Otokar Bém [sometimes referred to as Otokar or Otakar Bein] was born on 25 May 1868 in the town of Heřmanův Městec. He studied at the Technical School in Liberec and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1894–1896, where he was a pupil of Carl von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner. He worked on his first projects – “probably more in the role of a practical companion” – with his classmates, including the pioneer of modern architecture Hubert Gessner and František Krásný.[1] He collaborated with Gessner on projects for a girls’ school in Mnichovo Hradiště (1897, II. 1897, 2nd prize in the competition), the Civic Credit Union in Poděbrady (1897, 2nd prize), the Business Academy in Hradec Králové (1896, 1st prize; built in 1897) and the Josef Horný Residential and Commercial House in Valašské Klobouky (1896, built in 1897). With Krásný, one of the first protagonists of Art Nouveau architecture in the Czech lands who later specialized in designing Sokol gyms and sports buildings,[2] he designed a school in Heřmanův Městec (1896).[3]
In 1898, Bém settled in Moravská Ostrava, where he opened his own architectural office and subsequently a construction company. Initially he worked as a construction manager for the builder František Jureček Sr., [4] after whose death in 1902 his son of the same name took over the management of the firm. Otokar Bém continued to cooperate with František Jureček Jr. (1886–1925) and the two trades were later merged into the Jureček a Bém company. In 1900, Bém married Jureček’s sister. František Jureček Jr., a leading construction entrepreneur from Ostrava, was one of the most important personalities of the local cultural scene – he was an avid collector and patron of art and his “collection of 120 paintings from the 19th century Prague art scene became the basis of the collection of the Ostrava House of Art, which he [...] actively contributed to building”.[5] He was also involved, for example, in the construction of the National House in Moravská Ostrava at 148 Čs. legií Street [6] or in the construction of the neighbouring Civic Credit Union (No. 1236), designed by Otokar Bém (1902) and built by the firm of the two newly-made partners.[7]
Similarly to many other Central European architects who studied under Wagner at the Vienna Academy, Otokar Bém also developed “biomorphically inspired architecture” at the end of the nineteenth century, [8] as evidenced by his early projects, such as the tenement house of Josef and Matylda Hybner at 1111 Na Hradbách Street in Moravská Ostrava (1898); its partly historicizing conception was also characterized by a “rich decorative fund” combining motifs of laurel wreaths, torches, acanthus and festoons. With this design, the architect introduced “actual forms of early vegetable Art Nouveau, which he also applied to the Business School in Hradec Králové” to the city of Ostrava as well. [9] The combination of historicizing forms with the aesthetics of floral Art Nouveau is also characteristic of other urban buildings he designed in Ostrava at the end of the century, such as the Slavia Hotel at 1124 Hollarova Street (1898). [10]
In addition to the impulses of Wagnerian Art Nouveau, Bém’s expressive repertoire at the time also included historicizing locations, as evidenced by the building of the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of the Third Order of St. Francis with an artificial neo-Gothic facade at 138 Dvořákova Street (1900, designed together with František Jureček), the headquarters of the Civic Credit Union at No. 1236 (1902–1903), conceived in the forms of the Czech Neo-Renaissance [11], or the Church of Our Lady Queen in Mariánské Hory (1901–1905; 1905–1908), designed as a monumental neo-Baroque triple nave to meet the requirements of the builder – the Society for the Construction of the Church of Our Lady – to base the church on the model of the pilgrimage church in Frýdek. The interior was designed by architect Antonín Blažek in the spirit of “combining neo-Baroque architectural expression with Art Nouveau decorativism”. Blažek also invited prominent artists such as Franta and Joža Úprka, Ladislav Šaloun, Zdeňka Vorlová-Vlčková, Luďek Marold and Karel Novák to decorate it. “The Art Nouveau chandeliers in the main nave were supposedly made by Vulkania in Prostějov according to the designs by Jan Kotěra”, who at the time of the construction was working on the plans for the National House in Prostějov, inaugurated in 1907.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, the architect also worked with the morphology of geometric Art Nouveau, which he applied in the otherwise historicizing building of the First Bohemian Municipal and Burgher School for Girls in Moravská Ostrava at 1404 April 30 Street (1909–1910) and more inventively in the project of the mono-functional Heinrich Schnitzer’s Department Store at 186 October 28 Street (1911–1912, designed together with Felix Neumann). The four-storey building in terraced housing with a reinforced concrete skeleton structure determining the interior layout is an example of “pre-constructivist architecture with a façade decorated with forms on the borderline between vegetal and geometric Art Nouveau”.[13]
In connection with the growing national divisions in the Ostrava region, Otokar Bém returned to Neo-Renaissance morphology at the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. In the intentions of “new historicism”, he designed the tenement houses of the Civic Credit Union at 1484 and 288 Milíčova Street (1911–1913) [14] in 1902. At the request of the builder, he conceived the buildings as a “Czech Neo-Renaissance” [15] project accentuated in meaning by a stucco façade decoration with the landmarks of Moravia, Silesia and the Kingdom of Bohemia, which “refer to the state-law requirement of the unity of the lands of the Bohemian Crown”.[16] The unified design of these tenement houses also responded to the adjacent pawnshop building by reinterpreting the Czech Renaissance as an expression of “national self-determination”.
