Peter Behrens

eter behrens was born in Hamburg. Between 1886 and 1889, he studied painting successively at the hamburg school of applied arts

(kunstgewerbeschule hamburg) and at the academies of art in Karlsruhe and Dusseldorf. In 1890, after his marriage to lilly kramer, the behrenses settled in Munich, where he completed his studies the following year. In 1893 he helped found munich secession, which organized art exhibitions, including

shows of applied art (such as the furniture of henry van de velde, another outstanding designer of the period).

In 1897, together with artists and architects hermann obrist, august endell, bruno paul, richard riemerschmid and bernhard pankok,

behrens helped found the united arts and crafts workshops (vereinigte werkstätten für kunst und handwerk) in Munich, which produced furniture and other household wares along the lines of the british craft guilds and the then famous arts and crafts exhibition society shows in London. During this period, behrens was not active as an architect but chiefly worked on books. In 1898 he was active on pan, a journal of the arts. It was in that year that he made his first furniture sketches.

n 1899 peter behrens joined the darmstadt artists’ colony on the Mathildenhohe. The colony was the creation of grand duke ernst-

ludwig hesse, whose family still retained some claim to sovereignty in Hesse, of which Darmstadt was the capital.

ernst-ludwig’s plan was to create a village

exclusively of artists, whose every house, and everything in them, would be beautiful. The artists, including behrens, were chosen and invited by ernst-ludwig. The colony formally opened in 1901 with an exhibition called a document of german art. The subject of the exhibition was the village itself and the eight houses furnished by the resident artists. The houses were open to the public. All the houses but one

were the work of joseph maria olbrich, the Viennese architect. The eighth was designed by peter behrens. It was his first building.

The house has not been preserved, but we know

what it was like from the January 1902 edition (No. 11) of a Darmstadt periodical, deutsche kunst und dekoration. The entire number was devoted to the artists’ colony on Mathildenhohe and featured a 63-page, specially titled section on the behrens’ house that was set in a special typeface. It is likely that behrens set the pages himself. In any case, he designed the typeface and ornaments. Some objects from the home are in museums, and some still turn up at auctions. Some furnishings and details may have

been reproduced later (for other exhibitions, for example), but no later reproductions for sale are known to me.