Alfred Mahlau. Festive Parade 1926
In 1926, Lübeck celebrated 700 years of “imperial freedom” and commemorated the issuance and presentation of the “Letter of Imperial Freedom” in 1226 by Emperor Frederick II. This document is considered a key prerequisite for Lübeck’s subsequent rise to become the leading city of The Hansa. By 1926, the heyday of the Hanseatic League was long past; Lübeck remained a free city, and Germany was now in its eighth year as a republic. With an extensive program of festivities, people at the time looked back on Lübeck’s eventful history and hoped to build on those glorious times.
Exactly one hundred years later, this exhibition looks back at the highlight of those celebrations: the festive parade artistically designed by Alfred Mahlau. Through numerous images, this parade brought stories and events from Lübeck’s history to life. Thousands of people lined the streets as the parade made its way through the city center on June 6.
Today, photographs and a film provide us with a vivid black-and-white picture. The parade comes to life in color through Mahlau’s first overall design, a “scroll” more than 16 meters long featuring detailed scenes with numerous figures. For the first time in 100 years, these watercolors are now on display again. We invite you to take a stroll along the festive parade and explore Mahlau’s artistic engagement with Lübeck.
The artist Alfred Mahlau
In his self-portrait, painted just one year after his designs for the parade, Alfred Mahlau presents himself as a painter. In this oil painting, he is depicted standing in front of an easel, looking concentrated and focused, with a brush and palette in hand. Today, Alfred Mahlau is best known for his commercial art work for Schwartauer Werke and the marzipan manufacturer Niederegger. Throughout his life, he took on commissions for design work. He was never able to fulfil his wish to work solely as a freelance artist.
Festive events and exhibitions
In 1926, an extensive programme of celebrations was organised to look back on Lübeck’s eventful history, whilst at the same time hoping to build on its glorious past.
Thomas Mann’s commemorative speech epitomises the city’s bourgeois culture:
From the Concept Sketch to the Corporate Identity
In early 1926, nine artists from Lübeck handed in their designs for a poster and other printed materials.The publicity committee for the celebrations selected Mahlau’s work for production. The committee required that the design be adaptable for use in large format as a poster as well as in smaller formats for advertisements or as letterhead. These designs by Mahlau have been preserved in the committee’s archives, and examples of their execution can be seen in this exhibition.
Alfred Mahlau: Concept sketch: Letterhead / Envolpe /Postcard /Stamp, Gouache, 1926
The postcard featuring the seven golden towers was widely used for announcements and invitations relating to the 700th-anniversary celebrations. This particular postcard was posted and stamped on the day of the parade.
The advertising column in the foreground features the festival poster
by Alfred Mahlau.
privat collector
On a second postcard, presumably designed on his own initiative, Alfred Mahlau combined Lübeck’s white-and-red flags and pennants with a ‘trefoil’, an architectural detail taken from the tower gables of St Mary’s Church.
“Lübeck is not just a time-honoured Hanseatic city with
magnificent old buildings and artistic treasures, but Lübeck is also still alive and thriving. We are still here!”
These words by editor Paul Bengt in the introduction to the programme booklet illustrate what was important to the organisers of the 700th-anniversary celebrations: Lübeck’s past was to be used to shape its future.
This was Mahlau’s artistic starting point: with his city skyline printed in gold – which also adorns the programme booklet – Alfred Mahlau created a graphically modern depiction of the old city. In addition to the introductory short texts, the programme booklet also contains illustrations of the celebratory exhibitions and provides information on the various
venues.
To mark the 700th-anniversary celebrations, Alfred Mahlau succeeded in capturing the sweeping panorama of Lübeck’s skyline vertically in portrait format. The poster, featuring the stylised seven golden towers, proved to be an effective promotional image for the 700th-anniversary celebrations. It was displayed at numerous German railway stations, amongst other places, and attracted a large audience to the city for the festivities.
Letter of Imperial Freedom
To mark the 700th anniversary, the History of the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck, edited by Fritz Endres, was published.
Alfred Mahlau was responsible for the cover design. Drawing on Lübeck’s history and culture, various authors explored the city’s distinctive and unique characteristics, its civic character and
the significance of its freedom. Each copy of the book was accompanied by a reproduction of the Imperial Charter of Freedom.
This meant that every reader had this important document on Lübeck’s freedom always to hand.
