Munich illustrated weekly for art and life

Jugendstilsenteret and KUBE possess twenty-nine complete volumes of the German magazine Jugend (Youth). The magazine first saw the light of day in Munich in 1896 and was published on a weekly basis until 1940. The museum has a complete run of volumes from 1896 to 1924. In Jugend, art was regarded as a natural and essential component of life, and by covering a wide-ranging cultural field the magazine presented the contemporary zeitgeist through texts and sumptuous illustrations.

The Jugend magazine was the source of the term Jugendstil (lit. “youth style”), the German variant of the international Art Nouveau movement, which enjoyed its heyday at the dawn of the twentieth century. The German term also came to be used in Norway because of the close ties between the two countries at the time.

Jugend’s content is aptly summarized by its subtitle, Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben (Munich illustrated weekly for art and life). With a liberal, cultured middle class as it target readership, the magazine took the temperature of contemporary society and served as a forum for promoting good taste. Although this profile was not clearly defined from the very beginning, inspired editors and illustrators would gradually develop it over time. Georg Hirth, the magazine’s founder and first editor, wrote the following in the preface to a bound edition of Jugend’s first volume:

We do not have a “programme” in the way the bourgeoisie understands that word. We aim rather to discuss and illustrate everything that is interesting, everything that moves our spirits. We want to include all that is beautiful, good, characteristic, lively – and truly artistic.

Today it is possible to approach Jugend in a variety of ways. For example, the magazine can provide abundant source material for a complex analysis of social developments, based on forty-four years’ worth of issues. In this text, on the other hand, we focus on the magazine’s visual style and take a look at Jugendstil in connection with the magazine’s visual appearance in general. If you would like to examine the magazine more closely yourself, this is fully possible – Jugend has been completely digitized and is freely available on the internet.

The graphic manifestation of Jugendstil

German Jugendstil found its form rather late compared with other Art Nouveau movements. The German Jugendstil manifested itself most vigorously in two-dimensional designs in the mid-1890s, not least in posters and magazines such as Pan, Jugend, and Simplicissimus. The style also influenced the craft and architecture of the era. Jugendstil artists also worked across various disciplines, with nature inspiring their linework and overall philosophy. The characteristic emphasis on the curvature of the lines served to charge the style with excitement and energy.

Many of the Germans who were inspired by the new style were young and daring enough to venture forth into a new century with their own innovative expressions. They were keenly aware of how the style had developed in Germany’s neighbouring countries. These artists could therefore take a step back and create their own idiosyncratic style. Indeed, Jugendstil was but a passing interest for many of the German contributors, who soon went on to explore other emerging movements and styles.

Jugend reached an artistic peak during its premier decade. In that period, the journal featured innovative illustrations from many of Germany’s leading Jugendstil designers. It was not least the covers that showcased artistry of the highest quality.

The artist, architect, and designer Peter Behrens was key to developing Jugendstil, but his contributions to the magazine itself were rare and limited to vignettes. He was an important personage in Munich’s artistic community in the 1890s. Between 1899 and 1903 he was part of the artists’ colony at Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, known as one of the hotbeds of the German Jugendstil movement. At Mathildenhöhe he designed his own house as a Gesamtkunstwerk, planning everything from interiors to details such as ceramics and towels. Behrens’s artistic interest soon veered towards modernism, and today he is known as one of the precursors of modern industrial design.

Otto Eckmann was one of Jugendstil’s premier artists. He became a skilled painter early on, exploring a symbolist idiom, but it was as a printmaker and later on a craftsman he would win renown. His works usually focused on nature, as reproduced through a dynamic relationship between lines and planes. He published several illustrations in Jugend, and he was also one of the foremost contributors to the journal Pan. As a member of the Darmstadt colony, he devoted ever more of his time to typography, for example developing the Jugendstil typeface known as Eckmann. This typeface based on the Latin alphabet, but with irregularly curving letters.

