1.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
2.
Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory
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After his accession in 1745 Maximilian III Joseph, Prince-Elector of Bavaria, commanded the establishment of manufacturing companies in order to bail out the state finances. From 1747 attempts were made to manufacture porcelain and at the end of year the former Neudeck Castle in the area now the Munich suburb of Au-Haidhausen was made available for that purpose. Up to 1754 the experiments were a failure and lost considerable amounts of money. In the same year the rococo porcelain sculptor Franz Anton Bustelli came to work at the factory, in 1755 the factory received its first commission from the Bavarian court and in 1756 came the first success in painting the porcelain in colour. The management of the jurist and entrepreneur Count Sigmund von Haimhausen from 1758 ensured that the factory was placed on a commercial footing. By 1761 it had moved to a house on the grand circle in front of the royal Nymphenburg Palace. Among the artists who followed Bustelli were Dominikus Auliczek the elder, a great promoter of the works was Ludwig I, who gave them many commissions. Particular favourites were dinner services with copies of paintings or with Bavarian landscapes in an antique style. In 1822 Friedrich von Gärtner, the architect, was appointed artistic director of the factory. In the middle of the 19th century its financial position deteriorated to the extent that in 1856 all artistic production was halted and it was leased out for the first time in 1862 and its focus shifted to the production of technical, medical and sanitary porcelain goods. In 1887 Albert Bäuml took a lease of the factory and his aim was to regain the previous high artistic level of the factorys products, it was Bäuml, for example, who rediscovered Bustelli. This aim was realised at around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and besides historical copies, since 1975 the factory has been leased by the Bavarian government to the Wittelsbach Compensation Fund. In 2011 it was taken over by Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, the Nymphenburg Palace also accommodates the Nymphenburg Porcelain Museum. Guided tours through the factory can be arranged by prior appointment, Nymphenburg Palace is known to have been the working place of artists and sculptors like Hanns Goebl and Franz Anton Bustelli. Kostbarkeiten aus der Sammlung Bäuml und dem Residenzmuseum München, Munich, Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen. Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory official website Porcelain manufacturing companies in Europe
3.
Porcelain
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Porcelain /ˈpɔːrsəlᵻn, ˈpɔːrslᵻn/ is a ceramic material made by heating materials, generally including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C. Porcelain was first developed in China around 2,000 years ago, then spread to other East Asian countries, and finally Europe. It combines well with both glazes and paint, and can be modelled very well, allowing a range of decorative treatments in tablewares, vessels. It also has uses in technology and industry. The European name, porcelain in English, come from the old Italian porcellana because of its resemblance to the translucent surface of the shell, Porcelain is also referred to as china or fine china in some English-speaking countries, as it was first seen in imports from China. Porcelain has been described as being completely vitrified, hard, impermeable, white or artificially coloured, translucent, however, the term porcelain lacks a universal definition and has been applied in a very unsystematic fashion to substances of diverse kinds which have only certain surface-qualities in common. Terms such as porcellaneous or near-porcelain may be used in such cases, a high proportion of modern porcelain is made of the variant bone china. Kaolin is the material from which porcelain is made, even though clay minerals might account for only a small proportion of the whole. The word paste is an old term for both the unfired and fired material, a more common terminology these days for the unfired material is body, for example, when buying materials a potter might order an amount of porcelain body from a vendor. The composition of porcelain is highly variable, but the mineral kaolinite is often a raw material. Other raw materials can include feldspar, ball clay, glass, bone ash, steatite, quartz, petuntse, the clays used are often described as being long or short, depending on their plasticity. Long clays are cohesive and have high plasticity, short clays are cohesive and have lower plasticity. Clays used for porcelain are generally of lower plasticity and are shorter than many other pottery clays and they wet very quickly, meaning that small changes in the content of water can produce large changes in workability. Thus, the range of content within which these clays can be worked is very narrow. The following section provides information on the methods used to form, decorate, finish, glaze. Many types of glaze, such as the iron-containing glaze used on the wares of Longquan, were designed specifically for their striking effects on porcelain. Porcelain wares may be decorated under the glaze using pigments that include cobalt and copper or over the glaze using coloured enamels. Like many earlier wares, modern porcelains are often biscuit-fired at around 1,000 °C, coated with glaze, another early method is once-fired where the glaze is applied to the unfired body and the two fired together in a single operation
4.
Rococo
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Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. By the end of the 18th century, Rococo was largely replaced by the Neoclassic style. In 1835 the Dictionary of the French Academy stated that the word Rococo usually covers the kind of ornament, style and design associated with Louis XVs reign and it includes therefore, all types of art from around the middle of the 18th century in France. The word is seen as a combination of the French rocaille and coquilles, the term may also be a combination of the Italian word barocco and the French rocaille and may describe the refined and fanciful style that became fashionable in parts of Europe in the 18th century. The Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts led some critics to say that the style was frivolous or merely modish, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning old-fashioned. While there is some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general. Italian architects of the late Baroque/early Rococo were wooed to Catholic Germany, Bohemia and Austria by local princes, an exotic but in some ways more formal type of Rococo appeared in France where Louis XIVs succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the long reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves. These elements are obvious in the designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this change became well established, first in the royal palace. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XVs reign. The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France, the style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. The Rococo style was spread by French artists and engraved publications, william Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty that the lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace. The development of Rococo in Great Britain is considered to have connected with the revival of interest in Gothic architecture early in the 18th century. The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality, Blondel decried the ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants in contemporary interiors. By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order, in Germany, late 18th century Rococo was ridiculed as Zopf und Perücke, and this phase is sometimes referred to as Zopfstil
5.
