Ac! lf 1

King 01 mon are quo cd n thc wall, bur 15 nor: .. , whi h m derh' .fI r unJer rhe an i 0('. foot ncl the vaute of the church eilingo er rhc 'hrisÜan's head, i no cramped omo box and b ,I e.

eim re warse (han ne min 11

r

l. Hermann Muth ju (l 61-1927). a member fehe \l7t"rk­bund. Hi rhree-volume DM mglisch~ HilUS (1904, Th ngli hH u e) w very influencial in preading ehe id oC ehe Arts nd

rafT mov rnem in crmany.2. ce Noce on p. 1 3.3. Kurutschau J908, the tide of an exhibition of are and craft·

-howing m ny of ehe St"wsion arei a d cade afT r [heil mergence.J cf Hoffinann designed eh p vilioo.

29. Ornament and Crime (1929)'

In the omb the human embryo g through all ph f cl -vdopm nt th animal kingdom has p cd ehr ugh. cl h( n ahuman being is b m, h' os impr i n are Iike a nt'w-bomcl '. In childhood he thr ugh a11 chang rr ponding t

r g in rhe developmene f humaniry. Ae (Wo hee ich ehe'y fa Papuan. at ur wirh rh e of a ermanie cnb man, r ixf ocrares, at eighe of Volr 're. At eigbe he becom Cl ar f

violee, eh c lor dj cov red by eh eigheeenrh cenrury; before ehae.101 \ ere blue and eh purpl' nail was ted. Even roday ph ici

can p im ro colors in ehe olar pecrrurn which have becn giveo aname, bur which ie will be leu tO future g nerari n r dLs ·m.

A hild j amoraJ. A Papuan ro , for uso The Papuan slaughtethi enemics and devours thern. He i noe a criminaJ. Bur jf am dern person slaugheers ome ne and devours hirn, h i acriminaJ or a degenerate. The Papuan covers his kin wieh taetoo ,hi bo r, hi oars, in h re ev ryching he can lay his h uds on. Hei n criminal. Tbc modern pe~ n who rarroos hirn If 1 eicher acriminal or a degenerace. There ar pd os in which eighry per eoeo eh inm t bave rart . P pIe irh earroos n t in pmon areicher lat Ot criminal or deg nerat nslOCIars.

Thc urg co decorate one' face and anyrhing el e wichin ream, the origrn of che fine ans. Ir i the chiJdish babble of paiming.But all art i erotic.

p n of our eim who gi y to rhe urg r d ub thealJ ,. th erotic ymbols i a riminaJ or a cl nerat. t i

n rural in the Papuan or eh child' a ign f clcg ncracy inm ern dult. I made ehe fall wing discovery, which r p ed n roeh orld: th~ nJolution 0/eu/turt is synonymow with th~ rmlovolo/omommtation frOllJ obj~c 0/nJeryday we. 1 thought by doin rwOuld bring joy ro ehe world: jr has nor rhanked me for ir. Peoplcwcre ad and downcast. What cl pres cd ehern was the reali7..3.cion wecould no longer create new ornament. What? We alonc, ehe poplef rhe ninceeeneh cenrury, werc not capable of doing ornerhing

every negro tlibesman could do, omething every age and n eionbefi re u had done!?

J68 Adolf Lo",

Thc ObjttlS mankllld cra.ted in earlicr millenni. withoulornamellt havc bccn casuaUy lossed aside and allowed tO go towrack and ruin. Wc da 001 possess a single wOrXbench from [he<:.:.arolinglan JX'nod. but auy picec of crash having even thc shghlCSIdccor.uion w;u; colkcted, c1eaned up. and pur in an os{cmaÖouspalacc buih specially to houu: it. And we made our war sadlyaround thc showc.uo, adwncd ofOUt impot-cnce. Evcry qKXh hadtU own uylc. :lInd OUt$ alane should bc: dcnied allel.! 8y scylc peopkmt:U1t orn.amcnt:uion. BUI I ~d. "00 001: Wttp. Do you mx ,\tt

Ihe gr«tncss of OUt agc raida in our "eI)' inability co ere;ue nnw­ornammt? Wc h:n'c gone bcyood ornamCnl. wc havc= achiacd plain.und«onued simplicity. BdloM. tht" urne is at hand, ful6Umcmawaits lLl.. Sooo thc str«a of thc cities will shinc likc whÜc walls!ülcC' Zion, (he Holy City. HC.JVcn's capital. Theo fulfillmror willbc ours. ..

