CHAPTER XVI.

THE SAXON INDUSTRIAL CAPITAL-LEIPZIG.

The last town visited in this somewhat rambling but most nteresting journey was the University city of Leipzig.

Although not the capital of Saxony, Leipzig is the largest town in that kingdom, and its people number about 380,000. Its principal trades are machinery, printing, and books, with considerable cotton factories and other lesser trades.

The schools here for technical and commercial, education are very numerous. There is the Handelshochschule, and the Handelslehranstalt (commercial high school and commercial institute); the various Fach or Trade Schools founded by each trade; the Commercial Continuation School, and the City School for Domestic Economy. The City Trade School and the City Continuation Schools for Boys, the Booksellers' and Printers' Institute, the Building School for Builders, Architects and Surveyors, and the Royal Art Academy and Art Trade School.

I was enabled to visit the latter, the City Trade School, and the special school for wood turners and carvers, and from these some idea can be formed of the work being done in Leipzig.

Of course one of the principal technical schools in Saxony is that at Chemnitz, but that has been described by nearly everyone who has at all touched upon this subject, so I will say nothing here upon it.

I first went on to

THE CITY TRADE SCHOOL,

founded wholly by the town. The numbers attending it are fast increasing; in 1896 there were in all, day and night schools, 804 students; in 1897, 902; and in 1898, 1,024, coming from nearly fifty different trades, the largest number being machinists and mechanicians, builders, electro-technical workers, sculptors and locksmiths, carpenters, and cabinet-makers.

In the day schools 40 marks (£2), and in the evening schools 20 marks (£1) is the fee yearly; and in the workmaster schools, that is practical work for artisans, 30 marks (£1 10s.) for each halfyear's course.

In the day school the subjects and number of hours weekly are: German four hours, arithmetic two hours, algebra two to four hours, geometry two to three hours, physics one to two hours, chemistry one to two hours, elements of mechanics four hours, trade knowledge, i.e., a general sketch of the industries and trades of Saxony, one hour, geometrical drawing six to seven hours, projection drawing six to seven hours, freehand drawing six hours, ornamental form study two to four hours, flat-pattern drawing and colour work two to four hours, general building knowledge four hours, architectural style six hours, trade drawing and

A woodcarver's school.

design twelve to twenty hours, modelling four to twenty hours, writing one hour.

As in other towns, old pupils, apprentices or improvers, and evening scholars, as well as sculptors, modellers, engravers, &c., who attend the evening school, are invited to come to the drawing school in the public drawing hall, in any spare hours to improve their knowledge. I noticed, on the occasion of my visit, the corridors of this school were not in the spotless order observable elsewhere.

Amongst the special Fach or Trade Schools, the one for turners and wood-carvers proved very interesting, and seemed to attract scholars from a wide circle-Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, &c. The greater part of the work here is practical, and perhaps a balance-sheet of income and expenditure for this school for a year may be of interest, and for simplicity's sake the mark may be taken as a shilling:

BALANCE SHEET OF THE TRADE SCHOOL FOR TURNERS
AND WOODCARVERS IN LEIPZIG.

Saleable

This shows a State expenditure on this school of about forty pupils of about £800 a year. The school premises are in the City Trade School, so that no rent appears in the above account.

In the museum of this school I saw some good examples of goods made. wood carving, including examples of many saleable commoditiesclocks; cabinets, with monograms inlaid in bone and ivory; consoles, the long German pipes, photograph frames, book and music holders and stands, and parts of the human figure.

The time given here is only one year, or at most one and a half years, but the pupil must have had at least two years' practical work at his trade. The drawing hall I found hung with pupils' work. In the machine hall were sixteen lathes driven by electricity; some new machines had just been added of Leipzig manufacture, having a dial affixed, to show power used; the dynamo was of 4 horse-power.

In the carving department I was shown a man working upon a frame for his diploma; the motive consisted of oak and laurel leaves, an angel surmounting the whole, while a pretty laughing face with free treatment of the hair was at the foot. The lines were free and flowing, and the expression was good. This was executed by a man of twenty-three who had done

design.

his soldiering. On asking if he had copied this from an old work, the worker emphatically said, "Wir copieren garnichts; alles ist Development aus Entwerfen." We copy positively nothing, all is our own of power to design." This school has the privilege of exempting the specially clever scholars from the longer term of military service. They had succeeded in this five times of late. In Saxony the conscripts join the colours at twenty until twenty-two, or, if for any reason they are not chosen, they may go on until twenty-one, or even until twenty-two, and then serve until they are twenty-four.

In fact, military service takes two years, or even three, out of the best period of a man's life, and, let me again repeat, herein can our English artisans claim the advantage, and, given the same facilities for learning, quickly outstrip the Continental artisan, unless any combination steps in and says: "You are not to be cleverer than your fellows; we will have no talented artisans."

