Draughtsman, author and editor

Franz Zell wandered through the Bavarian highlands and neighbouring Austria with a sketchbook and camera. He travelled throughout Germany and Europe on study trips. He drew and photographed motifs and forms of folk art from villages, private and public collections.

As the author of numerous articles in contemporary journals, Zell passionately advocated the idea of Heimatstil and folk art. Zell wrote in the Süddeutsche Bauzeitung in March 1906: "As is well known, a formal war is being waged today from all sides against that tasteless type of construction that disfigures our so beautiful German landscapes in such a shameful way. The wrong tracks that were taken in the course of the 19th century – disloyally and without reason forgetting the proven traditions of a technically and artistically highly developed craft – have been abandoned again for a decade. Since the milestone exhibition of 1876, Gabriel von Seidl, the far-sighted pioneer and tireless champion of a national art of building, has shown us the paths along which a recovery of our architecture and our arts and crafts can be achieved again, and along which we have also arrived at the Modern Munich School of Architecture."

Zell was editor of the "Süddeutsche Bauzeitung" from 1901 to 1912. At the same time he was the editorial director of the magazine "Unsere Volkstrachten" (Our traditional dress), the "Verkündigungsblatt der oberbayerischen Gebirgstrachten-Erhaltungsvereine" (Official notice of the Upper Bavarian traditional mountain dress preservation societies) and the "Volkskunst und Volkskunde" association’s monthly magazine.

He wrote for "Der Baumeister" and for the illustrated magazine "Das moderne Heim" and was the editor of trendsetting illustrated books on folk art and folklore.

In light of this, with his network and his versatility, Franz Zell would probably have a Heimat blog today and would be a passionate campaigner in the discourse on local preservation and regionally based building.

Michaela Thomas