But thert' w('re hobgoblins wilo l('fiucd to accept it. TheyWOI.nIed mankind ro conrinu tO nrain under mc yokc of ornam~nt.Mankind had rach«! thc pomt whcrc ornamCDf w;as 00 longer asolu'cc of pleasure. wh~re a tattooed face, lnstead of increasingprople's ae$lha:ic pleasure as il docs for me Papuans, diminishedpl~alIiurc. Peopk had rcached the point whcrt they likcd a plaincigarettt' cas~, whilt' they would ooe buy a decor.ned one, cvcn ifthe pricc was the ~ame. Thcy were happy wirh rn..:ir dothes, andglad rhey did not h:l.ve (0 go around dressed like fäirgroundmonkeys in roo vclver rrausers with gold bra.id. And I said, ·See,the room where Goerhc died is more splendid [han all yourrenaissance pomp. and :I. plaln piece of furnirure is more bcaurifullhan your museum pieces wirh all [heir inlay work alld carving.Gocthc's language is more heaurifid than aB [he flowery languageof the Nurembcrg pa~ror:ll POCts."

Thal cllspJc3.~ed tbc hobgoblins, and Ihe stare, whosc rask Il isCO obmUCl the pcoplc's culruraJ progress, decided co promote thedevdopmenr and revivaJ of Otnamentation. Woe [0 mc starc whoserevolulions are müde by in civil servanrs! Soon in the ViennaMuseum of Applied Art [here was a sideboard ca1led "The MiJ"2Cll~

Ornament :md Crime 169

laus Draught ofFishes,- soon th~re were cupbo:udi wilb narnes Jjke"11lc Bcwirched Prmcess, - rcferring tO rhe decorauon with whichthese unfonunate pieces wcre cover~d. The Ausrrian slare takes ilSrask so seriously it c=:nsurcs the ancient footcloth does nOI dlsapparcntirdy from within rhe bounds o( rh~ AUSlro..Hungarian monar~

ehy. h fortes ~'ery cuhured rwmry-year-old man tO spend thl'ttyears marching in f(lO{doths wend of in knined hosiery. Aft~ al~,rYcry state worb on thc assumption that a primitive population 1$

cniet tO govem than a culrurul one.Thl:' epidemic of ornament enjoys S:ralt rccognilton and srate

subsidy. then. Fot ooy pan. bownret, 15« that:u aretrograde step.I do nOl: accq>1 me objection thaI omamenl is a source ofin~pleasuR' in life fot a.L1rum:l peoplc, ehe objeaion apresKd an meo:damarion, -BUf if mt' omament is buutiful!- For rot, and withme fot aU proplt of rulrun:, ornament is not a souru ofin~plcasurc in life. Whm I wanl tO eat a pie« of gingerbread,l chCJOS('a piece mal is plain, not a piece mapcd like a hc:an. or a baby, ora ca.valryman, COYCted aver and over wirh d«orauon. A lif­lcenth-cenrury man would not have undcrstood me. but all modcmpeoplc will. The supportcrs of ornament think ooy hunger forsimpliciry is same kind of mortific:uion of thc Aesh. No. ooy dearProfessor of Applied Am. 1 am not monifying thc flcsh 2t alt. Ifind the gingcrbread lastC$ ~(cr like that.

It is easy to reroncile oursdves (0 the grc:at damage anddepredarions the revival of ornament had done (0 our 2es(h~tic

devdopooent, since no one and nothing, not even fhe power of [hestate, can hold up the evolurion of mankind. Ir can only be sloweddown. We can afford (0 wait. BUl ist L'Conomic rcspecrs if is actime. in that ir leads to the W3..\(e of human labor. mOll~Y. andlllateriais. That is damagc fime tannat repair.

The speed of culrural devcJopmcnt is halllpctcd by lbc strag­gien. 1am livtng. sar, in 1912, Oly neighbor around l~OO, and thatmall over fhere in 1880. Ir is amisforrune fot astare lf the culrureof tU inhabifanls srretches Qver roo great a time span. 111e pea.santwho farms in the shadow of me Croßglockner livC$ in the rwdfrh

170 Adolf Loos

century. On the occasion of the festival procession to celebrate theEmperor's jubilee we shuddered tO Jearn that here in Austria we stmhave tribes from the fourth century. Happy the land thar does nothave many cultural srragglers and laggards. Happy America! Herein Austria even in the cities there are people who are not modern,people srilllivlng in the eighteenth cenrury, horrified ar a picrurewirh violet shadows because they have not yet learned to see thecolor violet; people ro whom a pheasanr tastes better if rhe cook hasspenr days preparing it, and to whom a cigarette case looks betrerif ir is covered in renaissance ornament. And out in the country?Clorhes and bousehold goods all belong to earlier times. Thepeasant is not a Christian, he js still a heamen.

