A House in the Country – 100th Anniversary of the Max Liebermann Villa

Enlarge image (© picture alliance / dpa) For Max Liebermann, his lakeside villa on the Wannsee was both a refuge and an inspiration: he completed more than 200 paintings there, portraying and immortalizing the house and its luxuriant garden in ever new variations. It is exactly a hundred years ago that the Jewish painter, who achieved great fame during his lifetime, moved into the house he affectionately called his “lakeside castle”.

In 1909, Liebermann had bought one of the last plots of land on the shore of Wannsee lake with a view to building a summer villa there. He assigned the job of designing the famous garden to the director of Hamburg’s Kunsthalle, Alfred Lichtwark, who planned it in accordance with his pedagogical ideas on art. On the large plot, Lichtwark created for Liebermann an arrangement of different “garden spaces”, including rose hedges and a flower terrace as well as a kitchen garden.

The house, completed in 1910 and known as the Max Liebermann Villa, is built in neo-classical style, with borrowings from its equally well-known forerunner: Goethe’s garden house in Weimar.

Enlarge image (© picture alliance / akg-images) The famous painter was not the only one to seek refuge in the country: there were a number of artists at the time who had villas and gardens built far away from the hustle and bustle of city life. This was a development in keeping with popular movements of the time, which were seeking alternative lifestyles to counter the effects of increasing industrialization.

After Liebermann’s death, the National Socialists put pressure on his widow Martha to sell the villa. The Liebermann Villa – today a protected historical monument – was later restored, along with the garden, by the Max Liebermann Society and is now a museum – and a popular tourist attraction because, in the words of Museum Director Martin Faas, “it remains a piece of Berlin’s living history. It’s like rediscovering a cultural blossom – visitors recognize the great cultural significance of Jewish life for the city.”

Visitors can find out all about the painter and his gem of a property at the special exhibition “100th Anniversary of the Liebermann Villa. The Idea of a House in the Country”, which runs until 15 August.

Opening times: 10 am - 6 pm every day except Tuesday, Thursday till 8 pm. Open on public holidays.

© Auswärtiges Amt