Locarno
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It has a population of about 16,000, and about 56,000 for the agglomeration of the same name including Ascona besides other municipalities. The town of Locarno is located on the part of Maggias delta. It is the 74th largest city in Switzerland by population and the third largest in the Ticino canton, after Lugano, the official language of Locarno is Italian. The town is known for hosting the Locarno International Film Festival which takes place every year in August and involves open-air screenings at the main square and it is also known for the Locarno Treaties, a series of European territorial agreements negotiated here in October 1925. In January 2004, the Italian historian Marino Vigano speculated that Locarnos castle may have designed by Leonardo da Vinci. In 1934 in the vicinity of todays Via S. Jorio, some of the urns were directly buried, while others were placed in boxes of uncut stone. The urns contained, in addition to burned bones, bronze ornaments, similar urns were also discovered in the district of S. Antonio, which was probably also a small cemetery. The ceramic and bronze objects date from the Canegrate culture, however, no traces of the settlement have been discovered. In 1935, a necropolis was discovered at Solduno. The over 200 graves cover nearly a thousand years, from the La Tène culture to the 3rd century AD, many of the La Tène era grave goods are Celtic style Fibulae or brooches. These objects demonstrate a cultural influence from regions north of the Alps, however, the ceramic objects are indigenous to Golasecca culture which spread into Ticino and Lombardy. Between 1946 and 1949, a number of Roman era tombs were discovered on the terrace between the churches of Santa Maria in Selva and San Giovanni Battista in Solduno, the Roman city that became Locarno was therefore between the vicus of Muralto and this cemetery. Unfortunately, intensive construction and agricultural activity have destroyed most traces of the ancient city, in 1995 and 1997,57 graves were found in Via Valle Maggia. Nineteen were from the Roman period, which confirms that even in the 3rd century AD cremation, among other significant finds, a number of glass items were discovered. The Roman necropolis was used from the end of the prehistoric La Tène era until the middle of the 3rd century AD, the extensive Romanization of Locarno wiped out much of the local culture and replaced it with ancient Roman elements. However, it appears there was no Roman ruling class which could have dominated the local population. The capitanei were a group of prominent noble families who emerged in the early Middle Ages, the term is first mentioned in a document granting market rights to the town by the Emperor Frederick I in 1164. This title was reserved only the direct vassals of the kings fief
6.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
7.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
8.
Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
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Maximilian III Joseph was a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 1745 to 1777. Born in Munich, Maximilian was the eldest son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII and his wife, Maria Amalia of Austria, upon his fathers death in January 1745, he inherited a country in the process of being invaded by Austrian armies. During the Seven Years War Bavarian forces then fought on the Habsburg side, Maximilian Josephs sister Maria Josepha of Bavaria was married in 1765 to Maria Theresas son Emperor Joseph II. But long-term weakening of Prussia was not in the Bavarian interest, Maximilian Joseph tried, as far as possible, to keep Bavaria out of the wars. Apart from militia troops, he sent only a force of 4,000 men to join the Austrian army. In 1758/1759, he withdrew Bavarian auxiliary troops from Austrian service, together with the Wittelsbach Elector Charles Theodore of the Palatinate he enforced the neutrality of the Empire during the conflict. Maximilian Joseph was a progressive and enlightened ruler who did much to improve the development of his country and he encouraged agriculture, industry, and exploitation of the mineral wealth of the country, and abolished the Jesuit censorship of the press. In 1747 the Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory was established, while the Codex Maximilianeus bavaricus civilis was written in 1756, in 1759, he founded Munichs first academic institution, the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. During the severe famine in 1770 Maximilian sold some of the jewels to pay for grain imports to relieve hunger. In that year, he issued an edict against the extravagant pomposity of the Church which contributed to the end of the era of Bavarian rococo. He also forbade the Oberammergau Passion Play, in 1771 the elector regulated general school attendance. In December 1777 Maximilian Joseph rode in his carriage through Munich, on the ride, as he passed one of the clocks, the mechanism broke. Commenting to the passengers, Max Joseph decided this was an omen, within days, he was stricken with a strange disease. None of his 15 doctors could diagnose it, but by Christmas, it had become clear that it was a virulent strain of smallpox. By the last day of the month he was dead without leaving an heir, Maximilian III Joseph is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich. He was succeeded by his distant cousin, the Elector Palatine Charles Theodore from the branch of the dynasty. Maximilian III Joseph ordered in 1751 François de Cuvilliés to construct the splendid rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and he also ordered to decorate some rooms of the New Schleissheim Palace in rococo style. In 1775 La finta giardiniera, an Italian opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, received its first performance at the Salvatortheater in Munich
9.