The Turning and Carving School of which I have given the separate balance sheet above, is part of the Leipzig Trade School. The cost of the latter has about doubled itself in the last ten years; but the income from fees has trebled itself, so that the comparative expense is not so great. The rent was about £800; the yearly cost of salaries, &c., £2,360 ; cleaning, £50; heating and lighting, £361; house and school furniture, £30; school necessaries, £66; sundries, £43; insurance, £4. There are of course other schools in and around Leipzig for instruction in commercial and trade matters, notably the Fortbildung or continuation schools.

The salaries of the teachers in these Saxon schools ranges Teachers' from the £70 rising to £170 of a Volksschule teacher, to the £350 salaries. of a rector of a Gymnasium or Realschule. As in Austria, every teacher, after attaining his twenty-fifth year of age, has a quinquennial rise of £10 to £15.

In the afternoon I was able to visit the Royal Art Academy and Art Trade School, and was received by the son of Director Nieper, who, I found, had been in England, and spoke English fluently.

The

I found the great hall and corridors full of present and former pupils' work, some of a very remarkably high order. names of some former pupils of the school are already famous.

In the preface to his report for 1898 Dr. Nieper says: "The teaching is to be as fundamental and realistic as possible, special care being given to studying the pupil's special gifts and his future work." One phrase of Dr. Nieper's is well worth quoting: "The modern development of industry is of a revolutionary character.” But it would be a great error to overlook the fact that swift production aided by new developments of mechanical power is being accompanied in many branches of industry by a growing care for artistic form and beauty of design and execution. The average attendance in this school is about 230. The fees are for Germans, 20 marks (£1) per half-year; for foreigners and Hospitanten (ie., occasional students), 30 marks; for the lower grade of night school classes, 10, and for the higher classes, 20

marks for the half-year. In the case of poor and diligent students these fees are remitted, and there are also scholarships to assist these poor students, but not over a dozen students were so relieved.

A course of instruction has been arranged in the photomechanical process work of book illustration, including zincography, heliography, and autotype work.

In the general school the pupils pass through a well-arranged and progressive course in drawing and design, special stress being laid on figure drawing. In the third year the pupil chooses his course from the following:

Book ornament, diploma and placard designs, and all types of book and ornamental card illustration.

Modelling in wax and clay.

Water-colour drawing from still life, architectural perspective, interiors and exteriors.

Instruction in constructive artistic perspective.

Instruction in landscape with figures.

Instruction in printing on glass and porcelain.

Engraving on copper and etching.

Wood carving.

Photo-mechanical reproduction.

Architectural ornament and decoration.

Drawing and painting from living models.

To this art culture there is added for the day scholars practical work in the various trades and art industries in the different trade classes.

The night scholars work as apprentices and journeymen in their situations in the day, and work here in the evening in order to raise their culture and increase their knowledge of their handicraft.

The students enter the day classes at sixteen, and study for four years, but they can stay on for eight years.

In the book illustration class I found an idea was suggested by the master, and the pupils had to work it out. One pupil had just been given the suggestion for a frontispiece for "Histoire d'un Conscrit." One of the former pupils of this class was now on the staff of the famous German paper Fliegende Blätter.

In the water-colour class some excellent work was being done; one pupil had won the gold medal in Paris.

In this school were no girl pupils. Herr Nieper thought he got more work out of the men by this decision.

I had noticed as I entered the school some very good coloured glass windows, portraits of Saxon kings and notable men, and good decorative designs-windows that attracted the eye by their beauty--and just as I was on the point of leaving, thinking I had seen most of the school, Herr Nieper said, “But you must see our glass painting," and he took me up to an upper floor, where in the corridors were stacks of coloured glass in franies, and in the rooms I found students at work on designs for windows, or painting them. The glass of the

colour needed, is chosen, the designs are then painted upon it, and the glass is fired.

In the courtyard below was a garden with flowers, which are used here as models, as well as for botanical studies, and some of the floral work I saw in course of process was true to nature and very beautiful, as was a portrait in sepia; and I was not surprised as I came down the stairs and remarked upon their good coloured windows overlooking the central hall, to hear Herr Nieper say, "Yes, they were painted here," an ever-visible proof that the work of the school is not only highly artistic, but thoroughly practical and technical.

This is but a most superficial sketch of these Leipzig and Dresden schools, and they do not, I think, teach us so inuch as the lesser schools I have described in the small towns, especially in Austria. The artisan in the larger English towns has opportunities of working in great workshops, where he can to some extent see the highest types of work being executed, even although he be called upon to execute some small portion only of the great whole. But in the lesser towns the apprentice may have to plod on, machine-like, turning out copies of second or fourth-rate work, and know naught of the art and soul of his work; and so the art power and innate productiveness of all these craftsmen are generally left dormant The and undeveloped; whereas, in Austria especially, if there is an of the genius development artist or genius, he has every chance of development, and the of the nation. nation is enriched by his work, the whole productiveness of the country is increased, and the quality of its industrial output is raised.