Clara Telge (Part V) China and Hamburg

Bernard Telge traded (import/export) in metals (iron), colonial ware, machinery for mining and printing, building and contracting of railways and bridges, steam engines, railway locomotives etc.. He also took an interest in coal mines.  

Tientsin (Tianjin) concessions (Austrian bridge) around 1900.

I found several business partners who joined Telges China-Hamburg trading house and businesses (1860-1900) and about some of them more details were found then on the life of Bernard Telge himself. Telge was appointed consul for Belgium in 1892. In 1890 a partner Fritz (Friedrich) Sommer (b. Bremen 6-1-1868), joined and acted as consul for Norway from 1907.  

Tientsin-Tianjin trading harbor in 1874 

Herman Schroeter (see later) also joined the company in 1890 and became a partner in Telge & Schroeter in 1895. The firm would move up to Tientsin (Tianjin) another freeport and nearer to Being. It consisted of 9 foreign concessions granted by the emperor (Qing dynasty) in 1860. 

Somewhere between settling in Shanghai in 1860 and 1870 Bernard Telge will have found a wife (probably in Germany ?) because in 1870 Clara was born in Shanghai. It was mentioned she had a sister or sisters. I have not been able to find anything more about Bernards family so far. For instance the name of his wife and other children. It could be Bernard died in 1898 (that is also when the company was taken over) but that has to be verified. 

Hamburg,  Maria Luisenstrasse 1915

I found Bernards widow ("Frau Bernhard Telge", Clara's mother who I sadly do not know by name yet), mentioned in an old address book living Hamburg Maria Luisenstrasse 4 which is near Hamburg Stadtpark, probably the location of this entrance gate by Hamburg printmaker Else Zinkeisen (Hamburg 1871 - died probably 1934) Her short-biography can be read in my book.   

Bernards brother Rudolph Telge's widow ("Frau Rudolph Telge") is Emma Telge-Oldermann (1834-1911). She lived Uhlandstrasse 38 and was the daughter of former merchant and "Dispacheur" Johannes Olderman (b.1800), Hamburgs official government legal expert on business damages. Judging the size of the dwellings in these posh Hamburg lanes Emma Telge and her sister-in-law seem to have been left very "well-off" by their successful merchant husbands.  

Hamburg Uhlandstrasse 

Anyway, in 1898 Bernard or his legal representatives left (part of ?) the firm to his nephew Rudolph Telge (1859-1914). As it happens he is one of the sons of Georg Telge (1827-1897) in Hamburg suggesting Bernard had no male successor to his international trading company. It is these small but significant bits of information that help to see the coherence and allowing to rebuild the past. 

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Two of Bernard Telge's associates or partners are particularly intersesting to mention here.  

Hermann Schroeter

(born where ? 16-10-1857 - 24-06-1905 Shanghai ?) 

Some personal photographs were found and together with some research they tell a dramatic personal story maybe to be continued by readers in future. 

Here we see posing elegantly Hermann Schroeter and his wife Emilie Becker photographed in may 1896 in Shanghai in a horse and carriage with a Chinese servant. Emilie Telge-Becker was born (possibly in Lemgo near Detmold) on 11-08-1864. Following the dates with the photographs she is expectant of their first born son Albert (Shanghai 16-10-1896). Unaware of the dramatic events that were to follow the dates with the photo's tell she would die two weeks after she gave birth.   

Albert is photographed a year later with his grand-mother Becker in Lemgo, she is probably Emilie's mother (although it is possibly she is the mother of Hermann Schroeter). I suppose on that occasion Hermann married Emilie's younger sister Lulu (Luise) Becker born 1869 and returned to Shanghai where the couple had two more children, but then Hermann Schroeter would die in 1905. I wonder what has become of his family afterwards.  

In 1906 Arnold Berg (1874-1939) joined the firm and eventually in 1928 ended up as the owner of the entire company with an office at Hamburg Alsterdamm 7.

Hamburg: Alsterdamm and Jungfernstieg. 

