Ferdinand Avenarius

Ferdinand Avenarius (20 December 1856, in Berlin – 22 September 1923, in Kampen) was a German lyric poet, a leading representative of the culture reform movement of his time and the first popularizer of Sylt.

[3] Ferdinand Avenarius attended schools in Berlin and Dresden and studied in Leipzig and Zurich medicine, natural sciences, art and literature history as well as philosophy.

In 1895, Schilling & Graebner built a first villa for Avenarius in Blasewitz, where he lived with his wife and his step-son Wolfgang Schumann.

In 1902, Avenarius founded together, with art historian Paul Schumann, the Dürerbund, named after Albrecht Dürer, which became the leading culture organization in the German Empire, Austria and Switzerland.

He supported young authors like Hermann Häfker and painters, but fought heavily against all appearances of "low taste" or "little value", as he ranked e.g. the work by Karl May.