Haus Behrens: entrance door

The success of his exhibitions in 1899 led to his appointment to the K�nstler-Kolonie in Darmstadt by Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt. In July 1900, work began on his own house there.

In 1899 the Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse established one of the leading centres of Jugendstil architectural, design, and decorative arts practice in Darmstadt. The Artists’ Colony brought together leading artists and craftsmen as a means of improving German public taste and endowing the contemporary applied and decorative arts with a sense of German identity. One of the main thrusts of the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony initiative was to move away from a dependency on foreign influences and reinvigorate quality standards in German design and decorative arts.

The creative personalities initially involved in the Artists’ Colony at Darmstadt were the fine artist and designer Hans Christiansen - invited by the Grand Duke to found the Colony - interior designer Patriz Huber, and weaver and embroiderer Paul B�rck. Soon they were joined by the Austrian Joseph Maria Olbrich and German Peter Behrens. An important part of the project was the building of several public buildings and artists’ houses, many of them designed by Olbrich.

The designers sought support from the Grand Duke for an exhibition in Darmstadt in 1901. Organized by Olbrich and displayed in several temporary exhibition buildings and the artists’ houses, the exhibition made a financial loss and drew some negative criticism, not least because the Colony was the subject of royal patronage. The exhibits were seen as exemplars of the ‘total work of art’ — coordinated architecture, interiors, furnishings, and applied arts.

At the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle the Darmstadt Room, designed by Olbrich, won a Gold Medal. The Artists’ Colony exhibited at the Turin Exposizione Internazionale d’Arte Decorativa Moderna of 1902, and the St Louis Exhibition of 1904. A ceramics factory was established in 1906, followed by a glass factory in 1908. However, the First World War brought the Darmstadt venture to an end.