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Hermann Johann Mandl (Edler von Manden)

(Vienna 1856 – 1922 Vienna )

was in 1877 an adventurous Jewish young man who joined Bernard Telges’ firm and for several years worked deep in the interior China for the Telge company learning to speak Chinese fluently. He was to stay in China for 30 years. After some time he switched leading the British trading company of “Jardine, Matheson & Co” and in 1886 succeeded in founding his own trading company “J. Mandl & Co”, representing Ferdinand Krupp and Werner von Siemens products euphemistically described as “Kriegsmaterial” (guns and canons) and “Friedensmaterial” (railway and engineering equipment). He became an influential lobbyist, heavily depending on bribes, charm and a chest-full of imperial decorations. The conflicts, China being involved in several wars (Russian-Japanese and Chinese-Japanese) the successful trading and his Vienna charm made him extremely wealthy.

In 1900 Mandl competed in the Paris summer Olympics (the first of its kind and part of the World Fair) on several equestrian disciplines. In 1909 he returned to Vienna with a shipload ("a mountain") of art and treasures and was knighted (“Edler von Manden”). 

Paris 1900 World Exhibition. 

Married without children many of the Chinese artefacts and treasurus he brought home are now kept in Vienna Museums. Johann Mandl ranked nr. 250 on the 929 wealthiest people in Vienna 1910 which counted 2 million inhabitants and was the 7th largest city in the world. 

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Readers and passer-by are invited to send additions and all they may know about the Hamburg families of brothers Bernard and Georg Telge helping to create a first short biography of forgotten Hamburg painter Clara Telge.

More to follow soon .....(work & research in progress)

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only. 

Else Zinkeisen and friends: around Hamburg Bellevue and Ausser Alster.

Today some more nice pictures of picturesque Hamburg, to be more specific of the beautiful surroundings of the Alster the 2 lakes in the heart of this great city.

Visit also my earlier posting on the Alster Ühlenhorster Fährhus with Margarete Braumullers iconic print of this location that was destroyed in the bombing and firestorms following Operation Gomorrha in 1943 with the rest of Hamburg and was never rebuild. (use the search option or follow the labels to this post) 

Helene Mass, View on the Alster and Jungfernstieg
 from the Lombardsbrücke Haltestelle 

To my surprise Helene Mass was in Hamburg too (and in Amsterdam !), I wonder if the two printmakers ever met, hard to believe they did not. Another recent discovery is Else Zinkeisen (before 1910) studied privately in Berlin with painter Franz Skarbina (1849-1910 !) and an even greater surprise is that Wally Peretz-Brutzkus, of whom we know so very little, also was Skarbina's student (as was Marianna von Buddenbrock btw). This will all be revealed in the upcoming book and later postings.

 

Ernst Eitner, "Monet of the North": Alster ferry on its way to Uhlenhorst.   

Arthur Illies: Alster ferry on its way from Uhlenhorst.   

The many districts of this big city that are spread around the Alster were interconnected with a steam ferry service in service again today.

Many bridges spanning the many canals and branches, the inner city of Hamburg is often compared to Amsterdam. 

This print, possibly of historic importance, was recently discovered and is showing the "Fernsicht Brücke". For a while however we wrongly assumed it might be the Eppendorfer-Winterhude bridge depicted below by Hamburg photographer-printmaker Bernhard Troch (1867-1924). 

   

Eppendorfer Brücke with horse and carriage 

Fernsicht Brücke 

With its companion bridge the "Krugkoppel Brücke" the "Fernsicht Brücke" it closes the circuit around the Ausser Alster in the north. It is seen looking into the "Rondeelkanal" and "Rondeelteich" a "Cul de sac" of the Ausser Alster  occupied by the villa's of Hamburg prosperous elite build in the second half of the 19th century.  

Fernsicht Brücke in 1892, entrance to the Rondeelteich

Both wooden bridges were build around 1890 and replaced in 1927/28 by concrete and macon work bridges still standing today. They give access to "Bellevue": Hamburgs posh district with grand villas and city palaces build and owned by the rich and influential. Compare living here with living around Central Park in New-York, around Tiergarten in Berlin or in the heart of London. 

