Johann Poppe
Encyclopedia
Johann Georg Poppe often called Johannes Poppe by English-speaking writers, was a prominent architect in Bremen
during the German
Gründerzeit
and an influential interior designer of ocean liner
s for Norddeutscher Lloyd
. He worked in an eclectic mixture of historical revival styles sometimes called "Bremen Baroque
".
, forerunner of the University of Karlsruhe. From 1860 to 1861 he practised architecture in Berlin; he worked under Hermann Friedrich Waesemann
on the Rotes Rathaus
. But from 1863 on, he worked in Bremen. He was greatly influenced by six years of travel and studying in Italy, Greece, and especially France, where he lived for some time in Paris.
He acquired a reputation by building large public buildings, including the Bremen waterworks (1873), library, Cotton Exchange (1902) and Rice Exchange (1904). He was chief architect for the Nordwestdeutsche Gewerbe- und Industrieausstellung (Northwest German Trade and Industry Exhibition) of 1890; the Festival Hall for this was later known as the Park House. In 1883 he oversaw the redesign of the upper chamber of the Town Hall of Bremen
, including one of its three doors, and in 1903 designed new seats for the city councillors; like most of his work, this has been much altered since.
He also designed numerous villas and country houses for the elite of Bremen, mostly in the Horn and Oberneuland districts which at the time lay outside the city. Most of these have since been demolished. He rebuilt Villa Ichon and lived there for many years.
From 1881 to 1907, Poppe was chief interior designer for the ocean liners of Norddeutscher Lloyd, the first "lay" (non-marine) architect responsible for entire ships, and transformed them into floating hotels. He was responsible for the innovation of placing the first-class dining saloon in the centre of the ship, where it could be two or three decks high, lit by a giant skylight. Hired by Johann Lohmann, the director of the company, to do the interiors of the twelve Rivers class liner
s because of his preeminence as a designer, he first worked on the SS Elbe of 1881; only in 1906, when Poppe was seventy years old, did Lohmann's successor, Heinrich Wiegand
, replace him with younger, progressive architects for some of the interiors on the , but he was still responsible for her main public rooms. When Albert Ballin
commissioned the first express liner for the rival Hamburg America Line
, the Augusta Victoria
, he hired Poppe to design the interior. The new headquarters building he designed for NDL (1901–1910) was at the time the largest building in Bremen.
Poppe's historicism was not favoured by younger architects, who worked in Jugendstil and reformist styles. At the end of his life he withdrew to his estate of Poppenhof on the right bank of the River Lesum
in Burglesum, now part of Bremen, where he died in 1915. He is buried in the Riensberg Cemetery in Bremen.
. His buildings were richly ornamented inside and out; as his career progressed, he increasingly worked with large interior decorating firms, especially Bembé of Mainz
, who executed his ship interiors. The result was popular with his wealthy clients; at the turn of the century he was Bremen's most prominent architect; but after fashions changed, was outmoded. Kreyenhorst Castle was demolished in the 1920s. His ship interiors have been described as "overblown, over-decorated, and dark", as "a seagoing baroque collage of high ceilings, massive pillars, gilded balustrades, trumpeting cherubs, and gigantic statuary," as "temples of high baroque, grand galleries of an aspiration so Valkeyrian that only megalomaniacs might dally there in comfort or good conscience", by Cunard executives who visited the and in 1903 as "bizarre, extravagant and crude, loud in colour and restless in form, obviously costly, and showy to the most extreme degree" and by a contemporary American as "'two of everything but the kitchen range', then gilded." The architecture critic Walter Müller-Wulckow described the Bremen Cotton Exchange, which started to shed its profuse ornamentation after exposure to the elements, as the "crassest" manifestation of "cancerous" building styles.
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
during the German
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...
Gründerzeit
Gründerzeit
' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...
and an influential interior designer of ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
s for Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
. He worked in an eclectic mixture of historical revival styles sometimes called "Bremen Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
".