Hans Christiansen’s design for Jugend is striking in both its style and its use of colours. He designed several covers and was one of the artists who truly influenced the magazine during its early run. He began his career in Munich, but it was while living in Paris from 1895 to 1899 that he made a name for himself as an artist. Like Behrens, Christiansen was among the first members of the artists’ colony in Mathildenhöhe, where he, too, designed his own house as a Gesamtkunstwerk. The house was named “In Rosen”, because the rose was a leitmotif in the design of all of the house’s rooms. He was an all-round artist and his works included paintings, furniture, glass windows, posters, spectacles, ceramics, and clothing.

In her heyday, Gertrud Kleinhempel was a prominent contributor to Jugendstil. Although her legacy was for a while in danger of being forgotten in the male-dominated history of art, her career has recently been the subject of renewed interest. Kleinhempel began working as an artist in Dresden and submitted several contributions to the Munich-based Jugend in the form of vignettes. Similar to many of the other Jugendstil artists, she was uncommonly versatile, designing furniture, metal works, spectacles, toys, tiles, porcelain, bookbinding, and posters. She was the first female professor in Prussia and led the textile art class at Bielefelder Kunstgewerbeschule.

Peter Behrens (1868–1940). 1904, magazine 35.

Otto Eckmann (1865–1902). 1898, magazine 28.

Otto Eckmann (1865–1902). 1899, magazine 47.

Hans Christiansen (1866–1945). 1897, magazine 33.

Gertrud Kleinhempel (1875–1948), 1902, magazine 41.

The graphic industry

The development of the graphic industry around 1850 revolutionized the art of printing. The technological advances enabled the publication of journals with high-quality reproductions of contemporary pictures and texts. In Germany, a burgeoning ecosystem of printers, publishers, and artists created new opportunities to depict contemporary society in printed form. The publishers included artistic elements in order to arouse interest in their publications, something that generally also benefitted the contributing artists. Jugendstil lent itself well to the graphic medium, and the in-vogue style was central to Jugend’s success. The initial print runs were around 30,000 copies, but at its apex the magazine’s circulation rose to around 200,000 copies.

Around 1900 Bernhard Pankok was one of Munich’s leading designers, and in 1897 he helped co‑found Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst im Handwerk (“the United Workshops for Art in Handicrafts”). This was an association that was meant to guarantee a secure commercial basis for the new type of craftsmanship and ensure cooperation among designers, craftsmen, and consumers. Such a collaborative underpinning was also at the heart of Jugendstil’s ideology. Pankok was one of the earliest contributors to Jugend. Nature was ever-present in his expression of Jugendstil, in everything from two-dimensional designs to furniture.

Ernst Barlach is today mostly known for his expressionist sculptures, which reflect timeless themes related to human nature. He typically portrayed the marginal figures of society – the outcasts and the destitute. But on his journey towards expressionism he also tried his hand at Jugendstil, and some of these works were published in Jugend, for example this cover.

Jugendstil vignettes created by the designer Paul Haustein helped define Jugend’s visual style during its first decade. He also contributed with several illustrations and covers. This title page is co‑credited to Haustein and Hans Pfaff. Pfaff drew the main illustration, which depicts a woman holding flowers, while Haustein created the surrounding frame.

Inspiration from Japan, both its visual imagery and its view of nature, was incorporated into Jugendstil. In this cover, the Japonisme-influenced traits that informed much of Josef Rudolf Witzel’s art around 1900 come to the fore. The weight of the curving lines and the large, monochromatic surfaces epitomize the distinct features of German Jugendstil.

Bernhard Pankok (1872–1943). 1900, magazine 22.

Hans Pfaff (1875–1914) and Paul Haustein (1880-1944), 1905, magazine 16.

Josef Rudolf Witzel (1867–1927). 1986, magazine 16.

Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), 1899, magazine 17.

The modern life in Munich

A recurring topic among the illustrations in Jugend was middle-class society, with social interaction frequently the subject in addition to art and culture. Festive gatherings of various kinds were a favourite motif, and everything from large galas to life at the outdoor cafés was depicted. Such illustrations were so numerous in Jugend that it would be possible to analyse the fashions and styles of the era merely on that basis. Another common motif was depictions of courtship and love, and nudity was not unheard of. Certain special issues would recur from one year to the next, such as the annual carnival issue. Special issues dedicated to bathing, along with illustrations of various athletic activities, promoted the notion of a middle-class lifestyle.

