ciples of constructive form. In their recourse to the extravagant
forms which held sway in the middle of the nineteenth century, the
numerous opponents of the progressive movement see a welcome
proof that this movement is in reality merely an artistic whim, a
transient mode, which one need not take seriously. As a conse-
quence of the intrigues of these opponents it is possible that the
secessionist movement might injuriously affect the art industry, if
the few artists who have broken away from the creed of pure objec-
tivity were to gain many adherents among the producers. Happily,
however, the bulk of those leaders in the field of applied art who
are allied together in the Deutscher Werkbund continue with one
124
disciplined force which, thanks to the support received from
manufacturers, had at its command abundant resources, and was
advancing unceasingly and triumphantly along the path towards
its clearly defined goal. In the short space of six weeks during
which the exhibition was open the sales of these modern German
art productions in Paris alone amounted to something like a
hundred thousand marks, while the sales of similar productions at
the Brussels Exhibition of the same year also reached an enormous
total.
There is another point which the writer ought not to ignore
and on which he touched a year ago, /.<?., the split which has arisen in
the modern school of arts and crafts in Germany, symptoms of which
already began to show themselves at the Brussels Exhibition, a
split which has assumed not inconsiderable proportions, but which
as regards its consequences it would be easy to over-estimate.
Everyone who knows how much the singleness of purpose and
achievement displayed by the artists has contributed to the astonish-
ing success of the modern movement will deplore this rupture,
yet bearing in mind the diverse individualities of the artists partici-
pating, it must be regarded as inevitable. The new school has
hitherto based its organic laws on the three factors of purpose,
material, and workmanship ; but there were many gifted natures
to whom this materialistic conception could not give permanent
satisfaction, and another factor in bringing about the secession we
are now witnessing was the perception that the new ideas have failed
to elicit the sympathy of wide circles among our countrymen, whose
requirements in the shape of ornament and greater luxuriousness have
been so little accommodated by the new school. This fission, in
itself quite natural and not at all surprising to those who have
followed the movement, would have claimed but little attention if
it had not emanated from artists who at one time were among the
most ardent champions and uncompromising advocates of the prin-
ciples of constructive form. In their recourse to the extravagant
forms which held sway in the middle of the nineteenth century, the
numerous opponents of the progressive movement see a welcome
proof that this movement is in reality merely an artistic whim, a
transient mode, which one need not take seriously. As a conse-
quence of the intrigues of these opponents it is possible that the
secessionist movement might injuriously affect the art industry, if
the few artists who have broken away from the creed of pure objec-
tivity were to gain many adherents among the producers. Happily,
however, the bulk of those leaders in the field of applied art who
are allied together in the Deutscher Werkbund continue with one
124