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in Berlin
Kunstsalon Maximilian Macht (1908–1911)
Rankestraße 1, Berlin-Charlottenburg
Max Pechstein, Kunstausstellung Zurückgewiesener der Secession Berlin, 1910, Poster for the first exhibition of the Neue Secession in the Kunstsalon Maximilian Macht, Berlin, 1910, Brücke-Museum, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Bookshop, gallery, antiques store, framing workshop, and interior design studio—the company Maximilian Macht founded in 1908 brought together a variety of businesses under the same roof. While the ground floor of the stately building not far from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was reserved for the bookshop, the five rooms on the first floor offered ample space for extensive exhibitions.
The gallery achieved a measure of fame in the spring of 1910 when it hosted the first exhibition of the Neue Secession. Founded shortly before in Berlin by the artists Max Pechstein and Georg Tappert, the group mainly brought together artists whose works had been rejected by the jury of the XX. Ausstellung der Berliner Secession (XX Exhibition of the Berlin Secession). The rejected works were then given their own stage in the Ausstellung von Werken Zurückgewiesener der Berliner Secession (Exhibition of Works Rejected by the Berlin Secession) at Kunstsalon Maximilian Macht.
Neue Secession, Neue Secession 1910, catalogue of the "Neuen Secession" for the "Ausstellung von Werken Zurückgewiesener der Berliner Secession 1910", cover with a reproduction of a lithograph by Max Pechstein Brücke-Museum, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Neue Secession, Neue Secession Berlin – I. Graphische Ausstellung 1910, catalogue for the exhibition of works of the drawing arts, cover with a reproduction of a lithograph by Max Pechstein, Brücke-Museum, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
Neue Secession, Neue Secession, 1911, catalogue for the "III. Ausstellung Gemälde", cover with a reproduction of a lithograph by Max Pechstein, Brücke-Museum, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023
The Brücke artists ’ group was featured prominently here and even had its own room. The walls displaying the works of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Pechstein had been painted a screaming red. The press repeatedly described it as a “chamber of horrors,” which inadvertently led to it becoming the show’s most promoted room.
View of Rankestraße, around 1900, Archive of the Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, inv. no. SD 44
By the summer of 1911, Kunstsalon Maximilian Macht had hosted two more exhibitions of the Neue Secession. Moreover, the business gave the artists’ association the opportunity to set up a secretariat on site. Early on, this close relationship between the art dealership and the Neue Secession wasn’t just the result of sharing space, but also personnel: the Kunstsalon’s manager Alfred Sauermann was also the new association’s manager in 1910.
Isabel Fischer