Adolph Münzer (1870–1953). 1903, magazine 35.

Paul Rieth (1871–1925). 1912, magazine 35.

Leo Putz (1869–1940). 1919, magazine 35.

Paul Rieth (1871–1925). 1913, magazine 5.

The world wars

A journal that aims to capture the zeitgeist will also be influenced by other social trends. As in many other nation-states around 1900, Germany was also characterized by nationalism and xenophobia, as may clearly be seen in the pages of Jugend. Following an evident patriotic turn vending during the First World War, the journal once again experienced a freer and more liberal period, before it began expressing a palpably National Socialist outlook around 1930, in the era leading up to the Second World War.

Fritz Erler was one of Jugend’s founders and a regular contributor. Though his visual style was at times influenced by Jugendstil, it more typically embodied a backward-looking style with elements of impressionism. Germanic mythology often served as the basis of his imagery. During the First World War he was one of the official military painters and made propaganda that glorified soldiers and the brutality of combat. Erler embraced National Socialism, and towards the end of his life he won praise his portraits of prominent Nazis, including Adolf Hitler.

The artist Fidus was part of the Lebensreform movement, which promoted the philosophy of people living in pact with nature. This was to be achieved through a vegetarian diet, free love, nudism, and alternative medicine. His illustrations were often published in Jugend, with the androgynous, Aryan ideal person worshipping the sun as a recurring motif. His works also turned up in Der Eigene, regarded as the world’s first magazine dedicated to homosexuality. Around 1900, Fidus was one of the most famous visual artists in Germany. Even though he evinced clear National Socialist sympathies, his works were condemned by the Nazis, probably because of his lifestyle. Paradoxically, his visual style was largely adopted by the official artists of the Third Reich.

Fritz Erler (1896–1940). 1914, magazine 9.

• Fidus (Hugo Höppener, 1868–1948). 1900, magazine 49.

Modernism

Around 1900 an international art scene had emerged in Munich. Even though naturalism and Salon painting still held sway, new styles such as symbolism, Japonisme, and pointillism were gaining ground. In addition, several new artist organizations helped upgrade the status of craft and art industry, in line with trends elsewhere in Europe.

Jugendstil was the most innovative and consistent visual expression in Jugend’s history, but on the whole the magazine embodied a conservative view of art, and many of the avant-garde movements were never featured in the magazine. Illustrations that were influenced by various modernist styles, such as expressionism, were published several years after the style in question initially broke through. At the same time, the magazine included several cartoons that lampooned modernist art. This ironic attitude to modernism emphasizes how the editorial staff eschewed avant-garde expressions in favour of more traditional art. In the late 1920s the journal again included innovative styles for a while, but this tendency soon faded because of the advent of National Socialism.

Heinrich Kley contributed drawings to both Simplicissimus and Jugend for many years. Around 1920 Kley was also famous for his paintings of industrial activities. In this special issue dedicated to German industry, his paintings take pride of place. Kley’s paintings from German industrial enterprises can be related to Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), a new movement that had gained prominence in Germany at the time. This style was a response to the emergence of modernism, and practitioners sought a more rational and classical form.

Albert Weisgerber was an internationally oriented artist who earned his living by making illustrations for Jugend. He studied art in Munich, where he came to know several of the artists who later became leading practitioners of expressionism artist, such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Weisgerber shows expressionist tendencies in his paintings, but the inspiration from the French impressionist artists is more evident. Weisgerber died young while serving as a soldier during the First World War. Because of his visual style, his art was condemned as degenerate by the National Socialists, a fate that befell so many of his fellow modernists.

The reproduction of the painting Youth Admired by Women (1903) by Ferdinand Hodler is characteristic of Jugend’s editorial profile. Hodler was a prominent Swiss artist who worked within symbolism and Jugendstil. Other artists linked to Jugendstil were also featured regularly, such as the Swedish artist, Carl Larsson.

Heirich kley (1863–1945). 1922, magazine 2.

Albert Weisgerber (1878–1915). 1908, magazine 40.

