Harry Graf Kessler
Encyclopedia
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
, diplomat, writer, and patron of modern art. His diaries "Berlin in Lights" published in 1971 revealed anecdotes and details of the artistic and theatrical life in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, mostly in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, from the collapse of Germany at the end of World War I until his death in Lyon in 1937.
Family
Harry Kessler was born in Paris, he was the son of HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
banker Adolf Wilhelm Kessler (24 November 1838 – 22 January 1895) and Alice Harriet Blosse-Lynch (born 17 July, 1844 in Bombay; died 19. September 1919 in Normandy), the daughter of Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
Baronet Henry Blosse-Lynch. Kesslers parents married in Paris on 10 August 1867. Kessler's younger sister was born in 1877, and was named Wilhelma Kessler after Kaiser Wilhelm I, who became the child's godfather. After marriage, her name would become Wilma de Brion.
There were many rumours about a supposed affair between King William of Prussia and Countess Kessler. It has even been suggested that Kaiser Wilhelm I, and not Adolf Kessler, was Harry's father.
Life and work
Kessler grew up in France, England and Germany. Kessler was educated first in Paris and then, from 1880, in a boarding school in AscotAscot, Berkshire
Ascot is a village within the civil parish of Sunninghill and Ascot, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. It is most notable as the location of Ascot Racecourse, home of the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting...
, England. Following his father's wishes he enrolled in 1882 at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums
Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums
The Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums is a Gymnasium in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The school's motto is The Future needs a Heritage...
in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, where he completed his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
(high-school education). Afterwards he joined the 3rd Garde-Ulanen regiment in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
and earned the rank of an army officer. He studied law and art history in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
respectively. Kessler was familiar with many cultures, travelled widely, was active as an German diplomat, and came to be known as a man of the world and patron of the arts. He considered himself to be part of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an society.
After moving to Berlin in 1893, he worked on the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
journal PAN
Pan (magazine)
Pan was an arts and literary magazine, published from 1895 to 1900 in Berlin by Julius Otto Bierbaum and Julius Meier-Graefe. The magazine was revived by Paul Cassirer in 1910, published by his Pan-Presse....
, which published literary work by, among others, Richard Dehmel
Richard Dehmel
Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel was a German poet and writer.- Life :...
, Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.-Youth:Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an...
, Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, Detlev von Liliencron
Detlev von Liliencron
Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel Detlev Liliencron was a German lyric poet and novelist from Kiel, the son of Louis Freiherr von Liliencron and Adeline von Harten....
, Julius Hart, Novalis
Novalis
Novalis was the pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg , an author and philosopher of early German Romanticism.-Biography:...
, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
and Alfred Lichtwark. The short-lived journal also published graphic works by numerous artists including Henry van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
, Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker best known for his etching and lithography.-Biography:...
, Otto Eckmann
Otto Eckmann
Otto Eckmann was a German painter and graphic artist. He was a prominent member of the "floral" branch of Jugendstil. He created the Eckmann typeface, which was based on Japanese calligraphy....
and Ludwig von Hofmann
Ludwig von Hofmann
Ludwig von Hofmann was a German painter. His style was impressionist, and he painted many paintings, such as his well-known "Rain", in a mixture of impressionist and classical. He competed in the Art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics. He was also blind in one eye.-References:*...
.
On 24th of March 1903 Kessler assumed control of the "Museum fuer Kunst und Kunstgewerbe" in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
. There he worked with new exhibition concepts and the establishment of a permanent arts and crafts exhibit.
In 1904, during his work in Weimar, Kessler began to publish a group of bibliophilic books containing artistic compositions of typography and illustrations. In the beginning he cooperated with the German Insel Verlag. In 1913 he founded his own company, the Cranach Press, of which he became the director.
Around 1913 Kessler commissioned Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Henry Gordon Craig , sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was an English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, director and scenic designer, as well as developing an influential body of theoretical writings...
