special building out of car parts & wood panels at the osthang - a place for experimental constructions.
so darmstadt, where do i even begin? it's not really a classically beautiful city, but it also isn't ugly. i'd rather describe it as a very quirky & immensely interesting one. darmstadt seems to have a multitude of facets, combining historic & modern/contemporary elements in a way that makes you want to learn more about it. it surely made ME want to learn more! the most famous attraction in darmstadt is mathildenhöhe, an architectural art nouveau ensemble. this was basically what attracted me to darmstadt initially, because i'm a huge admirer of everything art nouveau/art deco. for our first visit, though, we decided to take a look at the city itself, which means, we basically just did a little sight-seeing tour by ourselves, without entering the museums on mathildenhöhe. we did visit a museum later that day, though, because it started to rain heavily. but as my parents weren't as interested in art nouveau things as much as i am, we decided for the landesmuseum, which offered a much broader selection of local & hessian history ( i didn't dare to take any photographs inside, except mobile phone ones, but be assured that this museum was absolutely mind-blowing - i felt like i still had so much to see and learn when we left ).
of course, darmstadt isn't only about art nouveau, it offers so much more! the technical university of darmstadt for example is pretty well known world-wide. there's also a beautiful palace you can visit ( and even a castle ), several more museums for art, history & technics and of course there's grube messel, an archeological excavation site famous for eocene fossils! the brief time we spent in darmstadt wasn't even the tip of the iceberg and i absolutely plan to return to darmstadt in the future, just to finally visit the art nouveau museum and learn more about the 4th biggest city of the state of hessia.
at the beginning of our little tour we stumbled across strange little huts. after some research i found out they were part of an architecture project that was about experimental construction. this car part house for example was one of the highlights. the osthang was formerly a savaged green space next to mathildenhöhe without any functions. now it's basically a meeting & event space for young creative minds. ( learn more about osthang project here )
the huts were mainly build out of wood & transparent roofing sheets, very easy & uncomplicated materials in my opinion and still, it made for quite interesting silhouettes.
next to the osthang space there was this building. while it may appear really ugly, there was one design detail that i really loved: the entry/foyer section.
because, look at this, please? contemporary art, hanging on the walls next to medieval looking busts? and the overal 50ies/60ies feeling this irradiates? i'm pretty sure the rest of the interior was equally inspired by the 50ies and i really would like to see more of it? this sneak-peek of it made me want to ring the door bell and demand a tour, haha.
first glimpse of the mathildenhöhe ensemble, with wedding tower & the exhibition hall. the structure on the right is still part of the osthang project.
the entry to osthang project.
the back of the exhibition hall, and on the left parts of the ernst ludwig house, which houses the artist's colony museum. see that tiny man on the roof of the exhibition house?
it surely was my most favourite detail about the whole ensemble. for real. unfortunately i cannot find any information about this sculpture. the wedding tower, by the way, is also called the five finger tower. the exhibition wall & the tower were the work of joseph maria olbrich, famous austrian architect ( who also built the secession hall in vienna ).
detail shot of the ernst ludwig house.
this building houses the museum künstlerkolonie and exhibits information and works of all the artists, architects and other personalities that lived, worked and breathed around the artist's colony of mathildenhöhe. next time i visit, this will be my main goal. in the big exhibition building right next to the ernst ludwig house you usually can find more exhibitions, but it seems it is closed for renovations at the moment.
i love how it looks so clean and minimal, even though it still has all those swirly elements that are known for art nouveau buildings. it was also designed by olbrich ( who was responsible for about 15 buildings on the mathildenhöhe ).
another prominent building of mathildenhöhe is the russian orthodox church. it's golden onion domes are so very typical for russian churches. it was built because tsar nicholas II's wife was born in darmstadt and apparently it was also his favourite chapel in germany.
russians have a thing for super ornamental & overly dramatic architecture. the details of the onion roofs are super elaborate! it's really fun to take photos of such buildings.
more details. the icon mosaics with its golden stones surely makes some impression on you.
we also entered the chapel for a little donation, and its pretty golden inside as well ( quite figuratively ).
detail shot of the exhibition hall dome with hessian lion & super detailed mosaic patterns. the little line says: bleib treu der eigenen natur & treu den menschen die du liebst. which translates to: be loyal to your own nature & loyal to the people you love. really lovely, right?
exhibition hall with dome. all main buildings of mathildenhöhe were designed and built by the afore mentioned j. m. olbrich. there's this strange compactness to his buildings that are a little untypical for art nouveau buildings ( at least in my opinion, haha ), and i think it's because it's on the brink of being art deco, actually. art deco had a more modern approach to architecture & design, there were more minimal elements included, while still incorporating the classic style of playful art nouveau. it's surely an interesting ensemble.
the front of the wedding tower & exhibiton hall.
a random decorative fence.
another mosaic of the russian chapel. i loved this one especially. so beautiful.
this is probably the most well-known view of the whole mathildenhöhe ensemble - shot by the lily basin ( architect: albin müller ).