Life and career
Poppe was born in Bremen into a family with a heritage as architects; his father was also a cabinetmaker. From 1855 to 1859, he studied architecture at the Polytechnic School in KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, forerunner of the University of Karlsruhe. From 1860 to 1861 he practised architecture in Berlin; he worked under Hermann Friedrich Waesemann
Hermann Friedrich Waesemann
Hermann Friedrich Waesemann was a German architect.He was born in Danzig , the son of an architect. He studied mathematics and science in Bonn from 1830 to 1832, before going to Berlin to study architecture at the Bauakademie...
on the Rotes Rathaus
Rotes Rathaus
The Red City Hall is the town hall of Berlin, located in the Mitte district on Rathausstraße near Alexanderplatz. It is the home to the governing mayor and the government of the Federal state of Berlin...
. But from 1863 on, he worked in Bremen. He was greatly influenced by six years of travel and studying in Italy, Greece, and especially France, where he lived for some time in Paris.
He acquired a reputation by building large public buildings, including the Bremen waterworks (1873), library, Cotton Exchange (1902) and Rice Exchange (1904). He was chief architect for the Nordwestdeutsche Gewerbe- und Industrieausstellung (Northwest German Trade and Industry Exhibition) of 1890; the Festival Hall for this was later known as the Park House. In 1883 he oversaw the redesign of the upper chamber of the Town Hall of Bremen
Town Hall of Bremen
The Town Hall of Bremen is the seat of the President of the Senate of Bremen and of the Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. It is one of the most important examples of Brick Gothic architecture in Europe...
, including one of its three doors, and in 1903 designed new seats for the city councillors; like most of his work, this has been much altered since.
He also designed numerous villas and country houses for the elite of Bremen, mostly in the Horn and Oberneuland districts which at the time lay outside the city. Most of these have since been demolished. He rebuilt Villa Ichon and lived there for many years.
From 1881 to 1907, Poppe was chief interior designer for the ocean liners of Norddeutscher Lloyd, the first "lay" (non-marine) architect responsible for entire ships, and transformed them into floating hotels. He was responsible for the innovation of placing the first-class dining saloon in the centre of the ship, where it could be two or three decks high, lit by a giant skylight. Hired by Johann Lohmann, the director of the company, to do the interiors of the twelve Rivers class liner
Rivers class ocean liner
The Rivers class was a class of eleven ocean liners of the Norddeutscher Lloyd , the first class of German express liners. The ships were built between 1881 and 1890, the first nine in Glasgow by John Elder & Co. or the renamed Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, the last two in Stettin...
s because of his preeminence as a designer, he first worked on the SS Elbe of 1881; only in 1906, when Poppe was seventy years old, did Lohmann's successor, Heinrich Wiegand
Heinrich Wiegand
Johann Heinrich Christoph Wiegand was the General Director of the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping company during a period of great expansion.-Life and career:...
, replace him with younger, progressive architects for some of the interiors on the , but he was still responsible for her main public rooms. When Albert Ballin
Albert Ballin
Albert Ballin was a German businessman. He was born into a modest Jewish family of Hamburg with origins in Denmark.- Business :...
commissioned the first express liner for the rival Hamburg America Line
Hamburg America Line
The Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, Germany during...
, the Augusta Victoria
Augusta Victoria (ship)
Augusta Victoria, later Auguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of Emperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxury Hamburg America Line ocean liners...
, he hired Poppe to design the interior. The new headquarters building he designed for NDL (1901–1910) was at the time the largest building in Bremen.
Poppe's historicism was not favoured by younger architects, who worked in Jugendstil and reformist styles. At the end of his life he withdrew to his estate of Poppenhof on the right bank of the River Lesum
Lesum
The Lesum is a 10 km long river in northern Germany, right tributary of the Weser. It is formed at the confluence of the rivers Wümme and Hamme, near Ritterhude, northwest of Bremen. It flows west and flows into the Weser in Bremen-Vegesack....
in Burglesum, now part of Bremen, where he died in 1915. He is buried in the Riensberg Cemetery in Bremen.