These people who lag behind are slowing down tbe culturaldevelopmenr of the nations and of humanity. As far as the eca­

nomic aspect is concerned, if you have two people living next doorto each other who have the same needs, the same aspirations, andthe same income, bur who belong to different cultural epochs, youwill find the man of the rwenrieth century gerting rieher and richer,and rhe man of the eighteenth century poorer and poorer. 1 amassuming, of course, that in both cases their lifestyles reneer theirattitudes. The man of the twenrieth celltury needs much less capitalto supply his needs, and ean therefore make savings. The vegetableshe likes are simply cooked in water and served wirh a Imob ofbutter. They taste good to the arher only if there are nuts andhoney mixed in, and a cook has spent hours over them. Decoratedplates cost more, whiIe rwenrieth-century man likes his food onwhite crockery alone. The one saves money while the othet throwsit away, And ir is the same with whole nations. Woe betide thepeople thar lag behjnd in their cultural developmenc. The Englishare getting rieher, and we poorer....

The harm done by ornament to the ranks of ehe producers iseven greater, Sinee ornament i5 no longer a natural produet of out:cuhure. bur a symptom of backwardness or degeneraey, the"eraftsman producing the ornament is not fairly rewarded for his ••labor. The conditions among wood carvers and turners, the·

Ornament and Crime 171

eriminally low rates paid tO emhroiderers and lace makers arewell-known. An ornamental crafrsman has to work for twenty hoursro reach the pay a modern worker earns in eight. In general,dccoration makes objecls more expensive, but despite that it docshappen that a decorated object, with materials costing the same anddemonstrably taking three times as long to produce, i5 put on 5aleat half the priee of a plain object. The result of omitting deeorationjs a reduction in working hours and an increase in wages. AChinese wood carver worb for sixteen hours, an American laborerfor eight. If 1pay as much for a plain box as for one with ornamen­tation, the difference in labor time belongs co the worker. And ifthere were uo ornaments at a11-a state that will perhaps eomeabout after thousands of years-we would need to work for onlyfour houts instead of eight, since at the moment half of our laboris accQunted for by ornamentation.

Ornament means wasted labor and therefore wasted health.That was always the ease. T oday, however, it also means wastedmaterial, and both mean wasted capital.

As there is no longer any organic conneetion between ornamentand our culture, ornament is no longer an expression of our culture.The ornament being ereated now bears no relationship to us, norro an)' human being, or to the system governmg the world coday.Ir has no potential for developmenr. Where is Otto Eckmann'sornamentarion now/- or that of van der Velde? In the past the artistwas a healthy, vigorous figure, always at the head of humanity. 1 hemodern ornamental artist, however, lags behind or is a pathologiealcase. After three years even he hirnself disowns his own products.Cultured people fmd thern intolerable straight away. others becomeawate of it only after a number of years. Where are Otto Eck­mann s worb roday? Where will Olbrich's be in ten years' time.Modern ornament has no parents and no offipring, no past and nofuture. Uncultivated people, for whom the greatness of our age isa closed book, greet it rapturously and then dlsown it after a shorrtime.

172 Adolf Loo.

Humaniry as öl whole is heahhy, ooly öl few are siek. Bur theserat ryr.annize (hl: worket, who is so heaJrhy he is incapable ofinventing ornamenC$. lbq comp<1 hirn (0 executc thc ornamenu(hey have invenred, in öl wide variery of different materials.

The changing whion in ornament r<'Subs in öl prematuredcvaJuarion of thc pmducr of the worker's labor; his time anel themarerials used an wlSled capita.l. I have fOmlulaccd the followingpfinciple: Th~ form ofUJ obi~N shouid lJUr. riNlr ist UN shou/Jfind irtOIrTllbk 4S "'nt IU (iN o!Jjert ,tylfwrs. I will explain: A suit willdunge iu sryle matt' often man öl valuable fur. A woman's ballOUdll, imended for aRe nighr aJone. will change ia $[ylc mo~

qUlddy man a d~k. Wcx bttidc US, hown'C'r, ifwc havc 10 changeöl dc:sk as quick1y as öl ball audit b«:au.sc \l,"e CUl 00 langu stand theoId style. Thco wc will bavc wasi«! mc moncy wc paid fot mcdok.

