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Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access originally published online on April 20, 2009
Journal of the History of Collections 2009 21(2):213-220; doi:10.1093/jhc/fhp028
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

This article appears in the following Journal of the History of Collections issue: Special Issue: The art collector-between philanthropy and self-glorification [View the issue table of contents]

Karl Ernst Osthaus, Folkwang and the ‘Hagener Impuls’

Transcending the walls of the museum

Birgit Schulte


  Abstract

The term ‘Hagener Impuls’ characterizes two decades in the history of the city of Hagen, when the city was a place of important developments in the arts. Between 1900 and 1921 Karl Ernst Osthaus tried to realize his vision ‘to make beauty once again the dominant force in life’ by several means – as museum founder, patron, agent and organizer in the field of the arts. Osthaus's initiative went beyond merely establishing the Folkwang Museum. The purpose of his ‘cultural mission’ was to improve the social situation in Hagen, an industrial town and Osthaus's birthplace. He placed his faith in art as a means of restructuring social life and set about attracting outstanding artists to Hagen, procuring them commissions, founding an artists’ colony, workshops and a teaching institute. He was particularly interested in architecture and town planning, since these provided the framework for implementing his utopian idea of society as a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’.

Address for correspondence Dr Birgit Schulte, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Museumsplatz 3, 58095 Hagen, Germany. birgit.schulte{at}stadt-hagen.de


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