Style
Poppe worked in an eclectic historicising style which drew most on the Renaissance and the Baroque; in the first part of his career he was greatly influenced by what he had seen in Italy and especially France. In the 1870s he began to build more in the style of the English Gothic revivalGothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
. His buildings were richly ornamented inside and out; as his career progressed, he increasingly worked with large interior decorating firms, especially Bembé of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, who executed his ship interiors. The result was popular with his wealthy clients; at the turn of the century he was Bremen's most prominent architect; but after fashions changed, was outmoded. Kreyenhorst Castle was demolished in the 1920s. His ship interiors have been described as "overblown, over-decorated, and dark", as "a seagoing baroque collage of high ceilings, massive pillars, gilded balustrades, trumpeting cherubs, and gigantic statuary," as "temples of high baroque, grand galleries of an aspiration so Valkeyrian that only megalomaniacs might dally there in comfort or good conscience", by Cunard executives who visited the and in 1903 as "bizarre, extravagant and crude, loud in colour and restless in form, obviously costly, and showy to the most extreme degree" and by a contemporary American as "'two of everything but the kitchen range', then gilded." The architecture critic Walter Müller-Wulckow described the Bremen Cotton Exchange, which started to shed its profuse ornamentation after exposure to the elements, as the "crassest" manifestation of "cancerous" building styles.
Selected works
Public buildings
- Bremen Waterworks (1871–73), with Dietrich Berg as technical designer, Poppe designed Bremen's first municipal waterworks, housing it in a square red-brick Gothic revivalGothic Revival architectureThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
tower with four corner turrets which emulated the form of the Grand Master's Residence in the Marienburg fortress of the Teutonic KnightsTeutonic KnightsThe Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
in East PrussiaEast PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
(now Malbork CastleMalbork CastleThe Marienburg Castle in Malbork is by area the largest castle in the world. It was built in Prussia by the Teutonic Knights, a German Roman Catholic religious order of crusaders, in a form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg...
in Poland). Initially water was drawn from the River Weser and filtered through sand; it was pumped into two storage tanks on the upper floor, with the turrets housing chimneys for the steam pumps, piping and access. The shape of the building led to the nickname umgedrehte Kommode (upside-down commode); the turrets have been shortened because of the danger of bricks falling from them. The tower has been protected as an architectural monument since 1978. Since the waterworks are no longer in service, the tower is to become the centrepiece of a projected residential development. - Nordwestdeutsche Gewerbe- und Industrieausstellung (1890), chief designer for the largest German exposition up to that time, held jointly on 37.5 hectares of grounds in the southern part of the Bremen Bürgerpark by the Free Hanseatic City of BremenBremen (state)The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 states. A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
, the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and the PrussiaPrussiaPrussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Province of HanoverProvince of HanoverThe Province of Hanover was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1868 to 1946.During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation...
. Dissatisfied with the competition entries received from architects hoping to design the main buildings, the committee instead commissioned Poppe, at the time the most popular architect in Bremen, for the six main exhibit halls and the Festival Hall. These were built in only seven months, at a cost of approximately 500,000 Gold marks. All were timber, in a historical style with Baroque and Renaissance elements. After the exhibition closed in October 1890, they were demolished except for the Festival Hall, which was renamed the Park House. It was destroyed by fire in 1907, and the five-star Parkhotel Bremen now occupies the site. - City Library (since 1927 State Library) (1896) Poppe won the contest to design the building against 34 other entrants. Poppe's building was heavily ornamented, but employed a modern layout in the stacks, with metal shelving and stepladders rather than floor divisions for minimal fire risk and maximum visibility. It was heavily damaged in the Second World War and eventually renovated and enlarged in a simplified form with a flat roof. In 1974 it was replaced by a modern building on the campus of the university; it was the home of the Übersee Museum BremenÜbersee Museum BremenThe Übersee Museum Bremen is a Natural History and Ethnographic museum in Bremen, Germany. In an integrated exhibition, Nature, Culture and Trading, it presents aspects of overseas regions with permanent exhibitions relating to Asia, South Pacific/Oceania, Americas and Africa.-History:In 1875,...