OrnamenraJ anisu :md cr:lfumcn an: wdl aware of this, and inAustria they try tO show this ddidency in a positive light. 'Ilte:y say...A comumer who has furnishings he canoot stand after u~n ycars,and Ibus is force<! to rerurnish his apanment every ten years, is bet­ter chan one who buys something ooly when the old one becornesworn out wirb usc. Industry needs rhat, The rapid changt:.s in fash­ion provide employmem for millions.·

This seems to bc the secret of the Aunrian «onomy. When afire breaks out. how ofien doc:s one hear .somronc uy, '"Thank CoolNow there is work for pcople again.· Just set a hOUR on fi~, set"the Empi~ on fire, aad everyone will bc rolling in moner. JUst k«pon making furniture we chop up for firewood ane.r three rean.mountings we luve to mch down alter four, bttausc cvcn at<llletion chey will MI ferch a rcnth of the cOSt of labor aod materi­als, and we will gel richer and rieb er!

Not 01lly thc consumcr bears thc lass, ie is abovc alt eheproducer. Nowadays. puning dc:<:oration on objeet5 which, thanks10 progress, no longer need tO be decorated, means a waste of laborand an abuse: of material. If all objeas would last as lang inaenhetic terms :u they last ph)'$icaUy, thc consumer would be: able:

Orn:llne:nl :md Crime 173

tO pay a ptiee fot the.m that would allow che worker ro cam moremoney :lOd work shorter houll. For an object: from whieh 1 ameonvinced I will get full us~ unril ir is worn OUI I am quitc happytO pay four cimes ehe price of anorbcr I eould buy. I am happy topay fony crowns for my shocs, cven though Ihere art' shucs for renin another shop. But in those Ir.tdcs that languish under the yokeof rhe ornamental aniS[, no value is put on good or bad workman­ship. Work sufter:; beause no one is willing tO pOly for it Olr irs truevalue.

And that 15 a good thing [00. sinee these ornamenred objectsan:' bearable only ,,'hen [hq~ shoddily produecd. I find it asietro aa:qn a 6ft' when I har jr is only wonhless rubblsh that isbeing destroyed. I an enioy Ihe tJumJXry in the: l(jilutltrJunu'beauS<' I MOW it take:s a fcw days tO put it up and onc dar to teatit down. But throwing coins ilUfead of staues, Iighung a cig:u witha b;LJlk note, crushing up and drinking a JXarl, I fmd unaesrhctic.

Only when th~ ornamenred things have been made from thcbest material with the greatcst eare, and have taken up many m,lIl­houts of wark, da they become trulr unaesrherie. I have tQ admitI was me first tO demand qualiry workmamhip. Professor Hofr­mano's inte.rior for the. Apollo C.andle Faclory shop in Vienna, donein piJlc with a colored staln faun«n ye:us ago, is by no mcans asunbe:uable a.s h~ cu~nt designs. Or as unbe.arable ~ Hoffmann',idesigns will look in a funher faun«n y~' lime. My GafeMuseum. howevcr, which opcned ar rhe same [lme as the shop. willhe unbearable only whcn the carpcntry work begins to fall apart.

A modern person. who regards ornament as a symptom of theartistic superfluity of pr~ious ages and For that reason holds itsacred. will immcdiardy recogniu: the unhealthy, thc: forced-pain~

fully forccd-natUfe of modern ornament. Ornament can no longerbe produccd by someone living on the eullUrallevcl of today. It isdifferent fOt individuals and people who havc not yet rcached tharlevel.

Tbe ideal I pteach is the aristoc:r.n. Wh:u I mean by that is thC'penon ar the peak of humanity, who yet hlb a. profound undet·

I1

I

174 Adolf Loos

scanding of ehe problem and aspirations of rhose at the bOHorn.One who weH understand~ the way the Africall work pattems intohis cloch according to a certain rhythm, so rhe design appears onlywhen rhe fabric is raken off the 100m; likewise the Persian weavinghis rug, the Slovak peasanr wornan maklng her lace, the old wornanmaking marvelous needlework from silk and glass beads. Thearisrocrar lets them cany on in thcif own accustomed way, heknows the time they spend on their work is sacred ro thern. Therevo.lutionary would go and tell thern it was all poindess, just as hewould drag an old wornan away from the wayside shrine, telling herthere Is no God. But rhe atheist among the aristOcrars still raises hishat when he passes a church,

My shoes are covered with decoration formed by sawroothpatterns aud holes. Work done by rhe shoernaker, work he has notbeen paid for. Imagine I go co the shoemaker and say, "You chargethirry crowns for a pair of shoes. I will pay you forty-eight." Tl' willralSi:: ehe man tO such a transport of delight he will thank methl'Ough his workmanship and the material used, making ehern ofa qualiry ehat will far outweigh my extra parment. He is happy] andhappiness js a rare commodity in his hause. He has found someonewho understands hirn, who respecrs his work, and does not doubehis honesry. He can already see the finished shoes in his mind'scye.He knows wherc the best Ieather is ro be found at the moment, heknows which of his workers he will entrust with ehe task, and theshoes will have alJ the sawtooth patterns and holes an elegant pairof shoes can take. And then I say, "Bur rhere is one condition. Theshoes musr be completely plain." I will drag hirn down from thebeighrs oE bliss to the depth of hell. He will have less work, and Ihave taken away all his pJeasure in it.

