August Endell

August Endell (April 12, 1871 – April 13, 1925) was a designer, writer, teacher, and German architect. He was one of the founders of the Jugendstil movement, the German counterpart of Art Nouveau. His first marriage was with Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.

Life August Endell was born on April 12, 1871, in Berlin. In 1892 Endell moved to Munich, where he gave up his dream of being a teacher and instead became a scholar. He studied aesthetics, psychology and philosophy, German literature, and art at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He had the intention to pursue a doctorate degree in academics, but changed direction when he met Hermann Obrist, who became a close friend, and whose work was characterized by expressive ornamentation of observed submarine flora and fauna. Although influenced and encouraged by Obrist, Endell was primarily concerned with translating his idea of mobile space into architecture and decorations. Endell expressed important ideas on the stylistic intention underlying the work of Jugendstil artists at the time. In 1898, Endell joined the Initiative of Artistic Münchner Vereinigten Werkstätten für Kunst, and established himself as one of the innovators and leaders of the Kunstgewerbler movement.

In the spring of 1900, Endell met Else Plötz (later the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven), then an actress and aspiring artist who took private art lessons from him. The couple was married in a civil service on August 22, 1901, in Berlin. and the pair divorced in 1906. Although their separation was acrimonious, and Freytag-Loringhoven dedicated several satirical poems to August Endell, the relationship was influential for both artists. Endell later married sculptor Anna Meyn (1882–1967), with whom he had a child. In 1918, Endell was appointed director of the Breslau Academy of Art, in which function he served until he fell ill and died on April 13, 1925, at the age of 54.

Career Endell is noted for many designs. In 1897, he received his first commission, an important one that made him practically famous overnight: to design the façade of the Atelier Elvira Photographic Studio in (Munich), which belonged to Hermann Obrist. ” Endell believed that art and style should be the power of direct impact in form on viewer's personal feelings. His opinions of art and style were highly valued by other artists of the time such as, Franz Stuck, Lovis Corinth, and Ernst Kirchner; being favored highly by futurist artist and expressionists. as well as the design for a sanatorium in Wyk auf Föhr built in 1902. August Endell then went on to design several private homes and villas in the towns of Berlin and Potsdam in Germany. He designed the Max Silberberg villa in Breslau Landsberger Straße 1–3 in 1923 in the Art Deco style.

All while working as a self-taught architect, Endell was continuously publishing articles, essays, and books on his thought of design. In 1908, he published the book The Beauty in the Big City. Within the book the vision of a modern city is developed through Endell's artistic perspective. He describes the city as taking place at the beginning of the 20th century. He describes the city as a place were work, culture, and art can all be exchanged. A few additional architectural designs August Endell worked on were; 1912 design of the Racecourse Gallop of Mariendorf, 1912 the Trabrennbahn in Berlin Germany, and in 1914 the temporary location of the exhibition of Deutscher Werkbund.

August Endell was a designer and an architect. From there he moved on to the idea of a new visual art and began creating fine art works that were architecturally structured while still expressing the qualities of other forms of art. He began creating and building things such as gates, arches, stairway rails, and other decorative wall elements.