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Backhausen

Jan 31, 2025 at 10:40 542

Founded in 1849, the Backhausen company was the longest-standing manufacturer of upholstery and decorative fabrics in the history of Austria. From November 13, 2024 until March 9, 2025 the Leopold Museum (Vienna) exhibition and its accompanying catalogue, Poetry of the Ornament. The Backhausen Archive, with its roughly 260 exhibits, sheds light on this success story.

Order the bilingual (English and German) catalogue, Poesie des Ornaments. Das Backhausen-Archiv/Poetry of the Ornament. The Backhausen Archive, with contributions by Ursula Oswald-Graf, Aline Marion Steinwender, Christian Witt-Döring and a forword by Hans-Peter Wipplinger, published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, November 2024, 24 x 28.5 cm, 328 pages with 400 illustrations, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-3753307503, accept cookies — we receive a commission; price unchanged — from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de.

Curated by Ursula Oswald-Graf and Aline Marion Steinwender, the Backhausen Archive exhibition and catalogue offer a look at the company’s technically and artistically innovative products such as upholstery, curtain fabrics, carpets and its call for experimental textile design. The Backhausen company worked closely together with leading figures of the Wiener Moderne (German article: Wien um 1900) such as Otto Wagner, Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Hans-Peter Wipplinger writes that, critical of Historicism, the Vienna Secessionists aimed to infuse every area of human life with art and thereby foster a new lifestyle. Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser were employed by the School of Arts and Crafts from 1899 and, together with the industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer, founded the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903 based on the model of William Morris and the English Arts and Crafts Movement. I would add that the fundamental difference was that the British were critical of the industrial production and new materials, wheres the French and the Austrians embraced them.

Hans-Peter Wipplinger stresses that, alongside floral and organic patterns, strictly geometric underlying forms dominated the works of Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann. Jugendstil put the previously underrated decorative arts, the so-called “low” arts, on an equal footing with the fine arts, such as painting or sculpture. This paradigm shift led to new levels of recognition and appreciation of textile art. Many talented artists started turning their hands to this previously underrated medium.

Consistent with the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk – total work of art – the artists and designers of the Secession and Wiener Werkstätte strove for a synergy of architecture, interior decoration, furniture, and practical objects. Textile design was an integral part of this holistic concept for a new way of life.

The Backhausen Archive shows the result of collaborations between numerous artists and architects who wrote Austrian art and architectural history. Among the highlights are the interiors of Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904/05) and the Skywa-Primavesi villa (1913–15). In addition, one can add Stoclet House in Belgium’s capital Brussels (1905–11). Artists and artisans of the Wiener Werkstätte or the Secession and the gifted stars of Viennese Modernism worked together. Among the famous, outstanding people who worked for Backhausen were Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner, Joseph M. Olbrich, Jutta Sika, Dagobert Peche, Josef Frank, My Ullmann, Otto Prutscher and many others.

In her catalogue essay, Aline Marion Steinwender writes about the origins of the Backhausen company, founded by the brothers Karl and Johann Backhausen in Vienna in 1849, that the roots of this family business actually go back to their enterprising father, Franz (né Jakob) Backhausen, who was born in Brühl near Cologne in 1789. The son of a master weaver, Jakob learned the family craft before emigrating ahead of the Napoleonic army’s arrival in the Rhineland using the papers of his brother Franz Theodor, which declared him unfit for military service. In 1811, Jakob arrived in Vienna, where he started producing ladies’ coat, brocade, and horsehair fabrics under his name. His marriage to Theresia Bogg (1783–1859) produced the aforementioned brothers.

In the year of their father’s death, Karl (1824–1887) and Johann (1818–1886) refounded the company, specializing not only in the already established production of apparel and brocade fabrics but also in the manufacture of sheep wool shawls. The high quality of their textiles marked the beginning of decades of success.

The international reputation grew with the participate in the World’s Fairs in London (1851) and Paris (1855). In 1853 Karl Backhausen withdrew from the company and left business operations to his brother who promptly adapted the company name to Johann Backhausen, Fashion and Chenille Factory with Exclusive Imperial Royal Privilege (Johann Backhausen, k. k. ausschliesslich privilegierte Mode- und Chenillefabrik). According to Aline Marion Steinwender, the term chenille was included in the company name to draw attention to this new weaving technique and the fact that Backhausen had been granted the sole patent for its production in both Austria and France.