until 1989, when it was demolished to build a multi-screen cinema. - Bremen Cotton Exchange (1900–02) on the southeast corner of the Marketplace. Poppe won the contest to design the building in summer 1898 against 53 other entrants. His building, which cost 4.3 million marks, had a tall, ornate cupola and a heavily ornamented façade in neo-Renaissance style; however, this proved inadequately weather-resistant and was re-faced with sandstone in plainer style in the early 1920s. Mosaics by Hermann PrellHermann PrellHermann Prell was a German historical painter and sculptor. He was born at Leipzig and studied under Grosse in Dresden and Gussow in Berlin, then went to Italy to study fresco painting, in which branch he produced his most important works...
were added to the lunettes of the entrance hall in 1906, and carved reliefs by Friedrich Lommel to the new façade and the ceiling above the stairs in 1923–24. The rear of the building was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War; after the war the cupola, which had been damaged, and the decorations were removed, the steeply pitched roof and gables were replaced with a simpler top floor, and in 1961 a multi-storey carpark was built at the rear. The building has been a protected landmark since 1993.
Commercial buildings
- Headquarters of Sparkasse Bremen bank (1881–82), in Italian Renaissance style with richly detailed façade and interior; destroyed in the Second World War.
- Norddeutscher Lloyd Headquarters (1901–10), a new headquarters occupying almost an entire quarter of the city, with the cornerstone of the final phase being laid in 1907 to celebrate the company's fiftieth anniversary. The Renaissance revival building was the largest in the city, with large gables and a bottle-shaped tower 75 metres tall. Covered in sandstone reliefs inside and out, it resembled a castle. The project coincided with an economic downturn and its costs caused problems for the company, but the building was finished on time. It was severely damaged in an air raid in October 1944; after the war the company was restarted in the cellar. The tower and gables were removed in 1953 and for a while a bierkeller operated in the cellar. In 1968 it was sold to Horten AGHorten AGHorten AG was a German department store chain founded by Helmut Horten in 1936 and headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany....
, who demolished it the next year to build a department store.
Residences
- Knoop Castle (1873–75), a neo-Renaissance great house in the then village of Horn built for Daniel Diederich Knoop on the site of a late-18th century residence surrounded by extensive gardens and parkland. It was the largest and most prestigious residence in the area, and the major work of Poppe's early period, influenced by French châteaux which he had seen on his travels. He also had French craftsmen execute the interior details. Arthur FitgerArthur FitgerArthur Heinrich Wilhelm Fitger was a German painter, art critic, playwright and poet.Arthur Fitger was one of 10 children, son of The Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Postmaster, Rathsherr Ratsherr Peter Diedrich Fitger A Hereditary Title from his father Rathsherr Heinrich Fitger before him...
created several wall paintings for a later owner, Willi Rickmer Rickmers, who also enlarged the estate and renamed the house Kreyenhorst Castle. After Rickmers' death the grounds, reduced by road building, were abandoned and the house was derelict for 20 years. In 1911 the city of Bremen bought the estate and had the house demolished in 1912; the further reduced grounds are now a public park and the only remaining building is a tea-house in the form of a classical 'temple of friendship' designed in the first half of the 19th century by Jacob Ephraim Polzin, which is now protected as an architectural monument. - Villa Ichon, an 1849 residence in the Ostertorviertel part of Bremen on what is now the Goetheplatz next to the former city wall, which Poppe rebuilt in 1871 for R. Feuerstein, then bought in 1893, rebuilt again with extensive interior design changes, and used as his personal residence beginning in 1895. The elaborate façade is neo-Baroque; the interior features gold leaf on the ceilings, mosaic floors, and wall paintings by Arthur Fitger. On the ground floor there is a marble fireplace and a stove of blue and white MeissenMeissen porcelainMeissen porcelain or Meissen china is the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market...
faïenceFaienceFaience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...
