The Darmstadt Artists' Colony was a group of Jugendstil artists and their buildings near Rosenhöhe Park in Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt. These artists lived and worked there during the late 1800s and early 1900s. They were mostly supported by wealthy patrons and often worked together, when their styles matched.

In 2021, UNESCO recognized the Mathildenhöhe artists' colony in Darmstadt as a World Heritage Site. This recognition was because the area shows examples of early modern architecture and landscape design. It also highlights the colony’s role in influencing reform movements during the early 1900s.

Founding

The artists' colony was established in 1899 by Ernest Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse. His motto was: "Mein Hessenland blühe und in ihm die Kunst" ("My Hessian land shall flourish and in it, art"). He believed that combining art and trade would help the economy grow. The artists aimed to create modern and innovative ways of building and living. To achieve this, Ernest Ludwig gathered several artists from the Art Nouveau movement in Darmstadt: Peter Behrens, Paul Bürck, Rudolf Bosselt, Hans Christiansen, Ludwig Habich, Patriz Huber, and Joseph Maria Olbrich.

First Exhibition 1901

The first exhibition of the artists' colony happened in 1901 and was called "A Document of German Art." The exhibition included the colony's homes, studios, and temporary buildings. The event began on May 15 with a festival organized by Peter Behrens. It attracted attention from people outside Darmstadt but ended in October with a large financial loss. Soon after, Paul Bürck, Hans Christiansen, Patriz Huber, Peter Behrens, and Rudolf Bosselt left the colony, with some leaving in later years.

The Ernst Ludwig House was built as a shared workshop based on plans by Joseph Maria Olbrich. Olbrich was an architect and a key leader in the artist group, while Peter Behrens was initially only a painter and illustrator. The foundation stone was laid on March 24, 1900. The workshop served as both a work area and a place for meetings. The main floor has a meeting room with paintings by Paul Bürck, and three artist studios are on either side. Two underground rooms were used for living and business. The entrance has gold-plated flower designs, and two six-meter statues, "Man and Woman" or "Strength and Beauty," by Ludwig Habich, stand beside it. Artists' homes were built around the workshop. In the late 1980s, the building was restored and turned into a museum about the Darmstadt Artists' Colony.

Artists could buy land and build homes for the exhibition. The goal was to show how architecture, design, crafts, and painting could work together. Only Olbrich, Christiansen, Habich, and Behrens could afford to build their own homes, but eight fully furnished houses were displayed in the first exhibition.

Wilhelm Deiters was the manager of the colony. His house, designed by Olbrich, was the smallest because the land it was built on was shaped like a square where two streets meet. The house survived a war and was restored to its original look in 1991–1992 after earlier failed renovations. From 1996 to 2016, it housed the German Polish Institute.

Joseph Maria Olbrich also designed a house for Julius Glückert, a furniture maker and supporter of the colony. This was the largest house in the exhibition. Glückert planned to sell it but later decided to use it for a permanent display of his factory's work. The house was damaged in World War II, rebuilt, and restored in the 1980s. Today, it is used by the German Academy for Language and Poetry.

Another house, also designed by Olbrich, had sculptures by Rudolf Bosselt and interior design by Patriz Huber. Bosselt could not afford to finish the house, so Glückert took over and completed it. The house now looks similar to its original form.

Peter Behrens, who taught himself architecture, designed his own home and its interior. This was his first major project. The house had a consistent style because the same person designed both the building and the interior. However, it was the most expensive in the exhibition, costing 200,000 Mark. Behrens sold it soon after the exhibition and never lived there. The house was damaged in World War II, but its exterior was mostly restored. Some furniture was removed earlier and survived.

Olbrich’s own home cost 75,000 Mark. It had a red roof that extended over the ground floor on the north side. Olbrich designed the entire interior. The house was damaged in World War II and rebuilt in 1950–1951. Only the white and blue tiles on the outside remind people of the original design. From 1980 to 1996, it was used by the German Polish Institute.

Joseph Maria Olbrich designed the Ludwig Habich House, which was both a studio and home for sculptor Ludwig Habich. Patriz Huber designed the interior. The building is known for its flat roof and simple, geometric shape. After wartime damage, it was rebuilt in 1951 with some changes but followed the original plans.

The House Christiansen was designed by Olbrich for painter Hans Christiansen. The front of the house had large areas of color and sometimes included images. Christiansen painted the house, which sparked many discussions. He and his family lived there for a while, even though he worked outside Darmstadt later. The house was completely destroyed in World War II and was not rebuilt. A gap remains where it once stood, breaking the area’s original balance.

This house, called "Beaulieu," was built for wealthy man Georg Keller by Joseph Maria Olbrich. After being destroyed in the war, it was rebuilt in a completely different way.

Second Exhibition 1904

The second exhibition mostly included temporary structures because the first exhibition caused major financial losses. At this time, the remaining members Olbrich and Habich were joined by three new members: Johann Vincenz Cissarz, Daniel Greiner, and Paul Haustein.

