August Endell

August Endell (1871–1925) was a designer, writer, teacher, and German Jugendstil architect. He is also known as one of the founders of the Jugendstil movement, the German expressionist movement of Art Nouveau. His first marriage was with Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.

August Endell was born on April 12, 1871, in Berlin. In 1892 Endell moved to Munich, where he gave up his dream of being a teacher and instead became a scholar. He studied aesthetics, psychology and philosophy, German literature, and art at the University of Munich. He had the intention to pursue a doctorate degree in academics, but changed direction when he met Hermann Obrist, who became a close friend, and whose work was characterized by expressive ornamentation of observed submarine flora and fauna. Although influenced and encouraged by Obrist, Endell was primarily concerned with translating his idea of mobile space into architecture and decorations. Endell expressed important ideas on the stylistic intention underlying the work of Jugendstil artists at the time. In 1898 Endell joined the Initiative of Artistic Münchner Vereinigten Werkstätten für Kunst, and established himself as one of the innovators and leaders of the Kunstgewerbler movement.

In the spring of 1900, Endell met Else Plötz (later the Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven), then an actress and aspiring artist who took private art lessons from him. The couple was married in a civil service on 22 August 1901 in Berlin. They had an open relationship, and in 1902 Else Endell became romantically involved with a friend of Endell’s, the poet and translator Felix Paul Greve (later the Canadian author Frederick Philip Grove). After the trio travelled together to Palermo, Italy, the Endells’ marriage disintegrated and the pair divorced in 1906. Although their separation was acrimonious, and Freytag-Loringhoven dedicated several satirical poems to August Endell, the relationship was influential for both artists. Endell later married sculptor Anna Meyn (1882–1967), with whom he had a child. In 1918 Endell was appointed director of the Breslau Academy of Art, in which function he served until he fell ill and died on 13 April 1925 at the age of 54.

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