THE KARL ERNST OSTHAUS-MUSEUM ARCHIVE

The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum has, at its disposal, an extensive archive of 20th century art history.
Altogether, the inventory includes four archives, divided into: the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Archive, the Ernst Fuhrmann-Archive, the Henry van de Velde-Archive and the archive of the Museum of Museums.

Karl Ernst Osthaus-Archive (former inventory ca. 50,000 pages; new acquisitions not included)

The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Archive forms the most extensive and important archive inventory. It includes essential documents (correspondences, exhibition checklists, press articles, brochures, periodical articles, etc.) from the Folkwang-Museum as well as from the DEUTCHEN MUSEUM FÜR KUNST IN HANDEL UND GEWERBE, both founded according to the initiative of the wealthy Hagen patron, Karl Ernst Osthaus (1874-1921).

The Folkwang-Museum, which was opened in 1902 in cooperation with Henry van de Velde, housed an important collection of works by Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Hodler, Manet, Matisse, Renoir, Rodin, Rohlfs, Seurat, Signac etc. and was the first museum in the world for contemporary art.  The goal, which Osthaus sought to realize with the Folkwang-Idea, depended on the foundational re-organization of social life through art. He undertook an effort to bring important artists to Hagen, to give them public commisions as well as to found an artists' colony, production areas and a teaching institute. 

In the process of these efforts an additional musuem project was added: the establishment of the Deutschen Museums für Kunst in Handel und Gewerbe, which in 1909 began a close working relationship with the Deutschen Werbund and the Folkwang-Museum.  Osthaus' ambitious goal consisted of the development of a new 'type' of museum that was to reform the traditional state of art production. Diverse exhibitions were organized by thematic viewpoint.  Different versions of some of these exhibitions were produced and were availble, upon request, for loan to state authorities, the chamber of commerce, museums, clubs and other interested institutions. The Deutsche Museum für Kunst in Handel und Gewerbe was completed through the incorporation of affiliated sub-departments which prepared and, in some cases, supported the travelling exhibitions. In addition, they were to expand the museum profession "into a radiating applied work" (Osthaus).

In 1922, one year after Osthaus' death, the entire inventory of the Folkwang-Museum was sold to the city of Essen by Osthaus' heirs and moved to the ground level of the current Museum Folkwang Essen.  The collection of the Deutschen Museums für Kunst in Handel und Gerwerbe was taken into possesion by the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museums Krefeld.

With the purchase of the extensive correspondences of the Folkwang-Museums as well as the Deutschen Museums für Kunst in Handel und Gerwerbe through the city of Hagen in 1963, scholarly investigation of both institutions could be secured for the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum.

The documents found in the archive provide evidence of Osthaus' contact with artists, tradesmen and art historical instituions of the time. In connection with the inventory of the archive, Herta Hesse-Frielinghaus published a monograph on Karl Ernst Osthaus in 1971. Life and work, Recklinghausen 1971, for the first time, provided a scholarly investigation of the archive documents.  In subsequent years, specific correspondences from the archive were published in a series by the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum. (see the request for liturature selelctions.)

In the framework of the exhibition "The Beautiful and the Everyday- Deutsches Museum für Kunst in Handel und Gerwerbe" which was produced by the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum Krefeld in 1997, the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Archive inventory was re-visited and re-evaluated with regard to history and the functionality of german museums.

In 1998 the supposition that before its sale in 1963, some parts of the complete Folkwang-Archive inventory had been removed. At an auction held at the Berlin auction house, Stargart, on 8. August, 1998, a group of 140 letters surfaced.  Included in this collection were correspondences from Braque, Cézanne, Hodler, Kokoschka, Matisse, Renoir, the 'Brücke'-artists Heckel, Kirchner and Schmidt-Rottluff, the 'Blauen Reiter'-members Kandinsky, Macke, Marc and Münter as well as Barlach, Archipenko etc. These letters were clearly a component of the Folkwang-Archive (Hagen).  With financial support from the Berlin cultural foundation and the Department of Interior, the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum successfully acquired these letters.

Likewise, in 1998 the remaining contents of the estate of Karl Ernst Osthaus were brought to Hagen with the finacial support of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and the Halbach-Foundation.  With this last purchase, it was possible to complete the inventory and as a result, to reproduce the orginal body of documents. These recently acquired documents include handwritten manuscripts from Osthaus, correspondences with Ida Gerhardi, with artists associated with 'Brücke' as well as with Feininger, Rodin, Gropius, Kandinsky, Kirchner, Heckel, etc.  They reveal a new knowledge of the personal and professional activities of Karl Ernst Osthaus and his colleagues.

The electronic inventory of the last two purchases as well as their integration into the old inventory of the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Archive is taking place in the next few years and will be available to archive users after completion.  The index of the old inventory already exists in electronic form and consecutively presents the invidual documents according to their content.