View from "Fernsicht" 

The new Fernsicht Brücke shortly after completion in 1928 

Most interesting is also the horse drawn coach: "Kaiserliche und Königliche Post" connecting Hamburg with the world with a network of fast and modern designed coaches working in clockwork schedules until the steam engine took over.

Unknown painter Bruno Liedmann: Deutsche Post (eBay find)  

This also never before seen (not by me) and recently found in Hamburg print by Else Zinkeisen of whom my research learned she possibly was from a prosperous family of Hamburg city-centre chemists/pharmacists shows the entrance (Park Tor) to a park.  

Else Zinkeisen: Park Tor

The Hamburg Stadt-Park in Winterhude is not far away and it is also not far from the "Künstlerhaus" were she lived in 1930. I would love to receive more genealogical and biographical information concerning the Hamburg Zinkeisen family.

Helene Mass: Kinder im Park

Else Zinkeisen had two artistic cousins in Dresden and is remotely connected to the famous Scottish painting Zinkeisen sisters Anna and Doris who derive from  a Zinkeisen timber trading branch of the family. 
  

Arthur Illies: Alster Wiese

And this Else Zinkeisen print (below) that came to me through different channels could very well show the, or a, "Stadt Park" or Alster meadow although Else Zinkeisen traveled and created views of other places (like Munich). Before today she was mostly know and remembered for her views of river Elbe seen from the heights of Hamburg-Altona.

More Alster and Hamburg in next posting.

Please send any information on Else Zinkeisen (27 aug. 1871 - prob. around or after 1934)

All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.    

Else Zinkeisen revisited: more Elbe fishing boats

Zinkeisen, Else

(Hamburg 27-08-1871 - ?)

Hamburg painter and printmaker. 

Harbored Elbe fishing boats drying sails. 

Belonging to the group of pioneer German women printmakers Else is almost at the end of my alphabetical research list: only Olga von Zitsewitz and Bertha Züricher to follow last. She came to mind when reader Tom (see before posting) has send me another print probably losing its makers signature, for sharing. An educated guess (the use of color, the way the horizon is done and the rather simply cut outlines of the vessels) would be Else Zinkeisen (After "eliminating" possibles:  Carl Thiemann, and Josephine Siccard Redl (both traveled and printed Venice lagune ships in evening settings) and Margarete (L.E.M.) Gearhardt but she was active in the Nidden Art colony in the Baltic).  

She is printmaker about whom I know so very little (*). I've shown her before in the Blog and I am confident eventually more about her identity and biography will be revealed and cleared up. With the help of readers. She clearly had a fascination for these Elbe ships so for that reason they are shown here together again. Seen from some height, looking down, suggests in some views she sat near the village of Blankenese (maybe lived there?). That lovely and picturesque spot adjacent to the bustling city and harbour of Hamburg I plan showing, artistically, in next posting.    

What I do know: 

Else was a member of the “Heikendorfer Künstler Kolonie” that sprang up around the house and studios of Heinrich Blunk (1898-1963) at the Kieler Forde, not far from Hamburg. Printmaker Oscar Droege (1898-1983) was a member (later becoming professor in Kassel) and painter Georg Burmeister (1864-1936). She followed private painting lessons in Hamburg and in Berlin with professor Franz Skarbina (1849-1910), in Munich with Angelo Jank (1868-1940). She studied also at prestigious Academie Colarossi in Paris and was professionally active in Hamburg around the 1920's. An expensive artistic  education and training for a girl in those days an indication for a (very) well to do background. 

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Some random biographical notes concerning artistic Zinkeisen families: 

(*) Else  could be related to Dr. Eduard Zinkeisen a pharmacists who in 1849 founded a successful and in Paris awarded mineral water company in Hamburg. Probably succeeded in the company by a namesake (his son?) Eduard Zinkeisen into the XXth century.  

(*) Gabrielle Zinkeisen (b. Dresden 1879), a painter and color woodblock printmaker (I've never seen an example) who also happened to study with Franz Skarbina in Berlin according to Thieme Becker Lexikon. She had a painting sister Gertrud (b. 1877). 