In the adaptation of the building of the original Gambrinus Hotel with the Radvanica beer hall designed by Felix Neumann from 1891–1893 for the branch of the Prague Credit Bank in Moravská Ostrava at 37 Masarykovo náměstí Square (1923–1925, designed together with Matěj Blecha) [17] and in the extension of the headquarters of the Vítkovice coal mines at 979 Smetanovo náměstí Square (1925–1926), Bém reflected Art Deco. In the extension of the latter – “the largest administrative building in Moravian Ostrava at the time” designed by Felix Neumann in 1896 in the intentions of late historicism with a facade of brick fittings and neo-gothic decor honouring the corporate design of Vítkovice Ironworks, Bém applied forms of individualistic modernism. [18]
The work of Otokar Bém, and later also the production of the Jureček a Bém construction firm, is characterised by a synthesis of elements of Wagnerian historicism and modernist tendencies distributed according to the taste of the clients. In this sense, the architect can be described as an embodiment of the culmination of nineteenth-century eclecticism.
MŽ
Notes:
[1] Pavel Zatloukal, Příběhy z dlouhého století. Architektura let 1750–1918 na Moravě a ve Slezsku, Olomouc 2002, p. 457.
[2] Cf. Lenka Švagerková, Sportovní stavby a kultura tělovýchovných sdružení na jihovýchodní Moravě v letech 1900–1948 (thesis), Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Brno 2014, Is.muni, https://is.muni.cz/th/kgraf/, accessed on 30 March 2020
[3] Martin Strakoš, Průvodce architekturou Ostravy, Ostrava 2009, p. 387; Pavel Vlček, Encyklopedie architektů, stavitelů, zedníků a kameníků v Čechách, Prague 2004, p. 55.
[4] Šárka Glombíčková, František Jureček (1844-1902), Encyklopedie města Ostravy, https://encyklopedie.ostrava.cz/home-mmo/?acc=profil_osobnosti&load=123, accessed on 29 March 2020
[5] Martin Strakoš, Obytný dům Františka Jurečka, Ostravské památky, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/80-Obytny-dum-Frantiska-Jurecka, accessed on 29 March 2020
[6] Ibid., Národní dům/Divadlo Jiřího Myrona, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/40-Narodni-dum-Divadlo-Jiriho-Myrona, accessed on 30 March 2020; Jan Galeta, Ostrava – Moravská Ostrava (okr. Ostrava-město) – Národní dům (dnes Divadlo Jiřího Myrona), cat. No. 26, in: Jan Galeta, Národní domy na Moravě 1868–1914. Architektura a nacionalismus (disertační práce), Seminář dějin umění FF MU, Brno 2020, Is.muni, https://is.muni.cz/th/k36qd/, accessed on 31 March 2020, pp. 351-363.
