Augustinertag

Yesterday was Augustiner Day. That is what the curators of Freiburg's Augustinermuseum call the annual fundraising day.

The former premises of the Medieval monastery of the Ordo Canonicorum Regularium Sancti Augustini, secularized in 1806 under Napoleon's rule, served as stables for Napoleon's cavalry, the municipal theater, and later became the Augustinermuseum.

At the beginning of the new century, Freiburg's city council, considering the art treasures that could not be displayed due to a lack of space, voted to transform the existing premises into a renowned museum. They also decided to add new buildings while preserving the monastery's original structures, even making them more apparent.

Work started in 2004, comprising three phases of construction, ensuring continuous operation of the museum. The final stage was planned to be completed in 2020, the year of the city's 900th anniversary.

In the spring of this year, part of the wooden structure was found to be infested with mold and fungi. To remedy the situation, more money is needed, but above all, the grand opening of the new Augustinermuseum will not be celebrated before 2021.

Opening of the Augustinertag at the Feierling-Biergarten.
Lord Mayor Martin Horn at the mike.

This year's fundraising day started at the Feierling beer garden. On the occasion, the museum's management offered special guided tours, limited in number of participants, on a first-come, first-served basis, or the early-bird gets the worm.

Red Baron was lucky to get a ticket for the exhibition Black Forest Stories, a tour through a gallery of exclusive oil paintings guided by the director of the Augustinermuseum himself.

Black Forest Stories

At the entrance to the exhibition, there is a typical romantic scene as tourists see it.

Hermann Dischler 1909: Winter in the Black Forest

Winter paintings by Hermann Dischler, known as the snow painter, look so authentic. The artist projected black-and-white slides onto his canvas, making his paintings so realistic that they may serve as historical pictures.

Heinrich Hoffmann, not dated: Spinning Room in the Black Forest.

The painting shows Black Forest women in a spinning room. One of them is wearing the stereotypical Bollenhut, where red Bollen mean unmarried, whereas the black Bollen signify that the woman in the middle is married.

Franz Grässel 1885: On the Way Home

Why black? Life for the farmers of the Black Forest was painstaking, but even more so for the women in particular when they served as packhorses.

Fritz Reiss, not dated: Marriage of Convenience in the Black Forest

In the 19th century and beyond, arranged marriages were the rule rather than the exception. So it is all right for the elderly woman wearing the red Bollenhut to marry a younger guy as long as the money is right.

Curt Liebich 1903/04: Black Forest Mill

Men conveniently used hydropower to ease their manual labor in those times long past, when precipitation and snowmelt were still abundant in the Black Forest.

Michael Dilger 1820: Interior of a Glass-Blowing Workshop in the Black Forest

Glass blowing was a significant activity in the Black Forest because the wood was close to producing the charcoal needed to reach the high temperatures required to melt glass. The consequence was that at the beginning of the 19th century, no forests were left in the Black Forest. Thanks to a rigorous reforestation program by the Baden government, the erosion of the mountains was prevented.

Georg Michael Zimmermann 1902: The Höllental Railway near the Ravenna Bridge

Red Baron loves steam trains. Admire the engine pulling the train up the Höllental. Here, the frame maker tried to extend the motive by cutting it into the wooden frame.

Hermann Dischler 1904: Winter Morning in the Black Forest

Another snow picture by Dischler, a scene we possibly will no longer enjoy in the future.

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