Joachim Schnitter

At the beginning of the 20th century, Alfred Lichtwark (1852 - 1914), then director of the Hamburg Kunsthalle, initiated a special residential and cultural project in the south of Hamburg. He arranged for families who were friends of his to build modern country houses with novel gardens in the vicinity of his own summer cottage in Hittfeld. Philanthropists, painters, art collectors, merchants, architects, educators and actors formed an exclusive circle of artistic and sociable life on the "Sunderberg" in the Harburg Hills near the Siebelist painting school. Lichtwark's book "Der Heidegarten" (The Heather Garden), which had an "enlightening effect like a bright spotlight" on the garden artists, goes back to this country house colony. In it, the interaction of painting and garden art of the time becomes palpable. Richly illustrated with works of art and photography (Illies, Kalckreuth, Liebermann, Siebelist and others), the book conveys a sensually appealing impression of this special place, which is to be understood as an upper-middle-class expression of the Lebensrefomb movement. Lichtwark's dream of an intimate perception of nature, a garden art oriented towards the "Lower Saxon / Old Hamburg" and a culturally oriented togetherness is shown here as an "art of living".