The salon culture shows a 200-year-long cultural epoch. French salon culture shaped salons in Europe and Russia. It became a counterpart courtly culture. The salon fought against courtly life, giving the bourgeoisie a “place of the court”. Achievement before birthright, decency before money. Supported by the intention to set a counterpoint to courtly life by establishing private social gatherings and to assert the sphere of power of the aristocracy outside the court. Salon culture only blossomed after the French Revolution. The decline of the court, which used to be the scene of art and culture, was replaced by the salon in its new form. The constant discussions on a wide range of topics changed traditional views. A concept of art prevailed that, in addition to the creation of works by individuals, also determined a culture-changing approach. In salons, Enlightenment philosophers questioned the premises on which the prevailing political system was based and rejected the notion of a cosmos ordered by God. The great French encyclopaedia was formulated in the salon, the authors of which Diderot and d’Alembert were themselves keen salon-goers.
Since the circles of the individual salons overlapped or were identical and the habitués (salon structure) included many foreign visitors (from Russia, Scotland, Poland, England, Germany), an internet-like cultural network developed across Europe over the course of two centuries.
1764-1847
A Goddess
Writer, leading Berlin Salonière
Henriette Herz, hardly known as a writer, she did pioneering work by founding and leading one of the most well-known evening literary salons. At first, she held women’s circles while her husband received high-ranking guests from politics and culture where she mainly dealt with the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “Storm and Stress”. The leading Berlin salon on Spandauer Street developed from this informal get-together. In addition to famous politicians, scientists and artists, some young writers and philosophers were also established. Among the guests were the brothers Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt – scholar and naturalist | Clemens Brentanos – writer and main representative of Heidelberger Romanticism | Sophie Mereau–Brentano – writer | Jean Paul – writer | Ludwig Börne – journalist, literary and theatre critic| Rahel Levin (later Varnhagen) – writer and Salonière | Friedrich Schleiermacher – Protestant theologian, classical scholar and philosopher.
1771-1833
A unique conviviality in Germany
Writer, Salonière
Rahel Varnhagen was born in Berlin in 1771 as the eldest daughter of a Jewish banker and jeweller. As well as Henriette Herz, Rahel Varnhagen also became known for running a literary salon in which poets, natural scientists, politicians and members of the nobility interacted on the same level. Famous guests included Ludwig Tieck – poet and writer | Friedrich von Gentz – poet, writer and adviser to Prince Metternich | Ernst von Pfuel – Royal Prussian Infantry General- | Friedrich Schlegel – philosopher, writer, critic and literary historian | Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt – scholar and naturalist | Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué – poet | Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia.
1767-1854
“The Queen Mother”
Salonière
Amelie Beer, daughter of the wealthiest Jewish family in Berlin at the time, used her wealth primarily to support her three sons. Her sense of social responsibility and royal hospitality combined with her motherly devotion led to her nickname “The Queen Mother”. Amelie Beer’s salon, which was characterized by music, primarily attracted important representatives of the nobility and the political elite. Personal friends and guests included the future King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and his brother Prince Wilhelm, as well as the future German Emperor. Almost all the great composers and virtuosos of the early Romantic era, including her own son Giacomo Meyerbeer, as well as actors, singers, writers and scholars.
1805-1854
The salon as a muse
Composer
Fanny Hensel was the older sister of the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847) who was also highly talented in music. In 1823 the Mendelssohn family began the “Sunday Music”, which very soon became quite famous. Works by Bach, Beethoven, as well as contemporary music and also works by her brother, Felix Mendelssohn, were performed in closed circles, often with up to two hundred guests. After her brother left, Fanny Hensel took over the complete program design, composition and choir as well as the orchestra direction. During her lifetime she only performed just once as a pianist. A few of her numerous works were published.
1857-1925
The subversive salonière
A committed feminist, anarchist, socialist
Anna Kuliscioff, Doctor of medicine, is best known as a committed feminist, anarchist and socialist. Her first husband, Pjotr Makarewitsch, was arrested in 1874 for anarchist activities and died in prison, while she herself went into hiding and joined a radical group. When this was raised, she fled to Paris in April 1877 with a forged passport where she met the Italian socialist Andrea Costa and took the name Kuliscioff. Because of her political activities, she was arrested in France, Italy and Switzerland. In 1891 she took over the editing of the Critica Sociale, one of the most important socialist newspapers in the country. As the main author, she collaborated with the Italian lawyer Filippo Turati and the feminist Anna Maria Mozzoni, among others, on the founding of the PSI (Partito Socialista Italiano). Thanks to Anna Kuliscioff, the PSI always kept in touch with the so-called orthodox socialists, especially with Friedrich Engels.
1874-1946
Unconventional conversations
Writer, publisher, art collector
Gertrud Stein settled in Paris in 1903 and ran her famous contemporary art salon, first along with her brother, the art collector and critic Leo Stein, and from 1913 onwards with her partner Alice B. Toklas. Gertrud Stein’s salon offered space for personalities of the artistic avant-garde, who were still unknown at the time, such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and Juan Gris. From the early 1920s it was predominantly young American modernist writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, who came to the salon.
1864-1945
“Austria comes alive on my sofa”
Writer, journalist, critic, Salonière
Up until 1938, Berta Zuckerkandl ran a literary salon, first in the 19th and then in the 1st district of Vienna, where there is still a commemorative plaque today. The country’s artistic and scientific elite frequented her salon, including Franz Theodor Csokor – Austrian writer and playwright. | Gustav Klimt – painter and representative of Viennese Art Nouveau | Johann Strauss jr. – Composer and Chapelmaster | Max Reinhardt – theatre director and artistic director and Arthur Schnitzler.