Thc ideal I preach is the aristocrar. I can. acccpt decoration onmy own person if ir brings pleasure CO my fellow men. Ir bringpleasure co me, wo. I can accept the Mrican's ornament, thePersian's, the lovak peasant woman's, my shoemaker' , for jrprovides the high point of rheir existence, which they have 11.0 orhermeans of achieving. We have rhe arr rhat has superseded ornament.

Ornament and Crime 175

After alI the roil and tribulations of the day we can go ro hearBeethoven or Tristtm, My shoemaker cannor. 1 must not take hisreligion away from hirn, fOT] have nothing to pur in itS place. Buranyone who goes to the Nl'rzth and then sit5 down ro design awallpaper pattern is eicher a fi-aud or adegenerate.

The disappearance of ornament has brought about an un­dreamed-of blossaming in the other arts. Beerhoven's symphanieswould never have been wrirren by a man who had to dress in silk,velver, aod lace. Those who go around in velvet jackets coday arenot; anisrs, but clowns or hause painters. We have become morerefmed, more subtlc. When men foUowed the herd they had [0

differenriate themsdves through color, modern man uses his dressas a disguise. His sense of his own individualiry is so immenselystrang it can 00 longer be expressed in dress. Lack ofornamenratianis a sign of intellectual srrength. Modern man u es the ornamenrsof earEer OI foreign cultures as he likes :lnd as he sees fit. Hecancentrates his own inventive power on other things.

Afrerword

This anicle by the Viennese architect, wrirren in 1908, at whichtime ir was the cause of riors among applied anises in Munich, butreceived wirb raprurous applause when deiivered as a lecrure inBerlin, has nevcr befoTe been published in German. The tirle l

"OrnamenT and Crime," i5 a carcbword for manyJ known even topeaple who never knew where it came rrom, The areide hasappeared in the languages of all advanced nations, even in ]apaneseaod Hebrew. The only one missing was German. We are grareftÜir has been made available ro us so we can publish ir on rheoccasion of the Frankfurt meeting of the International Associationfot New Building. It demonsrraces co us roday mat, at the timewhen art rwuveau was flourishing, Adölf Laos was perhaps the onlyperson who Was dear about what is modem. Just as rhe housesAdolf Loos buHt ewenry years ago and which at that time aroused

------4

176 Adolf Laos

:l storm of indignation, are now accepted as expressiom of purefu ncrional form."

Note;

1. "This C!Ssay was wrinen in 1908. We dedicarc it 10 theSecond International Congress far New Building. meeting [OOay inFrankfurt_" Foolnote in thc Frankfuno Zt'itung.

2. See note. p. 38.3. The gallery of [he Associarion of Vicnnese Anim.4. 'me Aficrword appeared in the FrankfuTuT uitung.

1

...

30. Brief Intermezzo (1909)

Opposite thc Opera. in the Heinrichshof, is the Viennese branch ~fthc French meralware manufacrurer ChrisroRe. f have to pass nevery dar. Thc window display nevcr makcs mc stap.

A ycar ago somcrhing special happcned. I was abom (0 rushpast again when somcrhing puUed mc back wirh a jerk.

In the middle of all thc rableware and cutlery.-<urlcry ofEnglish design fot propie who can ear, and cutlery fot those whocan't, after designs by Olbrich-there was a life·sized Dobennanpinsche.r. White china, glaz.ed. Only the eyes and mu7..7..le were

culorcd.My first I.houghr was: Copenhagen. And 1 began to revise my

verdia on Copenhagen chinaware. I certainly would like to possessthai dog. So thete were artistS who could creau: things in this stylepcople want fO possess. Whar was the artist called? Where did he

live?I went in and asked. And leamoo Ihe man had b«n dead for

something Iike a hundred and fifty years. h was a copy from the

Shres fuClOry.I couldn't afford tO buy ir, bUi from Ihen on I sropped C"ery

day ro see my clog.Ir wem on like that for a year, bur ehen rccendy all my pleasure

vanished. lne clog had gone. I wem in and asked, nWhere is my

clog?"An Amcrican had bought it. But {hey promised ehey would

have anorher sem and pue it in the window.And I hope the Americans will use the sidewalk on thc other

side of the meer.