Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus Hanau - Hanau, Germany

Post an announcement here if you know of a permanent collection that is worth a visit.
Post Reply
dognose
Site Admin
Posts: 59003
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:53 pm
Location: England

Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus Hanau - Hanau, Germany

Post by dognose »

Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus Hanau
Altstädter Markt 6
63450 Hanau

Deutsche Goldschmiedehaus Hanau


The German Goldsmiths’ House on Altstädter Markt in Hanau is one of the most historically significant buildings in Hanau’s Old Town and was used initially as a town hall. Its construction was commenced in 1537/38, during the Renaissance period. When Hanau’s New Town was founded in 1597, Dutch and Walloon incomers settled there, many of them goldsmiths. They came together to form the Guild of Goldsmiths and Silversmiths in 1610, thereby laying the foundation for the heyday of goldsmiths’ art in Hanau in the latter half of the 18th century. Not least a participant in this development was the “Hanauische Academie der Zeichenkunst”, founded in 1772, which enabled a qualified goldsmith’s and silversmith’s apprenticeship from 1889 onwards. Use of the goldsmiths’ house as a town hall was abandoned as early as circa 1900, when the Hanau Historical Society installed a museum on the city’s history.

The building owes its present-day role as the German Goldsmiths’ House to the Berlin-based jeweler and goldsmith Ferdinand Richard Wilm (1880–1971), who was a leading proponent of artisanal gold and silver smithery. In the early 1940s Wilm recommended that the City of Hanau set up a center of precious metal-based art in the former town hall – the concept of the German Goldsmiths’ House as a place of encounters for artisanal gold and silver smithery was born. Wilm received support for his project from the highest ranks of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party: equipment and laborers for the conversion were approved and provided through the intervention of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin in 1942. The House’s inauguration took place on October 18, 1942.

On March 19, 1945, the building fell victim to a bombing raid. During the reconstruction between 1955–1958 the premises were adapted entirely for use as an exhibition venue for German and international jewelry and hollowware design. From July 1981 the museum was subjected to thorough interior renovation and was reopened in time for the 40th anniversary of the Goldsmiths’ House on October 23, 1982. Further construction measures were performed in 2004/05 – the House underwent conversion for the use of persons of reduced mobility with the addition of an elevator and a redesign of the washrooms. 2019 saw the contemporary renovation of the entrance hall and basement by means of a lavish redesign.

With its diverse array of national and international exhibitions on individual jewelry and hollowware designers and presentations by various artists’ groups, the German Goldsmiths’ House assumes an important place in Hanau’s museum landscape and is furthermore one of the most important centers of artistic gold and silver smithery in Germany.

The German Association for Goldsmiths’ Art was founded in Berlin on August 3, 1932. At the initiative of Berlin jeweler Ferdinand Richard Wilm (1880-1971), fourteen representatives from the worlds of business, art, and culture – including architect and artist Prof. Dr. h.c. Peter Behrens, art historian Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Waetzold, along with the goldsmiths Hugo Schaper and Emil Lettré – convened to form a constitutive assembly in Berlin.
F.R. Wilm sought closeness to the top leadership of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and high-ranking personalities almost immediately after Hitler’s takeover. The association was repeatedly a recipient of funding, members of the leading ranks took part in important events, and chairmen Ludwig Roselius and Hermann Esser utilized their political influence on the association’s behalf. Gratitude was shown to the association’s supporters with distinctions such as the “Golden Medal” and the “Golden Ring of Honor for Promoters”.

After the war, the association began efforts to distance itself from its past. The name change to “Association for Goldsmiths’ Art” was resolved at a members’ meeting on May 16, 1950. The association has been acting as a non-profit, internationally oriented society for the promotion of jewelry and hollowware design ever since.

One of its most important task areas lies in promoting artists and upcoming generations. The association began fulfilling this duty right after the war’s end, through the organization of numerous competitions – for example, “A Silver Civic Platter” (1951), “Color in Jewelry” (1972), or “Adornment for Hand and Ear” (1993). The gold and silver smithery scene finds broad-based recognition to this day, through international competitions such as the “Silvertriennial International” and the “Friedrich Becker Prize”. The association distinguishes outstanding personalities on the gold and silver smithery scene with the the awarding of the “Golden Ring of Honor for Artists”. Promoters are still honored with the “Golden Medal” today. Every other year since 2004, the association has played host to the city’s goldsmith, who receives funding from the City of Hanau. The “Celia Holtzer Fellowship” has been awarded to gifted students of the Staatliche Zeichenakademie since 2019.

The association, which has had its headquarters at the German Goldsmiths’ House in Hanau since 1985, has been responsible for the operational management of the Goldsmiths’ House since 2006. It takes care of organizing varied exhibitions and the museum’s educational program.

In 2017, the Association for Goldsmiths’ Art (Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e.V.) commissioned the independent corporate history association, Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte (GUG), with the appraisal and processing of its history during the National Socialist period. The outcomes of the scientific research by historians Michael Bermejo M.A. and Dr. Andrea H. Schneider-Braunberger were summarized in a publication bearing the title, “The Golden Network – The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst During the National Socialist Period”.

Opening hours: Check website.

Admission: €2

https://www.goldschmiedehaus.com/en/tes ... miedekunst
Post Reply

Return to “Museum Exhibitions - Silver - Permanent”