Berndorf style classes

“Kunst und Kunstgefühl sollen bereits im Kinde geweckt, das Auge an das Schöne gewöhnt, der Geschmack an den reinsten Formen der Kunst aller Zeiten gebildet werden.“

In the years 1908 - 1909 two spacious primary and secondary schools were built by the municipality of Berndorf based on modern knowledge.

The interior, which is probably among the most unique of its kind in the world, was designed by ARTHUR KRUPP at his own expense. Each classroom was furnished in a different classical architectural style. Cultural-historical, artistic unique pieces were thus created in the form of the BERNDORFER STILKLASSEN.

At that time, the schools were also equipped with extensive health facilities. Arthur Krupp created the first dental school clinic in the then Austro-Hungarian monarchy and made it accessible to all pupils free of charge.

So why the Stilklassen?

An excerpt from the commemorative publication of December 11, 1909 says:

"Art and the feeling of art should be awakened in the child, the eye should be accustomed to the beautiful, the taste for the purest forms of art of all time should be formed.

The two architects Baurat Hans Peschl and Max Hegele were commissioned to build the school buildings. The interior decoration was carried out by the two academic painters Franz Wilhelm Ladewig and Robert Jüttner.

The BERNDORFER STILKLASSEN are unusual and unique not only because of their exterior, but also because of the design of the classrooms. The interior design of the classrooms in the Berndorfer Volks- und Mittelschule, where classes are still held today, is first of its kind across the globe. Each classroom was furnished in a different historical architectural style. Painting and architecture created unique cultural-historical objects. The journey through time through the stylistic epochs begins in ancient Egypt, leads over Byzantium and ends with the Empire.

Altogether, a total of 12 styles are represented. The Egyptian classroom - like the other classes - has plenty of decoration on the walls and ceilings. The portals are each designed quite distinctively, such as the door to the Egyptian classroom, which is a true-to-life replica of the false door in the burial chamber of Eimisi in Denderah in Upper Egypt. The door handle is artfully shaped as a sphinx.

Note
The primary and secondary schools are both open in turns. The secondary school is located at Margaretenplatz 2, the elementary school at Margaretenplatz 5 in Berndorf.