The first exhibit of the artistic creations of the colony was held in 1901 and showed many interesting experiments in mod ernism. Other influences quickly made themselves felt. In 1898 the grand duke had invited the English architect Baillie-Scott, a foremost exponent of the arts and crafts revival, to decorate two rooms in his palace. The designs of this artist for furniture and house decoration quickly became popular all over Germany. Many examples of his furniture were made and sold in the Wertheim department store in Berlin.
It is quite beyond the limitations of this article to make more than a reference to the development of German architecture in the years between 1900 and the World War. Suffice it to say that the talent of Olbrich, Messel, Peter Behrens and many others created in their buildings during this period the only unified architectural expression in Europe worthy of being called a modern style. The influence of this architectural development was felt and is still felt strongly not only all over Germany, but in the countries of Central and Southern Europe.
The quality that distinguished the German movement from that in all other countries was its widespread organization and the encouragement received from powerful official and industrial agencies. Prominent among the organizations that championed the new movement was the Deutsche Werkbund, founded in 1908. Its aims were to ennoble industrial work, to bring about co-operation between art and industry and the work of the artisans by means of instruction, of propaganda and of common action in situations where it was appropriate. Towards 1910 it numbered 732 members, of whom 36o were artists, 267 industrialists and business men, and 105 amateurs and officials of museums and other interested persons. The Werkbund aimed at bringing to gether all the active forces in the art industries and in trade and commerce. It carried out its programme by such methods as exhibitions, lectures, and publications.
The General Electric Company developed an artistic depart ment with Peter Behrens as counsellor. The great printing com panies studied the work of talented typographic artists to im prove the character of type and to develop new styles in posters, placards and head lines. The publishers of art periodicals lent
themselves industriously to the exposition of the new movement. Many of the large department stores erected new buildings in the modern spirit. Those of Wertheim at Berlin and Tietz at Dussel dorf were especially noteworthy. The Werkbund pushed to the front those architects who were foremost in the new movement for the design of municipal architecture, such as city halls, rail way stations, theatres, and markets. Other organizations were de veloped, such as the Deutsche Werkstatten fur Handwerkskunst in Munich. This organization dealt with all phases of decoration and applied art, making inexpensive furniture in quantity at its model factory at Hellerau and finer cabinet work at Munich.
Vienna contributed a very interesting chapter to the modern movement. Here in 1896 was organized the Secession as a pro test against the academic quality in the arts. The society was dedicated to the purpose of bringing to Vienna from the outside world all healthy influences making for modernism. Prominent among the founders were Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, Alfred Roller, Koloman Moser, F. Andri and Josef Olbrich, who built the Secession building in 1898. At the second exhibition of the Society in 1898 were shown examples of applied arts from Eng land and France, and for many years the annual exhibitions wel comed the work of the pioneers in modernism from all European countries. In the expansion of the applied arts that followed the organization of the Secession movement, the influence of the English arts and crafts, as expressed by C. R. Ashbee, Voysey, and Baillie-Scott, and that of the Glasgow school headed by Mackin tosh, was very great.
In 1903, the Wiener Werkstdtte was organized through the financial assistance of Fritz Waerndofer. For two years the so ciety co-operated with the Secession, but in 1905 established an independent existence with Josef Hoffmann as the guiding influ ence. The Werkstatte developed a business organization, employ ing its own designers and craftsmen and maintaining workshops for the fabrication of products. It aimed at introducing artistic furnishings into everyday life and at bringing about closer relations between art and industry.