Design drawings for the parade
When he was commissioned to design the artwork for the historical parade, the young Alfred Mahlau was working as a costume and set designer in Breslau. By commissioning Mahlau, the committee was presumably hoping for a contemporary design for the parade, inspired by his stage sets. Across 36 sketch sheets, the artist depicted scenes from Lübeck’s history, from legends and tales, as well as symbolic illustrations. The result was a multi-figure composition in which Mahlau first established the motifs, the sequence of events and the colour scheme for the costumes and floats. Notes and comments now provide an insight into the subsequent adjustments Mahlau made in response to the wishes of his client, the parade committee. Mahlau then assembled his 36 design sketches into a ‘roll’ on a canvas more than 16 metres long.
swipe right for more motifs.
-
LÜBECK CITY SEAL, 1223The girls scattering flowers are followed by a depiction of the city seal, which was used by the council when drawing up documents. Two men are seated in a ship, which resembles an early form of a cog. In the actual seal, the men each raise a hand in an oath. The two figures are interpreted as a merchant and a sailor.
-
OPENINGFollowing the two-headed eagle, Lübeck’s heraldic animal, come flag-bearers whose letters and numbers spell out ‘700 Years of Imperial Freedom’. In the drawing, Mahlau hints at the typeface he had newly developed. One year after the parade, the Niederegger company began to use this typeface for its products and advertising.
-
-
-
THE DELIVERY OF THE LETTER OF IMPERIAL FREEDOM, 1226In the scene titled by Mahlau ‘The Charter is Presented’, two historically successive events merge: the handover of the Imperial Charter of Freedom at the imperial castle of Borgo San Donnino to the messengers of the Lübeck Council – accordingly, the ‘cart’ from which the charter is presented is depicted as a castle with battlements and guards – and the delivery of the charter from Italy to Lübeck by horsemen and a cart.
-
ARCHBISHOP AND LÜBECK CATHEDRALIn this scene, Mahlau had a group designated as ‘canons’ – comprising an archbishop and three bishops – lead the way ahead of the model of the cathedral. It is the Archbishop of Bremen, the ecclesiastical head of Lübeck Cathedral, who appears in the procession as the counterpart to the free city and its civic church, St Mary’s.
-
ST MARY’S CHURCHIn the actual procession, the model of St Mary’s Church has been placed even closer to the cathedral. With the growth of civic autonomy, this church was intended to provide the bourgeoisie with their own place of worship. Through its size and its immediate proximity to the town hall and the market square, St Mary’s Church bears witness to the self-confidence of Lübeck’s citizens.
-
DANCE OF DEATHFor Mahlau, the Dance of Death was the most important group. In reference to the depiction of the Dance of Death there, it was placed directly behind the model of St Mary’s Church. Emperors and peasants alike – all are equal in the face of death. Mahlau explored this theme on several occasions during his artistic career. Most recently, when he created two church windows for St Mary’s in memory of the Lübeck Dance of Death, which was destroyed during the Second World War.
-
THE OTHER CHURCHES IN LÜBECK ST PETER’S CHURCH ST AEGIDIUS’ CHURCH ST JAMES’ CHURCHIn his draft, Mahlau noted that after each church there should be something ‘characteristic’ of it. However, this was not implemented in the final design.
-
THE BLACK DEATH, 1350The plague reached Lübeck in 1350 and went down in the city’s history as the ‘Black Death’. In Mahlaus’s drawing, the writhing figures of those stricken by the plague are followed by rather static groups. Behind Death and the monks, the sketch depicts singing and dancing lay brothers in a riot of colour. In the drawing, the contours of the flagellating, convulsing figures are already beginning to dissolve in places. This scene was not included in the procession.
-
-
CAPTURED ROBBER KNIGHTSMahlau introduces the theme of trade by referring to captured robber knights. In the areas surrounding Lübeck – in Holstein, Lauenburg and Mecklenburg – there lived minor nobles who robbed merchants and thus threatened the city’s economic development. Time and again, Lübeck, sometimes in conjunction with Hamburg, took military action against the nobles’ estates in the surrounding countryside.
-
THE MERCHANTS’ CARAVANLübeck’s rise was not solely down to trade by sea. An important trade route ran from Lübeck via Nuremberg all the way to Venice. Trade meant money, and from money came power: securing trade routes was therefore also a matter of power politics.
