A Desire for Action

Abstract

Today's well-known Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, evolved from the will of Johann Friedrich Städel (1728–1816), who was one of the better-known private art collectors in Frankfurt in the 18th century. Städel willed his art collection to serve as a basis for founding the Städelsches Kunstinstitut (Städel's Art Institute) after his death. This article explores his original collection and its later transfer from private to collective use, which was managed by a board of five men of the Art Institute and closely observed and harshly criticized by the public from 1817. It examines the reasons for early changes of the stock of art, takes into consideration the specifics of civic culture at that time, and finally applies Ralf Dahrendorf's role theory to the proceedings in Frankfurt in order to understand better what happened when citizens decided on the possessions and dispossessions of the early Städelsches Kunstinstitut.