Lessing and Gude — an artists' house in the Tiergarten

Speaker: Dr. Jörg Kuhn

Among the numerous artists living in Berlin's Tiergartenviertel, the sculptor, painter and artisan Otto Lessing (1846—1912), trained in Karlsruhe and Berlin, was once one of the well-known artistic personalities. During his lifetime, he was named in the same breath as Reinhold Begas, the most famous German around 1900 after Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Lessing had married the painter Sigrid Gude (1852—1935), daughter of landscape painter Hans Fedrik Gude (1825—1903) in Christiania (Oslo) in 1875. When Academy Director Anton von Werner, who was related to Lessings, brought Gude to head the landscape class at the Academy in Berlin in 1880, the renowned artist purchased a house on Grabenstraße (Königin-Augusta-Straße from 1867 to 1933) in the Tiergarten district. Gude and Lessing set up their studios here and, together with their families, populated the three floors of the late classical building. Her works went out into the world from here.

The presentation presents the life and work of Otto Lessing and reports on social interaction in the house of Gude and Lessing.

Free admission. Registration required.