, an English theatrical designer and theoretician, to make woodcut illustrations for a sumptuous edition of Shakespeare's "Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
" for the Cranach Press. A German translation by Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
, with illustrations by Craig, was finally published in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
in 1928. The English version, edited by J. Dover Wilson
J. Dover Wilson
John Dover Wilson CH was a professor and scholar of Renaissance drama, focusing particularly on the work of William Shakespeare...
, came out in 1930. This book, printed on fine paper, using different type-faces, with marginal notes with source quotations, and featuring Craig's woodcuts, is regarded by many as one of the finest examples of the printer's art to have been published in the 20th century. It is still sought by collectors worldwide.
Kesslers ideas of reforming culture went beyond the fine arts. He developed a reformation concept for the theatre which was supported by Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Gordon Craig
Edward Henry Gordon Craig , sometimes known as Gordon Craig, was an English modernist theatre practitioner; he worked as an actor, director and scenic designer, as well as developing an influential body of theoretical writings...
, Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt
----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...
and Karl Vollmöller
Karl Vollmöller
Karl Gustav Vollmöller, usually written Vollmoeller was a German playwright and screenwriter.He is most famous for two works, the screenplay for the celebrated 1930 German film Der Blaue Engel , which made a star of Marlene Dietrich, and the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime Das Mirakel ,...
. Kessler asserted that a so-called "Mustertheater" should be established. The Belgian architect Henry van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
ought to design the corresponding building. On the initiative of Kessler many prominent writers were invited to introduce a literary modernity to Weimar, but the hegemonic opinions were considered too conservative and nationalistic, and the plans for the Mustertheater failed.
During his Weimar period Kessler became close friends with Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
Therese Elisabeth Alexandra Förster-Nietzsche , who went by her second name, was the sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the creator of the Nietzsche Archive in 1894....
, the sister of late Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
. At the suggestion of Kessler, she chose Weimar as domicile for the Nietzsche-Archiv
Nietzsche-Archiv
The Nietzsche-Archiv, also known as the Nietzsche Archive, was the first organization that dedicated itself to archive and document the life and work of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche....
.
In 1903 Kessler launched the "Deutscher Künstlerbund" and became its vice-president. The consortium supported less acknowledged artists including Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
, Johannes R. Becher
Johannes R. Becher
Johannes Robert Becher was a German politician, novelist, and poet.-Early life:Johannes R. Becher was the son of Judge Heinrich Becher. In 1910 he tried to commit suicide with a friend; only Becher survived. From 1911 he studied medicine and philosophy in Munich and Jena...
, Detlev von Liliencron
Detlev von Liliencron
Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel Detlev Liliencron was a German lyric poet and novelist from Kiel, the son of Louis Freiherr von Liliencron and Adeline von Harten....
and the painters of Die Brücke
Die Brücke
Die Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905, after which the Brücke Museum in Berlin was named. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller...
. In 1906, an exhibition commotion gave reason to depose Kessler from his office.
Works
- Gesammelte Schriften in drei Bänden. Fischer, Frankfurt/M. 1988. ISBN 3-596-25678-X
- Vol 1: Gesichter und Zeiten.
- Vol 2: Notizen über Mexiko.
- Vol 3: Erinnerungen.
- Das Tagebuch 1880–1937. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004 ff.
- Published:
- Vol. 2: 1892–1897. ISBN 3-7681-9812-X
- Vol. 3: 1897–1905. ISBN 3-7681-9813-8
- Vol. 4: 1906–1914. ISBN 3-7681-9814-6
- Vol. 5: 1914–1916. ISBN 3-7681-9815-4
- Vol. 6: 1916–1918. ISBN 3-7681-9816-2
- Vol. 7: 1919–1923. ISBN 3-7681-9817-0
- Vol. 8: 1923–1926. ISBN 3-7681-9818-9
- Vol. 9: 1926-1937. ISBN 3-7681-9819-7
- Walther Rathenau : Sein Leben und Werk , (1928).