The three connected houses at the corner of Stiftstraße and Prinz-Christians-Weg were built in 1904 based on plans by Joseph Maria Olbrich. The corner house (with brick-covered columns) and the "Blue House" (with blue-glazed tiles on the ground floor) were built for sale. The "Grey House," also called the "Preacher House" (with a rough, dark plaster surface), was designed as a home for the court preacher. Olbrich created the interior of the Grey House, while Paul Haustein and Johann Vincenz Cissarz decorated the Blue House and some rooms in the corner house. The three houses showed examples of living spaces for middle-class families. They were heavily damaged during World War II. The Grey House was replaced by a new building, and the other two were rebuilt with major changes.

Third Exhibition (Hesse regional exhibition) 1908

The third exhibition, open to artists and craftsmen from Hesse, focused on a group of small homes to show that modern living could be achieved with limited money. The exhibition highlighted free and applied art. In addition to Olbrich, the colony included Albin Müller, Jakob Julius Scharvogel, Joseph Emil Schneckendorf, Ernst Riegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, and Heinrich Jobst.

Joseph Maria Olbrich designed the Wedding Tower and the nearby Exhibition Building, which opened in 1908 to allow artists in the colony to display their work. The building was built on a former reservoir, part of Darmstadt’s water system, which was originally covered with dirt.

This house was created by Olbrich to display industrial and trade products from Upper Hesse. Olbrich also decorated it. Today, the "Institute for New Music and Music Education" uses the building.

Architect Conrad Sutter designed and built this house, as well as its interior. The building was included in the exhibition despite the jury’s disagreement, and Sutter accepted the responsibility.

Architect Johann Christoph Gewin made plans for the house for builder Wagner. The house was destroyed during a war.

The small home colony was built on the eastern slope of the Mathildenhöhe as a model for homes for people with limited income. It included one two-family house, two semi-detached houses, and three single-family homes. The model homes were displayed together by the Ernst Ludwig Society and the Hesse Central Society for the Construction of Cheaper Apartments. Six wealthy industrialists from Hesse funded the project. The homes had to have at least three rooms, be made from local materials, and cost no more than 4,000 Mark for a single-family home or 7,200 Mark for a two-family home. The interior design had to cost less than 1,000 Mark per home. Local architects Ludwig Mahr, Georg Metzendorf, Josef Rings, Heinrich Walbe, Arthur Wienkoop, and Joseph Maria Olbrich designed the buildings. The fully furnished homes were displayed in 1908 but were later dismantled.

Olbrich was asked by the Opel company from Rüsselheim to design a single-family home, including the interior, as part of the small home colony. Instead of an eat-in kitchen, which was common at the time, the home had a small kitchen and a large living room on the first floor. The second floor included two large bedrooms and a bathroom.

The three homes designed by Mahr, Metzendorf, and Wienkoop were dismantled after the 1908 exhibition and moved to the current location of Erbacher Straße at the request of a nearby ducal dairy farm.

Fourth Exhibition 1914

The main topic of the last exhibition was a rental residence. Albin Müller built a group of eight three-story rental apartment buildings on the northern slope of the Mathildenhöhe. Three of these buildings included example interior designs created by different members of the colony. The back part of this group was a five-story workshop. This row of apartment buildings was destroyed during World War II, but the workshop, which has a brown striped southern facade, remained intact. Today, the sycamore grove and the lion gate (now the main entrance to Park Rosenhöhe) are still visible. At this time, the colony members included Heinrich Jobst, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, Albin Müller, Fritz Osswald, Emanuel Josef Margold, Edmund Körner, and Bernhard Hoetger.

Darmstadt Conversations 1951

At the 50th anniversary of the first exhibition by the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, the Darmstadt Conversations, a three-day conference, discussed important building designs by several architects. An architect named Hans Scharoun designed a schoolhouse that influenced how schools should be planned in Germany after intense discussions at the conference.

Surrounding development

Darmstadt's local architects did not participate in the first exhibition at Mathildenhöhe. Traditional architects, including Alfred Messel (home for museum director Paul Ostermann von Roth), Georg Metzendorf (home for Georg Kaiser), Heinrich Metzendorf (home for Hofrat Otto Stockhausen), and Friedrich Pützer (including his own home, the home for Dr. Mühlberger, and a shared home for Finanzrat Dr. Becker and Finanzrat Bornscheuer), displayed their designs on the edges of the artists' colony. A fence surrounded the exhibition area only during the event. The homes of the artists' colony and the homes of other architects were built directly next to each other in the development.

The new artists' colony in Rosenhöhe

In the 1960s, the city of Darmstadt created a new artists' colony. Between 1965 and 1967, seven ateliers and residences were built according to designs by Rolf Prange, Rudolf Kramer, Bert Seidel, Heribert Hausmann, and Reinhold Kargel. The colony's residents included the author Heinrich Schirmbeck, the lyricist Karl Krolow, the art historian Hans Maria Wingler, and the sculptor Wilhelm Loth.