5 fingers in the sky. it's called the wedding tower because it was a gift to grand duke ernst ludwig and his wife eleonore in the occassion of their wedding in 1905. it was never built for marriages taking place there, but because the duke wanted to have a look-out over darmstadt. these days you can absolutely have a wedding here :) well, what can i say, it's probably pretty cool up there, but we didn't enter it nor went upstairs to the viewing platform. ( next time i will )
there's a plane tree grove in front of the ensemble and exhibits a few sculptures by the artist bernard hoetger, which symbolize the circle of life. on the ground you can read the 'translations' of the inscriptions on the sculptures ( which look like letters of a different language first, but upon closer inspection you can indeed decode the very interesting typography ).
you are appearing beautifully
at the horizon of the sky
you living sun
that lived first
you rise
at the eastern horizon
and fill the earth
with your beauty
you are beautiful
and tall and glistening
and high above earth
your rays
embrace the countries
as many as you created.
sun song of echnaton
closeup of the typography.
another wonderful poem:
you sweet fountain
for the thirsty
in the desert.
it is locked
for the one
who talks.
it is open
for the one
who keeps silent.
when the silent one appears
he will find
the fountain.
fountain prayer of papyrus sallier I.
child with mother.
it was really nice wandering around the grove, reading the poems about life & looking at the soft expressions of the sculptures.
aureated fences were hedging the sculptures.
the main entry of the wedding tower. truly magnificent.
a look up into the sky.
those flower details. 😍
the tower's sun dial. it's a mosaic again, depicting the 12 zodiacal signs. the poem reads:
the day walks
over my face.
the night she
quietly touches past.
and day and night
one equilibrium.
and night and day
one monotony.
and eternally circles
the shadow writing.
life long you are standing
in the dark game.
until the game's
significance hits you.
the time is over
you are at the destination.
withered stone bench in front of the exhibition hall.
the swan temple ( also designed by albin müller ). if you stand right in the middle of the temple it turns into a whispering gallery.
the large glückert house. it was build in 1901. from the distance you cannot really see the tree details of the house ( i advise you to click on the link to see better pictures ) and it mainly doesn't even look very outstanding, but the devil here is in the details! i absolutely loved the tree decor on the facade. and apparently the main entry to the house is quite the beauty as well. julius glückert was a furniture manifacturer who supplied his furniture to russian & dutch royals back in the day.
the front of the museum künstlerkolonie ( ernst ludwig house ). power & beauty sculptures greeting you from afar.
the main portal of the behrens house. what a gem! the architect peter behrens built it as a total work of art, the furniture inside, the whole exterior, everything was designed to be in harmony. it was probably my favourite house on mathildenhöhe. i'd really like to go back in time, go inside & see the rest with my own eyes, but i hear that after it got heavily bombarded in world war 2 the interior isn't as glorious as it once was and only the exterior was rebuilt to look like the original. i don't even know if you can enter it these days? by the way, it was the first building behrens ever designed and erected. he only stayed in darmstadt for a few years until he moved to berlin and started a career as an architect for industrial dwellings, apparently being a pioneer for modern industrial architecture.
art nouveau house scenery. in the far back you can see the small house glückert.
in front of the art nouveau houses you would stumble upon this handsome guy. it's the gottfried-schwab memorial. schwab was a local poet.
random mosaic details on a house we were passing by as we made our way to the city center.
fishies ❤
let's forget about art nouveau a bit and look at some contemporary buildings. this is the darmstadtium. it's a congress & event center in darmstadt, and as you can see it incorporates parts of the medieval city wall. it was opened in 2007 & the architects are talik chalabi & paul schröder.
in the back you can see the university's main building & campus.
entry to the university campus.
really liked the details on this building. it reminded me of pixel computer games.
the patron goddess of the university is athena, she stands for art & science since ancient times, so it was only self-explanatory that the university would use her as their symbol.
we finally ended our small tour on karolinenplatz, where the hessian state archive ( yellow building ) is situated and also the state museum ( in the back ). guys, it started to rain by the time we arrived here and it was so strong that we decided to enter the museum and spend our afternoon there.
view back to the university campus.
the state museum was huge! like i wrote in the beginning of this post i didn't take any photos inside, because... ugh, it's always frowned upon in museums, you know? i sneakily took a few mobile photos, but of course it's not a realistic depiction of how wonderful this museum was. there were sections dedicated to crystals, art nouveau/art deco, natural history ( dioramas y'all! ), skeletons, art history ( i found another schiele painting ;_; i cried ), fossils and many things more! i could've explored the museum until late at night, but unfortunately it closed much earlier, haha. whenever you visit darmstadt, or hessia in general, you need to make it your goal to visit this museum.
after the museum closed we did a small walk around the herrngarten, a park behind the state archive & museum. we found a goethe memorial there ( dedicated do young goethe? ) with another naked boy just casually standing around. the sculptor of this statue was the same as the statue of the boy with the upraised hands near mathildenhöhe: ludwig habich. i guess he had a thing for naked guys, haha. some witty sly dog tagged 'patriotism spoils history' on the memorial, and i kind of agree to also disagree. it's how you look at patriotism that's important. the perspective counts. i feel like there is some kind of healthy patriotism and the clearly unhealthy one that for sure destroys everything. a little bit of pride concerning the achievements of your country is allowed, you know? especially when they were things that helped to develop a society. art, history, science, while still having their dark times, some things also brought light. and why shouldn't you be proud of it, sometimes?
our last stop was darmstadt's first electricity plant, a music hall that is now called centralstation. look at this building, it makes my heart sing. it also makes my heart cry, because 1 month later i actually wanted to attend a concert of balbina, but it was cancelled since she got sick and couldn't perform. so when i now look at this building it also makes me feel a little sad, that i didn't have the opportunity to experience this venue from the inside as well. ah, well. maybe there's going to be another one in the future.
but one thing is for sure, darmstadt will be on my destination list again, there is still so much to discover that we didn't get the chance to look at! looking at you, waldspirale, castle kranichstein, the residence, grube messel and all the other tiny places we didn't see.
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