-
-
SHIPS OF THE HANSEATIC CITIESThe drawings of the ships, like those of the churches, show how, in the mid-1920s, Mahlau developed a visual building block system through stylisation and simplification, the components of which he could rearrange time and again. In the procession, the ships of the other Hanseatic cities are firmly linked to Lübeck by ribbons.
-
LÜBECK, LEADER OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUEThe largest ship sails confidently amidst the smaller vessels of other Hanseatic cities. It looks as though Lübeck is leading the smaller ships by a leash. The city’s pride and self-assurance are particularly evident in this image, which, however, had nothing to do with the present day of 1926
-
HONOURARY MAIDENSEmperor Charles IV’s visit in 1375 caused quite a stir in Lübeck. Mahlau depicts the procession, consisting of triumphal arches and the so-called honourary maidens. It is said that the Emperor was received just outside the city gates and escorted through the city.
-
EMPEROR CHARLES IV, 1375In his sketch, Mahlau depicted the Emperor on horseback beneath a canopy. The Emperor’s stay in Lübeck in 1375 was motivated by political considerations and was linked to the city’s strategic position on the northern borders of the Empire, as well as its role as a gateway to the East.
-
EMPRESS ELISABETH, 1375The Empress, Elisabeth of Pomerania, is also depicted in Mahlau’s drawing riding into the town beneath a canopy. Mahlau portrayed the Empress and her horse in a regal golden hue. The noble ladies from her retinue, lined up behind her, wore a hennin as headgear, whose veil was also intended to shimmer in gold.
-
GUILDSLed by the guild masters, the senior members, and the ‘Stadt-Musik’ band, the craftsmen present their insignia. Mahlau’s design underwent a number of changes. In particular, the models of the Holstentor, the Town Hall and the Burgtor, which were carried by members of the guilds, are still missing from this section.
-
-
WULLENWEVER, RISE, FROM 1530 AND FALL, 1537Mahlau described these scenes as exemplary of his directing style, characterised by stark contrasts: the scene depicting the rise of the merchant Jürgen Wullenwever, who was regarded as a warlord and the upholder of Lübeck’s power, shows his carriage in magnificent red and gold, surrounded by a cheering crowd. His downfall – his removal as mayor and, in 1537, finally his execution – appears as a ‘black block’.
-
SCHOLARS (REFORMATION), 1531 & THE CIRCLE ORDERSCHOLARS (REFORMATION), 1531: Mahlau depicts the turning point of the Reformation through the scholars – the pupils of the new Latin school at St Katharinen – and their teachings. The procession later also featured the Franciscan monks carrying a model of the church, as well as the reformer Johannes Bugenhagen. THE CIRCLE ORDER: In order to depict a historical group from the 18th century as well, Mahlau included the Circle Order here. Members of leading families sought to distinguish themselves from the rest of the urban population in the Middle Ages as a ‘city-noble’ circle society. By the 18th century, it had lost its significance, and it was dissolved in 1820.
-
LÜBECK LEGENDSFor his vivid scenes based on the themes of the Lübeck legends, Mahlau drew inspiration from the collection ’Lübische Geschichten und Sagen’ (Lübeck Stories and Legends), published by Ernst Deecke as early as 1852. With the exception of the group ’Das Narrenfest’ (The Fools’ Festival), all the legends depicted can be found in Deecke’s work. ANCIENT LITTLE MAN: A wealthy merchant lived in Lübeck in 1502 and did not want to die. When he finally decided he was ready to face death, he had to go looking for it. He was supposed to go round St Mary’s Church, but as the doors were locked, he climbed up onto the roof, remained sitting there and eventually turned to stone.