(*) Anna (b.1901) and Doris (b.1898) Zinkeisen, British/Scottish sisters, painters and stage designers. Their father Victor Z. a timber merchant originated from a Bohemian family that settled in Scotland in the 18th century. 

All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only. 

   

Else Zinkeisen (I) River Elbe

Else Zinkeisen

(born 1871 Hamburg)

German woodblock printmaker. 

(I): River Elbe 

Today, again, an Ebay induced posting on a printmaker I’d never heard of before leading to some great discoveries and other fine artists. This above “Boote bei Sonnenuntergang” (Boats at sunset) undoubtedly are sailing in the Elbe estuary and came up for auction recently. 

"Fischer Boote auf der Elbe" and "Wolken über der Elbe". 

Other than the fact Else Zinkeisen was taught privately until 1899 and that she has been a member of the “Heikendorfer Künstlerkolonie” my research  turned   up absolutely nothing. But luckily a small but fine collection of her prints is kept in the “Künstlermuseum Heikendorf" at the Kieler Förde.  

Left: Else Zinkeisen, Right: Oscar Droege, (same?) dwellings along river Elbe.

The Kieler Förde, an inlet of the Baltic sea, North West of Hamburg in Germany's most Northern and beautiful province of Schleswick-Holstein. Sheltered and strategically situated along the busy trade route between North-Western Europe, Scandinavia, Denmark and the Baltic States. Not one of these prints I could locate outside this Museum: a well hidden treasure of prints of what has to be one of the earliest German Modern Printmakers.

 The Elbe River downstream North of Hamburg seen from the Ice-age,
glacier formed East bank ridge by Friedrich Kallmorgen (1856-1924)

Man made Elbe dikes by painter Friedrich Wilhelm Schwinge (1852-1913)

The artist colony sprang up in the 1920's around the house and studio of painter Heinrich Blunk (1891-1963) and it is one of the very few buildings remaining after WWII devastations. Kiel and its surroundings, like Hamburg in 1943, was almost completely destroyed by allied bombs because of its marine and submarine bases. The artists’ studios are gone but the House and Gardens survived, now housing the Museum.

Where we meet another great member of the colony: Oscar Droege (1898-1983) also born in Hamburg (but 25 years after Else Zinkeisen) and perhaps Germany’s most famous and certainly most prolific printmaker. Many of his (I count over a 100) prints featuring Hamburg and the river Elbe.

Painter Georg Burmester (1864-1936) was among them, very much influenced by Vincent van Gogh and  later to become a professor in Kassel art academie. He painted the surrounding  Schleswick land- and seascapes 

Along the North German coast, to the East the sister  "Niddener Künstkolonie" thrived. You can find similar prints of typical Baltic fishing and trading boats  by members Margarethe (L.E.M.) Gerhardt (1873-) and Daniel Stachsus (1872-1953). Max Pechstein and Lovis Corinth lived there.

This print by Else Zinkeisen is showing river fishing boats in the small tranquil  village and fishing  port of Altweder. Just opposite, on the other (West) side of river Elbe, of the mighty city of Hamburg. And situated in a wonderful ancient  and rural landscape. Below a photograph from about the time Else was there. 

A situation painted (below) by Friedrich Wilhelm Schwinge (1852-1913), my favorite  painter of the Frisian and Schleswick landscape (see also above).

And as it was recorded in one of the very last moments of it's existence (above) on photo. The fate that struck the village of Altweder has frightful similarities with the Dutch village of Blankenberg (50 years before) I wrote about in my earlier posting:  Blankenburg (link). It's the inevitabillity of progress: it can’t be stopped. It's all gone. Forever.

The Scottish sisters and artists Anna and Doris Zinkeisen are not (directly) related to Else. Anna Zinkeisen who designed several London Underground posters in the 1920-30’s and her Scottish family of timber traders have a 200 year Scottish history leading back to Silesian ancestry.

Next: some more prints and history by Else Zinkeisen.