Biedermeier - Literature and music, Architecture, Furniture design

A term characterizing the lifestyle and attitudes of the epoch in Austria and Germany between 1815 and c.1850. It owed its name to Eichrodt's figure of the philistine Biedermeier in his Fliegender Blätter of the 1850s. In literary terms, it denoted social conservativism, non-revolutionary idealism, and hankering after the idyllic; politics, heroics, and attempts to upset the status quo are avoided in favour of a sometimes melancholic acceptance of reality or, more commonly, striving to synthesize it with the ideal. At its worst the movement is associated with a certain philistinism and smugness, although such charges can scarcely be levelled at the prose writers Droste-Hülshoff and Stifter, dramatist Grillparzer, and poet Mörike; other leading representatives include Immermann, Lenau, Nestroy, and Raimund. Stylistically, it was a time of refinement and sensibility, coupled with a desire to reach a broad readership through the incorporation of popular ‘volkstümlich’ elements.

In Central Europe, Biedermeier refers to work in the fields of literature, music, the visual arts and interior design in the period between the years 1815 (Vienna Congress), the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions and contrasts with the Romantic era which preceded it.

Literature and music

The term Biedermeier comes from the pseudonym Gottlieb Biedermaier, used by the country doctor Adolf Kussmaul and the lawyer Ludwig Eichrodt in poems, printed in the Munich Fliegenden Blättern (Flying Sheets), parodying the poems of the Biedermeier era as depoliticized and petit-bourgeois.

Typical Biedermeier poets are Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Adelbert von Chamisso, Eduard Mörike, and Wilhelm Müller, the last two of which have well-known musical settings by Hugo Wolf and Franz Schubert respectively.

Biedermeier can be identified with two trends in early nineteenth-century German history.

The first trend is growing urbanization and industrialization leading to a new urban middle class, and with it a new kind of audience.

The second trend is the growing political oppression following the end of the Napoleonic Wars prompting people to concentrate on the domestic and (at least in public) the non-political.

Architecture

Biedermeier architecture is marked by simplicity and elegance, exemplified by the paintings of Jacob von Alt and Carl Spitzweg. Through the unity of simplicity, mobility and functionality the Biedermeier created tendencies of crucial influence for the Jugendstil / Art Nouveau, the Bauhaus and the 20th century.

Furniture design

An influential style of furniture design from Germany during the years 1815-1848 based on utilitarian principles. as the period progressed however the style moved from the early rebellion against Romantic era fussiness to increasingly flourished commissions by a rising middle class eager to show their wealth. Middle to late Biedermeier work in furniture design represents the last gasps of Old Europe.