Beate Hemmerlein

1000 hours in appreciation for Mautner Markhof

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A project of this dimension – meaning the present website – cannot be completed with conceptual know-how, creative strength, willingness to work and perseverance only. It is the soul of a work that forms its perfection – and I had good companions who made it possible for me to accomplish this work with soul. Each one of them has strengthened and motivated me again and again – each in his own way; some of them actively, some of them just by thinking, some some of them sporadically, some of them constantly. They are the ones whose contribution I do not want to leave unappreciated:

For Adolf Ignaz

Whose pioneering spirit, diligence and will (like his motto to match the coat of arms) made incredible achievements possible for generations over a period of only half a human life. A self-made man with the heart in the right place, whose memory has to be valued far beyond his social achievements and whose biography – as I hope – gives all his descendants the motivation not to just limit themselves to inherited social privileges.

For Carl Ferdinand

The one that touched me inside. As a boy, already looking after his family at a young age and still simple and modest, as a young adult, dutifully treading the predetermined path at his father´s side, when a mature man was forced to do so, he saw himself to choose suicide. And this with the simple touching final request for forgiveness, but not to refuse him the sacraments of death.

For Victor

Not caring about social advancement through marriage, having remained childless, devoted to the fine arts and individual joie de vivre, I cannot avoid the fact that this historically proven cheerful and pleasant contemporary, brother and uncle always brings a smile to my lips.

For Manfred II.

In memory of the dear Professor, who has always been friendly and benevolent towards me and who has always shared his office at the Seilerststätte with me when necessary. I will never forget our last meeting in the lift on the Stubenring.

For Viktor

The best, most correct and most reliable partner that one can only ask for and who has never spared the time and effort to bring the project up to date with the most detailed content that we can present on this website.

For Theodor Heinrich

Who sent me on this historic journey at the beginning of 2017, which not only took me through a large part of Austrian history, but also finally made me understand all the stories that I had been listening to – more incoherently – over the past two decades. It is only thanks to his vision and drive that everything that started in Bohemia with Adolf Ignaz and was taken up by Georg (IV.) JE in the 1990s, was able to find its way out of the paper archives. Now, through the use of contemporary media it can also be preserved for future generations worldwide.

 

1,000 hours of Mautner Markhof – may the exciting journey bring many more hours of Mautner Markhof.

Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

The passing on of the fire

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The history of the Mautner Markhof House is a story of many fates. A story of tradition, of success and of course also setbacks. Outstanding are the pioneers, who passionately pursued their visions and thus influenced society at the time, some of them sustainable.

You can’t choose a family, as the saying goes, that of course also applies to each of us, with all its advantages and disadvantages. However, what Mautner Markhof is able to give to all its members and descendants is the certainty that all dreams, wishes and ideas can be realized with dedication, commitment, faith, will and perseverance.

Adolf Ignaz was brave, progressive, creative and groundbreaking. He created, effected, shaped, produced and – above all else – had the heart in the right place. Preserving his spirit therefore means not only being the beneficiary of material and social values, but also courageously treading new paths, believing in oneself and creating one’s own trend-setting ideas and projects.

„Innovate don´t imitate“ – oder um es mit Gustav Mahlers Worten zu sagen „Tradition ist die Weitergabe des Feuers und nicht die Anbetung der Asche“.

“Innovate don’t imitate” – or to put it in Gustav Mahler’s words: “Tradition is to pass on the fire and not to worship the ashes”.

In order now to make this possible and to all family members, wherever they may be, to get their roots, I have in the age of new media seized the opportunity to use its powers and laid the foundation for this as part of the website. I wish and hope that in every future generation a few descendants find that to continue what my cousin Viktor and I have initiated and thus preserve what Adolf Ignaz began so outstanding.

 

 

Written by Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof

Magda Mautner Markhof by Gustav Klimt

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Study/portrait of Magda Grasmayr, the ninth child of Carl Ferdinand Mautner von Markhof.

Gustav Klimt drew her in 1904 with black pen on paper, 55 x 34.6 cm

Magda was born on April 14th, 1881 in Vienna and, thanks to the influence of her mother Editha Freiin Sunstenau von Schützenthal, grew up in a household in which the artistic elite of the time regularly got together. Besides Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, Kolo Moser also Bruno Walter and Gustav Mahler were regular guests in the family palace on Vienna’s main street Landstraße Hauptstraße.

She appeared as a young girl when, on November 18, 1903, she and her mother became co-founders of the “New Women’s Club”. Magda, like her mother and sister Ditha (married to Koloman Moser), was very art-minded and graduated from art school in Vienna under Alfred Roller and as well completed painting lessons with Maurice Denis in Paris. Her doll’s house was the central object of an exhibition of the Secession under Adolf Böhm. Her apartment and studio furnished by Josef Hoffmann developed into a prestigious stomping ground where Albert Paris Gütersloh and Alfred Gerstenbrand liked to socialize.

Magda Mautner Markhof, 1904 by Gustav Klimt


Study by Gustav Klimt on an unfinished portrait of Magda Mautner Markhof

Magda aimed to compile a collection of contemporary Austrian art. For example, she owned the Gustav Klimt painting Hope I, 1903, originally acquired by Fritz Waerndorfer. She also bought the Egon Schiele painting Autumn Tree in Stirred Air (Winter Tree), 1912, which she acquired for a total of 400 crowns. “I am now sending you 100 crowns, 200 crowns in November, then 100 crowns in December. I prefer the two landscapes more than your figurative works, which are often quite strange to me. By watching your drawings, I also have the feeling that you have a completely different view of things than I do. Nevertheless, I would like to have one of your works because I would like to fully represent young Viennese art in my collection.”

In 1913 she married the teacher Alois Grasmayr, who came from an Innviertel peasant family, with whom she moved to Salzburg, where they purchased a villa on the Mönchsberg, the Bristol and Stein hotels, as well as two inns and a mountain farm. The house on the Mönchsberg became a social center for artists and writers in the interwar period. Magda herself published poems in a Viennese daily paper, Alois his “Little Faust Book”, which was intended to explain the content of Goethe’s Faust I and II to a wider audience in dialect language.

Magda died on August 22, 1944 in Salzburg, Alois followed on March 11, 1955.


Puppenhaus der Magda Mautner von Markhof (1908)

Puppenhaus (Stiegenhaus) der Magda Mautner von Markhof (1908)

Puppenhaus (Speisezimmer) der Magda Mautner von Markhof (1908)


Written by Theodor Heinrich Mautner Markhof