Biedermeier

In Central Europe, Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it. The style corresponds to the Regency style in England, Federal style in the United States and to the French Empire style.

The term Biedermeier comes from the pseudonym Gottlieb Biedermaier, used by the country doctor Adolf Kussmaul and the lawyer Ludwig Eichrodt in poems, printed in the Munich Fliegende Blätter (Flying Sheets), parodying the poems of the Biedermeier era as depoliticized and petit-bourgeois. The name was constructed from the titles of two poems (Biedermanns Abendgemütlichkeit (Biedermann’s Evening Comfort) and Bummelmaiers Klage (Bummelmaier’s Complaint)) that Joseph Victor von Scheffel had published in 1848 in the same magazine. As a label for the epoch, the term has been used since around 1900.

Biedermeier architecture is marked by simplicity and elegance, exemplified by the paintings of Jakob von Alt and Carl Spitzweg. One of the most elegant surviving Biedermeier buildings is the Stadttempel in Vienna. Through the unity of simplicity, mobility and functionality the Biedermeier created tendencies of crucial influence for the Jugendstil / Art Nouveau, the Bauhaus and the 20th century.

Biedermeier was an influential style of furniture design from Germany during the years 1815-1848, based on utilitarian principles. The period extended later in Scandinavia as disruptions due to numerous states that made up the German nation were not unified by rule from Berlin until 1871. These post-Biedermeier struggles influenced by historicism created their own styles. Throughout the period emphasis was kept on clean lines and minimal ornamentality; as the period progressed, however, the style moved from the early rebellion against Romantic-era fussiness to increasingly flourished commissions by a rising middle class eager to show their newfound wealth.

Biedermeier furniture and lifestyle was a focus on exhibitions at the Vienna applied arts museum in 1896. The many visitors to this exhibition were so influenced by this fantasy style and its elegance that a new resurgence or revival period became popular amongst European cabinetmakers. This revival period lasted up until the Art Deco style was taken up. Biedermeier also influenced the various Bauhaus styles through their truth in material philosophy.

The original Biedermeier period changed with the political unrests of 1845-1848 (its end date). With the revolutions in European historicism, furniture of the later years of the period took on a distinct Wilhelminian or Victorian style. The term Biedermeier is also used to refer to a style of early clocks made in Vienna in the early 19th Century. The clean and simple lines included a light and airy aesthetic, especially in Vienna regulators of the Lanterndluhr and Dachluhr styles.

Links

• Biedermeier literature

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