Biedermeier as a style of architecture and a style of European life in the first half of the XIX century

Abstract

Biedermeier originated in the German-Austrian culture in the first half of the XIX century and was widespread in many European countries. The article is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of the style and its influence on the urban culture of the considered era. After the victory over Napoleon in 1814-1815, the German Union was created at the Congress of Vienna. The industrial revolution unfolded there in full, the bourgeoisie was ideologically deter-mined. The discoveries of science and technology actively influenced all areas of life. In this era of rapid development of natural science, technology and political change a contradiction arose: the desire to create a “new” and “modern” was accompanied by an interest in the “individual”, in the “own little world” of the citizen-burgher. The name “Biedermeier” was formed only in the middle of the XIX century, when the style exhausted itself. In 1848 V. von Sheffel published in «The Flying Leaflets» two poems, in which the names Biederman and Bummelmeier were used. By combining these names, the poet Ludwig Eichrodt published the poem “Biedermeier” in 1850 and the later cycle of poems “Biedermeiers Liederlust”. As a category of art history, as a designation of “style” the term began to be used at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries (August Schestag, Georg Hirth). For the art industry since the middle of the 1890s Biedermeier was a stylistic concept. At the same time, it began to be interpreted both as a principle of “bourgeois shaping in the housing area”, as well as a “style of use and functional justice” (A. Shestag). In the architectural science of the XX century it was believed that the “Biedermeier” did not create its own monumental architecture. Today it is considered as a feature and advantage that the main theme of the style was the creation of a living environment for the “burgher”, the coziness and comfort of private housing. The article discusses the elements of architecture and art, which determined the integrity of artistic culture of “Biedermeier”. The role of the style in creating prerequisites for the development of a number of ideas of artistic culture of the XX century is noted.