. After being the residence of the director of the adjacent Theater am Goetheplatz, the office of the lawyer Ichon who gave it its current name, and office and storage space for the theatre, it was taken over by the city and threatened with redevelopment. Klaus Hübotter, a Bremen patron of the arts, and Die Initiativgruppe zur Erhaltung der Villa Ichon (The Action Group for the Preservation of Villa Ichon), saved the building and restored it, receiving the German Prize for Landmark Preservation in 1984 for their efforts, and it is now administered by the Verein der Freunde und Förderer der Villa Ichon in Bremen e. V. (Association of Friends and Supporters of Villa Ichon in Bremen) and houses a restaurant and a number of peace groups, including Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and the German Peace SocietyGerman Peace SocietyThe German Peace Society was founded in 1892. It still exists and is known as the Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen...
. Since 1983, the Association have awarded an annual €EuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
5,000 Villa Ichon Culture and Peace Prize. The house has been listed as an architectural monument by the city of Bremen since 1973. - Frerichs residence (1882) in one of the new quarters of the city, in a highly decorated neo-Renaissance style.
Interior design of ocean liners
- Lahn (1887): the first ship in which Poppe's neo-Baroque grandeur was clearly manifest.
- Augusta VictoriaAugusta Victoria (ship)Augusta Victoria, later Auguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of Emperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxury Hamburg America Line ocean liners...
(1888): for the Hamburg America Line's first express liner, Albert Ballin hired Poppe, the Norddeutscher Lloyd's interior designer, because of his proven track record designing luxury liners. - Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (1897): a ship described as "a sea-going boast", with ornate neo-Baroque architecture that "overwhelmed and overawed", and portraits of BismarckOtto von BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
, von MoltkeHelmuth von Moltke the ElderHelmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke was a German Field Marshal. The chief of staff of the Prussian Army for thirty years, he is regarded as one of the great strategists of the latter 19th century, and the creator of a new, more modern method of directing armies in the field...
and Kaiser Wilhelm I himselfWilliam I, German EmperorWilliam I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...
in the first class dining saloon. This was the first liner with four funnels, arranged in two pairs so that the public rooms amidships could be lighted by skylights. Poppe designed a "heavy, dark" smoking room in German Baroque style and a French Rococo ladies' drawing room in white and gold with light blue upholstery. - Kaiser Wilhelm IISS Kaiser Wilhelm IIThe second SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, was a 19,361 gross ton passenger steamer built at Stettin, Germany, completed in the spring of 1903. A famous photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz called The Steerage as well as descriptions of the conditions of travel in the lowest class have conflicted with her...
(1904): Neo-Baroque interiors, including a three-level First Class dining saloon which ran the entire width of the ship and was decorated with carved festooned shields. The room also had a life-size portrait of the Kaiser, between "allegoric figures of loyalty and sagacity" and cherubs representing "the Trades, Commerce, and Shipping", all upheld by gilded eagles.
Sources
- Obituary. Deutsche Bauzeitung 49 (1915) p. dcxl
- Johann Georg Poppe and W. Ehlers. Das Verwaltungsgebäude des Norddeutschen Lloyd in Bremen: erbaut in den Jahren 1901–1910. Bremen: Hauschild, 1913.
- Günter Heiderich. "Der Schiffsausstatter Johann Georg Poppe. Ein Vierteljahrhundert Innendekoration auf See". In Volker Plagemann, ed. Übersee. Seefahrt und Seemacht im deutschen Kaiserreich. Munich: Beck, 1988. ISBN 9783406333057
External links
- Bremen Waterworks on de.wikipedia
- Nordwestdeutsche Gewerbe- und Industrieausstellung on de.wikipedia
- Bremen Library on de.wikipedia
- Bremen Cotton Exchange building on de.wikipedia
- Norddeutscher Lloyd Headquarters on de.wikipedia
- Kreyenhorst (formerly Knoop) estate on de.wikipedia
- Villa Ichon on de.wikipedia
- Related articles in the Bremer Lexikon, online at Bremen erleben!, City of Bremen official tourism site