Sigmund Graf von Haimhausen
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Sigmund von Haimhausen was a Bavarian aristocrat, mining operator, head of the Bavarian Mint and Mines commission, porcelain manufacturer and first president of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Sigmund Ferdinand Graf von und zu Haimhausen was born on 28 December 1708 in Munich and he came from a family ennobled by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. His father was Franz Joseph von und zu Haimhausen and his mother Maria Magdalena Baroness von Rehlin, Sigmund attended the Jesuit school in Munich, then in 1724 went with his older brother Charles Ferdinand to the University of Salzburg. After two years moved on to study law in Prague. In the late summer of 1728 the two began to travel, visiting Dresden, Berlin, Lübeck, Hamburg and Amsterdam. They spent a semester in Leyden where they and hundreds of young men heard Johann Jacob Vitriarius deliver his lectures on public law. They then visited London and spent eight months in Paris before returning home in July 1730 and their grandfather died on 11 January 1724 and left Sigmund his Bavarian and Bohemian properties, leaving only the title and a legacy to Charles. However, the government overrode the will and decreed that Charles should receive the possessions in Bavaria, sigmunds Bohemian properties included the Gute Kuttenplan copper mine and other mines. Haimhausen devoted himself to the study of mining and he attended the metallurgical lectures of Dr. Störr in Leipzig, traveled through the Saxon ore fields and Austrian mining towns, and talked or corresponded with leading experts in mining. When Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, died on 20 October 1740 Sigmund joined in the homage of Bohemia in Prague and attended the coronation of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, in Frankfurt. He moved temporarily to Bavaria, and this became permanent under Maximilian III Joseph. In 1751 the Elector Max III Joseph appointed Haimhausen Master of the Mint and he was appointed to the privy council the same year. Starting in 1747, with the support of the Elector Max III Joseph, the Elector gave up funding the venture, but Haimhausen took over management and invested about 10,000 Bavarian Gulden in the enterprise from 1751-55. In 1753 he employed the skilled manufacturer Joseph Jakob Ringler, on 30 May 1754 the factory was incorporated into the Bavarian state system, and made a department of the Mint and Mining Commission headed by Haimhausen. In 1754 the factory hired Franz Anton Bustelli from Ticino in Switzerland as head of the modelling shop and he became model master, and contributed greatly to the early success of the factory. In 1761 the Churfürstliche Porcelain-Fabrique was transferred to the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, after some difficulties, the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory became successful and delivered high-quality products. The factory was best known for its Rococo figures, including Bustellis Chinese and Turkish figures, Bustellis successor Dominik Auliczek was known for groups of fighting animals, such as one of a bear being attacked by hounds. The factory did not make much tableware, but the Haimhausen and Electoral Court services are excellent, richly decorated in floral sprays, butterflies, the elector awarded Haimhausen a medal for his achievements
10.
Nymphenburg Palace
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Castle of the Nymph, is a Baroque palace in Munich, Bavaria, southern Germany. The palace is the summer residence of the former rulers of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach. The central pavilion was completed in 1675, as a building material it utilised limestone from Kelheim. The castle was expanded and transformed over the years. Starting in 1701, Max Emanuel, the heir to Bavaria, two pavilions were added each in the south and north of Barellis palace by Enrico Zucalli and Giovanni Antonio Viscardi and connected with the centre pavilion by two gallery wings. In 1716 Joseph Effner redesigned the facade of the pavilion in French Baroque style with pilasters. Later, the section of the palace was further extended to form the court stables. For the sake of balance, the building was added to the north. Finally, a circle with Baroque mansions was erected under Max Emanuels son Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII Albert. In 1795 the Elector Charles Theodore ordered the widening of the galleries on the park side, with the Treaty of Nymphenburg signed in July 1741, Charles Albert allied with France and Spain against Austria. Two of the children were born here, Maria Antonia in 1724. Charles Albert lived during his time in Munich as Holy Roman Emperor in Nymphenburg Palace, Joseph founded the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory. In 1792 Elector Charles Theodor opened the park for the public, for a long time the palace was the favourite summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. King Max I Joseph died there in 1825 and his great-grandson King Ludwig II was born there in 1845, in 1863 the only meeting between Ludwig and Otto von Bismarck was held in Nymphenburg, although they remained connected in a lifelong friendship. Today Nymphenburg is open to the public but also continues to be a home and chancery for the head of the house of Wittelsbach, currently Franz, the palace, together with its park, is now one of the most famous sights of Munich. The baroque facades comprise an overall width of about 700 metres, some rooms still show their original baroque decoration while others were later redesigned in rococo or neoclassical style. The Steinerner Saal in the pavilion, with ceiling frescoes by Johann Baptist Zimmermann and F. Zimmermann. Acting as a hall, it occupies over three floors of the central pavilion of the palace