When Johann’s sons Johanns, Karl Eduard (1851–1918), and Jean (1849–1937) joined the family business, the company continued to flourish and, in 1873, changed its name to Joh. Backhausen & Söhne.

Public commissions included the decoration of Vienna City Hall (1888) and the Burgtheater (1874–1888), which had been redesigned by the architects Gottfried Semper and Baron Carl von Hasenauer. As a result of this, Backhausen was awarded the title imperial royal purveyor to the court (k. k. Hoflieferant), which attested the highest quality of their products.

Floral patterns gave way to geometrically abstracted shapes. Among the most famous representatives of this new concept of art were the architects Otto Wagner (1841–1918) and Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), as well as the painter and craftsman Koloman Moser (1868–1918). Over the coming decades, the latter two would prove close cooperation partners of the Backhausen company.

Aline Marion Steinwender explains that, around 1900, artists embraced Modernism: floral patterns gave way to geometrically abstracted shapes. Among the leading representatives of this new art concept were the architects Otto Wagner (1841–1918) and Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) as well as the painter and craftsman Koloman Moser (1868–1918). In the early 20th century, the latter two would become close cooperation partners of the Backhausen company.

It remains unclear how exactly Backhausen’s artistic direction changed. Aline Marion Steinwender notes that the Heinrichshof, destroyed in 1945 and situated on the Vienna Ring Road (Ringstrassenpalais), housed not only the company’s salesroom but also the Café Heinrichhof, which had opened in 1863 and soon became a meeting place for the Viennese avant-garde. She writes that is also possible that the close connections with the Viennese avant-garde, especially Otto Wagner and Joseph M. Olbrich, came through the bookkeeper, sales manager and later partner in the company Alois Schedewy. He joined the Backhausen company in 1876 and encouraged their leaders to embrace the emerging artistic trends of Modernism.

Otto Wagner first cooperated with Backhausen in 1891, explicitly designing textiles for his architectural creations or for his own home. Koloman Moser created some fifty designs between 1898 and 1904 that were produced by Backhausen as upholstery, curtains, carpets or for luxury volumes of the Secession’s publication Ver Sacrum. He also created a Backhausen advertisement first printed in the catalog to accompany the Fourth Exhibition of the Secession.

Backhausen was the main supplier for the famous Wiener Werkstätte. Josef Hoffmann worked with Backhausen from 1901 and designed several patterns that found their way into the total works of art (Gesamtkunstwerke) he created together with the Wiener Werkstätte, founded by Fritz Waerndorfer (1868–1939), Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann in 1903. The famous Wiener Werkstätte was dedicated to uniting all aspects of life under a single creative style. Examples include Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1904/05), the Cabaret Fledermaus (1907), Stoclet House in Brussels (1905–11) and the Skywa-Primavesi villa (1913–15). All projects are presented in details both in the exhibition and the catalogue, with photographs and fabrics.

From 1904 to 1910, Backhausen produced many of the Wiener Werkstätte’s textiles, at which point the company finally decided to launch its own fabric department, according to Aline Marion Steinwender.

From 1899 onwards, both Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann were teaching at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vinna. The used their position to acquire new talents for the growing number of commissions. Else Unger (1873–1936), Carl Witzmann (1883–1952) and Fritz Dietl (1880–1929) are some of their students whose creations can be found in the Backhausen archives.

In 1900 the company realized designs by Unger and Moser for the World’s Fair in Paris, in 1908 Backhausen participated in the formative Vienna Kunstschau with Hoffmann’s design Autumn Leaf (Herbstblatt) and in 1914 it was represented at the German Werkbund Exhibition in Cologne by carpet patterns by Otto Prutscher (1880–1949).

Backhausen was present in widely read magazines such as Das Interieur, Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration and The Studio. The company cultivated its reputation internationally.

Aline Marion Steinwender underlines that the First World War marked a turning point not just for the Backhausen company and not just economically. Many former soldiers were no longer able to return to work as a result of physical and psychological war wounds.

The new generation at Backhausen tirelessly sought to restructure the company and maneuver it through sustained financial difficulties. In addition to Karl Eduard’s sons Heinrich (1889–1973) and Paul (1894–1965), the sons of Jean, Hans (1876–1950) and Eduard (1878–1945), had also joined the family business.