-
TILL ULENSPEEGEL; DE SCHOBAND; DER GRÖNLÄNDER & JOHANN BALLHORNTILL EULENSPIEGEL: He also got up to mischief in Lübeck. In 1350, Eulenspiegel died in Mölln, near Lübeck, and was buried there. His gravestone depicts him wearing a feathered hat, holding a mirror in his hand and carrying a basket full of owls. DE SCHOBAND: During the Plague of 1350, Schoband, or Bandscho, had carts built with a bell attached underneath. He drove these through the streets, and the townspeople were able to lay their plague victims on them. Schoband took them to the churchyard to bury them. DER GRÖNLÄNDER: In 1607, sailors from Lübeck came across a ‘Greenlandic vessel’ that had strayed off course and brought it home with them. The last crew member died shortly afterwards, and so the ‘vessel’ – which is in fact a kayak – was preserved as a memorial at the Sailors’ Guild. JOHANN BALLHORN: In 1528, Johann Balhorn, a printer from Lübeck, published a primer for young people bearing the note, ‘revised by Johann Balhorn’. In it, he also addressed the Lutheran faith and, using the image of a cockerel, called on Christendom to be vigilant and not to allow strangers’ eggs to be laid in their nest. His critics accused him of depicting an egg-laying cockerel. It is from this —or rather from his ‘improved’ edition of Lübeck’s municipal law—that the idiom ‘Verballhorn’ derives.
-
BISHOP BOCHOLT; DER WASSERTRETER; MARKRABE, HIS FOUR MUSICIANS & THE THIEVESBISHOP BOCHOLT: endowed the cathedral with the choir, the vaults and the copper roof; he died in the cathedral in 1341 and was buried right there. To this day, a bronze statue commemorates him; according to legend, at midnight it sits up and turns its pillow. DER WASSERTRETER (The Water Walker): In 1483, a painter named Hinrich vamme Ryn won a bet by walking underwater in a leather sack with glass eyes and a breathing tube, from the Holstenbrücke to the Herrenfähre. MARKRABE, HIS FOUR MUSICIANS & THE THIEVES: Around 1380, Markrabe, a town councillor’s servant, who was old and portly, used his music to attract the town’s petty criminals. Markrabe forced the thieves he had lured into a confession and cured them of their wickedness
-
THE HEADLESS WOMAN & THE DEVIL CREATES THE CATHEDRAL PULPIT RAILINTHE HEADLESS WOMAN: The young wife of a wealthy man from Lübeck incited her maid to plot against her husband’s coachman after he had failed to return her advances. Accused of theft, he was eventually beheaded. When the deception was uncovered, the maid was hanged and the young woman took her own life. According to legend, the two women have been riding through the city ever since on every New Year’s Eve, one with her head twisted round, the other headless, in a black carriage. THE DEVIL CREATES THE CATHEDRAL PULPIT RAILIN: The Devil took a dislike to the barred railing of the new pulpit for the cathedral and appeared to the blacksmith in the guise of a master craftsman who criticised it. The blacksmith, however, recognised the Devil, pinched his nose with his large pliers and forced him to finish the railing in a single night.
-
THE FOOLS’ FESTIVAL & THE FRENCH, 1806–13The FOOLS’ FESTIVAL: Until the end of the 18th century, the ‘Hansnarr’ was allowed to spend a few days each year earning money in the town through his pranks. He could be recognised by his red-and-white jacket, his jester’s cap and a ‘fool’s stick’, which he would use against anyone who refused to pay him. THE FRENCH, 1806–13: Between 1806 and 1813, Lübeck – which had enjoyed independence for centuries – suffered under the French occupation, which was at times brutal and proved costly for the city. Mahlau devotes several thematic groups to the liberation from this painful period.
-
HANSEATIC LEGION, 1813–15During the Wars of Liberation, the Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck formed the Hanseatic Legion, a force intended to serve their joint defence. In the actual parade, it marched at the rear of the French contingent and followed the Lübeck Citizens’ Guard, which had been added later and was reformed after the French withdrawal in 1813 to ensure order within the city centre.
-
COSSACKS, 1813Mahlau illustrated the liberation of Lübeck from the French through the uncontested but undoubtedly spectacular entry of Russian Cossacks in March 1813. However, the freedom gained as a result of the French’s earlier withdrawal was not to last. A scene depicting the occupation, which resumed following their return, was ultimately featured in the procession through the capture of the master butcher Prahl. The city’s eventual liberation and surrender on 5 December, however, was not depicted in the procession.
-
-
INDUSTRIALISATION IN THE MODERN ERA; FIRST STEAMSHIP, 1824 & FIRST RAILWAY, 1851Mahlau bridged the gap to the modern era with three depictions of industrialisation. Mahlau had a special connection to the Lübeck–Büchener railway, which began operating in 1851. In the year of the parade, he carried out various graphic commissions for the railway.