[7] Martin Strakoš, Občanská záložna, nyní součást Divadla Jiřího Myrona, Ostravské památky, http://ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/280-Obcanska-zalozna-nyni-soucast-Divadla-Jiriho-Myrona, accessed on 30 March 2020; also Jan Galeta, Národní domy na Moravě 1868–1914. Architektura a nacionalismus (disertační práce), Seminář dějin umění FF MU, Brno 2020, Is.muni, https://is.muni.cz/th/k36qd/, accessed on 31 March 2020, p. 77, 184, XIV – fig. 19.
[8] Zdeněk Lukeš, Architektura secese v Čechách 1896–1914, in: Coll., Dějiny českého výtvarného umění IV, pt. 1., 1890–1938, p. 160.
[9] Martin Strakoš, Nájemní dům v ulici Na Hradbách, Ostravské památky, http://ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/291-Najemni-dum-v-ulici-Na-Hradbach, accessed on 30 March 2020
[10] Martin Strakoš, Průvodce architekturou Ostravy, Ostrava 2009Hotel Slavia, Hollarova č. 14, Moravská Ostrava čp. 1124, Otokar Bém, 1898, cat. No. 46, p. 94; idem, Hotel Slavia, Ostravské památky, http://ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/48-Hotel-Slavia, accesd on 30 March 2020
[11] K tématu záložny jako společenskopolitického fenoménu a architektonické úlohy srov. Jan Galeta, Národní domy na Moravě 1868–1914. Architektura a nacionalismus (disertační práce), Seminář dějin umění FF MU, Brno 2020, Is.muni, https://is.muni.cz/th/k36qd/, accessed on 31 March 2020, pp. 56-62.
[12] Martin Strakoš, Průvodce architekturou Ostravy, Ostrava 2009, Kostel Korunování Panny Marie s farou, Stojanovo náměstí, fara Hozova 1, Mariánské Hory čp. 484, Otokar Bém, interiér: Antonín Blažek, 1901–1908, fara: Vladimír Fišer, 1912, cat. No. 139, p. 212; idem, Kostel Panny Marie Královny, Ostravské památky, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/139-Kostel-Panny-Marie-Kralovny, accessed on 30 March 2020; Jan Galeta, Národní domy na Moravě 1868–1914. Architektura a nacionalismus (disertační práce), Seminář dějin umění FF MU, Brno 2020, Is.muni, https://is.muni.cz/th/k36qd/, accessed on 31 March 2020, Prostějov (okr. Prostějov) – Městský spolkový a divadelní dům (Národní dům), cat. No. 31, p. 404–413.
[13] Martin Strakoš, Obchodní dům Heinricha Schnitzera, Ostravské památky, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/8-Obchodni-dum-Heinricha-Schnitzera, accessed on 30 March 2020
[14] Ibid., Nájemní dům v ulici Milíčova 1484/1, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/289-Najemni-dum-v-ulici-Milicova-14841; Nájemní dům v ulici Milíčova 288/3, http://ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/290-Najemni-dum-v-ulici-Milicova-2883, accessed on 1 April 2020
[15] Jan Galeta, Národní domy na Moravě 1868–1914. Architektura a nacionalismus (disertační práce), Seminář dějin umění FF MU, Brno 2020, Is.muni, https://is.muni.cz/th/k36qd/, accessed on 31 March 2020, p. 77.
[16] Martin Strakoš, Občanská záložna, nyní součást Divadla Jiřího Myrona, http://ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/280-Obcanska-zalozna-nyni-soucast-Divadla-Jiriho-Myrona, accessed on 30 March 2020
[17] Martin Strakoš, Průvodce architekturou Ostravy, Ostrava 2009, Hotel Gambrinus s Radvanickou pivnicí, Masarykovo náměstí č. 20, Moravská Ostrava čp. 37, Felix Neumann, 1891–1893, přestavba: Matěj Blecha, projekt: Otokar Bém, 1923–1925, cat. No. 61, s. 113; Also, Hotel Gambrinus s Radvanickou pivnicí, Ostravské památky, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/65-Hotel-Gambrinus-s-Radvanickou-pivnici, accessed on 31 March 2020
[18] Ibid., Ředitelství Vítkovických kamenouhelných dolů, http://www.ostravskepamatky.cz/pamatky/103-Reditelstvi-Vitkovickych-kamenouhelnych-dolu, accessed on 2 April 2020