The dialog with contemporary artists continued. They revived their international contacts. New machines were purchased to keep up with the latest technical innovations. Despite initial success, the Wall Street Crash in 1929 hit the company hard, leading to dozens of redundancies.

Backhausen only gained lucrative commissions by adapting for war production: tent tarps, blankets and flags were now made on the machines that had once woven fabrics bearing the most impressive designs of Viennese Modernism.

The Backhausen factory grounds emerged from the Second World War almost unscathed – until the Soviet occupation confiscated and demolished the factory in 1945. The salesroom in Vienna’s Heinrichshof fell victim to the bombing.

After the Second World War, Hans’s son John (1907–1987), Eduard’s son Teddy (1909–1974) and Heinrich’s sons Heinz (1928–2021) and Peter (1932–2021) reconstructed the company’s factory in Hoheneich, which had been returned in 1946. In 1951, a new salesroom opened at Vienna’s Kärntnerstrasse 33, which had been home to Cabaret Fledermaus from 1907 to 1913, a Gesamtkunstwerk for which Backhausen had once supplied textiles.

Countless buildings and prestigious mansions had been destroyed during the Second World War. Backhausen – which had once supplied the initial textile decorations for many of these buildings – was now approached for its support. Historical damasks were woven and business prospered again.

In the post-war period, Backhausen produced textiles for great buildings around the world, including Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 1986. The old formulas for success were revived: the fruitful symbiosis of traditional craftsmanship and artistic designs. From the 1990s, famous artists such as Peter Kogler (*1959), Hans Hollein (1934-2014), Vesna (1935–2021) and Esther Stocker (*1974) designed textiles for Backhausen. However, these numerous commercial and creative endeavors ultimately proved unsuccessful and, in 2012, Backhausen – now led by the sixth and seventh generation – filed for bankruptcy.

In the post-war period, the Viennese Jugendstil and the creations of Modernism had almost entirely disappeared from the collective memory. It was only in the 1970s that countless works on paper and fabric patterns from Backhausen’s earlier years of production – today’s archive – were rediscovered in the offices at Kaiserstrasse 12. In 1978 the company started reproducing Jugendstilfabrics after original designs. The forgotten art movement only enjoyed a renaissance in the 1980s.

Later the company opened a private museum in its salesroom on Kärntnerstrasse that made the precious designs of over three hundred artists as well as the family history available to the general public. It was not enough to save the company.

Aline Marion Steinwender notes that, in 2014, Dr. Louise Kiesling (1957–2022) acquired the struggling company. She strove to preserve its cultural heritage for subsequent generations and to restructure what was now Backhausen GmbH. After her unexpected passing, the company closed its doors for good in June 2023.

Thanks to Louise Kiesling’s knowledge of its priceless artistic and historical value, the Backhausen archives with some 11,000 items can now be accessed for further research at their new home, the Leopold Museum in Vienna. They include almost 5,000 design drawings and sketches created using a range of techniques, in addition to over 1,100 fabric and carpet patterns in various sizes and materials, sample and design books, collection catalogs, sketchbooks, business records, historical swatches in boxes, etc. The centerpiece of the archive are six design books documenting the years of 1890 to 1965.

In addition to the article by Aline Marion Steinwender, the catalogue contains an essay regarding the Backhausen Archive and public taste by Ursula Oswald-Graf as well as one about the Viennese style by Christian Witt-Dörring. On a timeline spanning over 240 pages, readers can discover historic black and white photographs, which are juxtaposed with today’s color photos of the respective fabrics, sketches and more. The list of the Backhausen designers and the exhibited works complement the catalogue.

The Leopold Museum show presents some 260 exhibits from the periods of Historicism, Jugendstil, Art Deco and Kinetic Art and sheds light on individual production stages – from the design via fabric samples all the way to the execution. The exhibition is a highlight of the Vienna museum scene and open until March 9, 2025.

For a better reading, quotations and partial quotations in this Poetry of the Ornament. The Backhausen Archive exhibition and catalogue review have not been put between quotation marks.

Poetry of the Ornament. The Backhausen Archive exhibition and catalogue review added on January 30, 2025 at 10:40 German time.

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