-
ELBE-TRAVE CANAL, 1900
-
WORLD WARIn his design, Mahlau had envisaged a float featuring a cross and burning torches as a memorial to those who fell in the First World War. The festival committee feared that the parade would thus end on a tragic note, and scrapped the float. In the Leporello, the ‘parade booklet’ sold at the parade, the World War was still depicted. Mahlau felt this event was too momentous to be overlooked.
-
FINALE, THE YEAR 1926The parade concluded with 30 flag-bearers, who were intended to symbolise ‘the bond with all peoples’, as Mahlau wrote. In the ‘Rolle’, he put it more clearly: ‘Lübeck’s flag, followed by all German and Nordic flags and those of other countries with which Lübeck has ties.’ Thus the parade concluded with the hoped-for, or rather proclaimed, emergence of Lübeck and Germany from isolation following the First World War.
-
Leporello
In a simplified form, Alfred Mahlau sketched the procession a second time in the spring of 1926, in order to win a commission for a ‘procession booklet’. Printed as a lithograph and folded into a leporello, it became a popular souvenir of the 700th-anniversary celebrations. Mahlau had intended a print in blue, red and gold; presumably for cost reasons, however, the gold – which featured prominently in Mahlau’s works for the celebrations – was omitted. Instead, the preliminary sketches and the Leporello also include the ‘World War’ motif, which was not incorporated into the parade. Mahlau, who had served as a soldier in the First World War, insisted, however, on including the motif featuring a cart and burning torches in the booklet.
In addition to Mahlau’s drawings, the Leporello also contains Charles Derlien’s design for the second part of the parade, featuring the various trades.
-
Alfred Mahlau: The historic parade marking the 700th anniversary of Lübeck’s imperial freedom, Leporello, 1926
-
Alfred Mahlau: The historic parade marking the 700th anniversary of Lübeck’s imperial freedom, Leporello, 1926
-
Alfred Mahlau: The historic parade marking the 700th anniversary of Lübeck’s imperial freedom, Leporello, 1926
-
Alfred Mahlau: The historic parade marking the 700th anniversary of Lübeck’s imperial freedom, Leporello, 1926
Public Response
These three items show that impressions of the parade were recorded in very different ways – on the one hand, as a school essay by a young girl, and on the other, by professional photographers, mainly from Lübeck, Hamburg and Berlin. In a six-page essay, Erna Rohde, a schoolgirl from Lübeck, described her impressions of the 700th-anniversary celebrations. She described the visitors from out of town, the cog in the city moat and, finally, the parade. The photographs
show many children in the crowd: one of them might be Erna Rohde.
This privately compiled album contains photographs by various photographers, distributed as postcards and as press photos by picture agencies. The cover features a cropped small poster from the 700th-anniversary celebrations, featuring Mahlau’s typography.
Some of the same photographs appeared a month after the parade in a scrapbook. The cord used to hold the pages of the album together features Lübeck’s colours of white and red.
-
Various photographers: Photographs of the parade, contemporary collage on four sheets, 1926
-
Various photographers: Photographs of the parade, contemporary collage on four sheets, 1926
-
Various photographers: Photographs of the parade, contemporary collage on four sheets, 1926
-
Various photographers: Photographs of the parade, contemporary collage on four sheets, 1926
The four sheets of press photographs, mostly cropped postcards and a few magazine clippings, come from the collection of Fritz von Borris, a friend of Alfred Mahlau. The photographs show the parade almost in its entirety. The cropping of the postcards draws the viewer’s attention to the groups in the parade. The design is reminiscent of the layout of illustrated magazines of the time.
Souvenirs of festivals became mass-produced items in the 19th century.
In Lübeck, this began in 1848 with pins commemorating the annual People’s and Remembrance Festival. For the 700th-anniversary celebrations in 1926, the Lübeck-based porcelain manufacturer Arnold Berg Mahlaus had its ‘Seven Towers’ logo printed on tableware. Although the gold colour is the same, on the plate, Mahlaus’s linear design stands in sharp contrast to the ornate rim.
The sculptor and medallist Hans Schwegerle, who was
from Lübeck and lived in Munich, designed an official bronze medal for the 700th-anniversary celebrations. It was produced in various versions. The small version was available for purchase, whilst the large version was awarded to selected individuals in recognition of their services in the planning and organisation of the celebrations. Hans Schwegerle also created the bust of Thomas Mann, which is on display in the Blue Salon at the Behnhaus, as well as the sculpture of Hermes in the Garden Room.