Albert Weisgerber (1878–1915). 1908, magazine 12.

Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918). 1909, magazine 44.

Norwegian contributions to Jugend

Throughout the nineteenth century, Norway depended on sending its citizens out of the country in order for them to train as artists. Around 1900, however, it became increasingly possible for aspiring Norwegian artists to train in their own country, but many artists still chose to study and work abroad. Many of them moved to Germany, where Munich was one of the most attractive destinations.

Though very few Norwegian illustrators contributed to Jugend, a handful of drawings can still be found, such as those by Olaf Gulbransson. He is known for his caricatures and their pointed linework and rigid contours. He spent a great deal of his life in Germany. Around 1900 his illustrations were highly influenced by the visual idiom of Jugendstil. He was particularly known for his many contributions to Jugend’s competitor, Simplicissimus, which he also co‑owned.

By contrast, new works of literature from Norway received far more attention in the pages of Jugend. In the late 1880s, Henrik Ibsen was undoubtedly the foreign playwright whose works were staged most frequently in Germany. He was regarded as the champion of progress and youth and became naturally enough the Norwegian who received the most press in Jugend’s history. The typical subjects of Jugend’s cover illustrations were either young, beautiful women or important men, with Erik Werenskiold’s portrait of Henrik Ibsen from 1895 representing the latter category.

Cartoons

Munich was a liberal city around 1900, and the censorship laws were less restrictive than in other German cities. As a result, artists from far and wide found a free space to express themselves there, for example in the pages of Jugend. Though the magazine also let its contributors blow off political steam, from various standpoints, most of the caricature drawings, comic strips, and illustrations explore human relations and middle-class interests and pursuits.

Erich Wilke was a longstanding contributor to Jugend, as was his brother Rudolf, who had originally introduced Erich to the magazine. Wilke published his illustrations and cartoons there over four decades. This cartoon lampoons modernist art: “The father to his son: ‘I was pretty healthy, and your mother didn’t let herself go either.”

The Polish artist Otolia Gräfin Kraszewska belongs to the first generation of women artists who were professionally active and to a certain extent made a living from their art. She is known for the women’s portraits in a Salon style and the typical “women’s genre” of floral motifs. But she also made a name for herself with her illustrations for Jugend, even drawing several covers for the journal. In cooperation with Georg Hirth’s publishing house, Kraszewska also designed postcards, calling cards, menus, and book covers.

Erich Wilke (1879–1936). 1920, magazine 16.

Otolia Gräfin Kraszewska (1859–1945). 1902, magazine 10.

Otolia Gräfin Kraszewska (1859–1945). 1902, magazine 10.

The Other

Viewed from the present, the content of Jugend at times seems both gender discriminatory and racist. Depictions of the Other recur throughout, and a review of the magazine’s output reveals anti-Semitic cartoons, representations of women as subservient, and feature articles from human zoos. The contributors to Jugend were a motley crew, and according to today’s standards several of them expressed views that were inacceptable.

The caption below Adolf Munzer’s illustration states, “Our colonies in the description of Dernburg ... and ... Bebel”. The drawing refers to differing views on colonialism in the eyes of Bernhard Dernburg and August Bebel: in 1906, Dernburg was the recently appointed leader of the German colonies; at the same time, the social democrat Bebel was fiercely denouncing Germany’s mistreatment of the native people in its colonies in southwestern Africa.

Alexander Kubínyi’s illustration is accompanied by the caption, “Everyone has been baptized – but me.” The picture features a caricatured Jewish man who is surrounded by beer barrels that, in accordance with tradition, have been decorated with crosses. The drawing reflects both era’s pressure to assimilate and its anti-Semitism.

Adolf Munzer (1870–1953). 1906, magazine 50.

Alexander Kubínyi (1875–1949). 1900, magazine 50.

Although the majority of Jugend magazines in our collection are safely stored in our magazine, you can experience a small selection in the museum's permanent exhibition "The Beauty of art Nouveau" in Jugendstilsenteret. Feel free to visit the museum for a closer look. If you would like to examine the magazine more closely yourself, this is fully possible – Jugend has been completely digitized and is freely available on the internet.