Bruno Schmitz
Encyclopedia
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...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
best known for his monuments in the early 1900s, working closely with sculptors such as Emil Hundrieser, Nikolaus Geiger
Nikolaus Geiger
Nikolaus Geiger , born at Lauingen, Bavaria, was a German sculptor and painter. He was a pupil of Joseph Knabl at the Munich Academy. In 1873, he went to Berlin and soon achieved recognition for his ornamental work in the Tiele-Winckler Palace...
and Franz Metzner
Franz Metzner
Franz Metzner was an influential German sculptor, particularly his sculptural figures integrated into the architecture of Central European public buildings in the Art Nouveau / Jugendstil / Vienna Secession period...
for integrated architectural and sculptural effect. He was described by the British author Simon Winder in his history of Germany, "Germania", as the world's worst architect.
Schmitz was born in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. His single most famous work is the massive 1913 Völkerschlachtdenkmal
Völkerschlachtdenkmal
The Monument to the Battle of the Nations is a monument in Leipzig, Germany to the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations...
(Monument to the Battle of the Nations) located in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, designed with local architect Clemens Thieme. The Monument was inaugurated in 1913 by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Bohemian sculptor Franz Metzner
Franz Metzner
Franz Metzner was an influential German sculptor, particularly his sculptural figures integrated into the architecture of Central European public buildings in the Art Nouveau / Jugendstil / Vienna Secession period...
designed the powerful and strangely scaled interior figural-architectural 'colossal masks of fate.'
Along with the Leipzig monument, Schmitz designed the Kyffhäuser Monument
Kyffhäuser Monument
The Kyffhäuser Monument , also known as the Barbarossa Monument or the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument , is a monument on the summit of the Kyffhäuser Mountain near Bad Frankenhausen in the state of Thuringia in central Germany.The monument, which totals 81 metres tall, was built in...
and the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument at Porta Westfalica
Porta Westfalica
Porta Westfalica is a town in the district of Minden-Lübbecke, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name “Porta Westfalica” is Latin and means “gate to Westphalia”. Coming from the north, the gorge is the entry to the region of Westphalia...
, bringing him the distinction of designing the three largest war monuments in Germany. All of them are rough, primitive masonry structures in a style that blends Romanesque precedents with modernist touches, and all of them are associated with German nationalism in the period before World War I.
Schmitz also designed the 1897 Deutsches Eck
Deutsches Eck
Deutsches Eck is the name of a headland in Koblenz where the Moselle joins the Rhine. In 1897, nine years after the death of the German Emperor William I, the former emperor was honoured with a giant equestrian statue bearing an inscription quoting a German poem: "Nimmer wird das Reich zerstöret,...
in Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
, the 1901 Soldiers and Sailors' Monument
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (Indianapolis)
The Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument is a tall neoclassical monument in the center of Indianapolis, Indiana that was designed by German architect Bruno Schmitz and completed in 1901....
in Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, the German Pavilion at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
, the 1906 Rheingold Wine House in Berlin, the elaborate Carl Hoffman Tomb at Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
's Old St. Matthew's Church, and a number of the Bismarck tower
Bismarck tower
Bismarck Towers are a unique genre of German monument, built to honour the ex-chancellor of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck. A total of 240 of these towers were built between German unification and the National Socialist takeover, i.e. between 1869 and 1934...
s.
Schmitz's daughter Angelica Schmitz (1893 - 1957) was the wife of the Ukrainian-American sculptor Alexander Archipenko
Alexander Archipenko
Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko was a Ukrainian avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist.-Biography:...
.