Max Herz (born Herz Miksa; 19 May 1856 – 5 May 1919) was a Hungarian architect, conservator, museum director and architectural historian, active in Egypt.
Life Herz was born on 19 May 1856 in Ottlaka, Austrian Empire (today Grăniceri, Romania) into a family of limited means. His father made a living from agriculture. Herz finished his primary and secondary schooling in Temesvár (now Timișoara, Romania). He studied architecture under Alajos Hauszmann in Budapest (Technical University; 1874–1877) and under Henrich von Ferstel and Carl König in Vienna (Technical College; 1877–1880).On Hauszmann, see József Sisa: Alajos Hauszmann. In: The dictionary of art. Ed. Jane Turner. Grove, New York, 1996, vol. 14, p. 239. . On Ferstel, see Susanne Kronbichler-Skacha: Norbert Wibiral, Renata Mikula: Heinrich von Ferstel. Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden, 1974. 3-515-01928-6. On König, see Markus Kristan: Carl König 1841–1915. Ein neubarocker Großstadtarchitekt in Wien. Holzhausen, Vienna, 1999. . After his final examinations he undertook a long journey through Italy, which also took him to Egypt in the autumn of 1880. Quite unexpectedly, Julius Franz Pasha, the head of the Technical Office of the Waqf Ministry (Ministry of Religious Affairs) offered Herz a job in Cairo. He accepted, and joined the office, which was also responsible for the conservation of mosques. As chief architect to the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe, he directed the conservation of monuments of Arab-Islamic and Coptic architecture all over Egypt, first of all in Cairo from 1890 until the end of 1914.
Upon the outbreak of World War I, at the end of 1914, Herz, a Hungarian citizen, was forced into retirement and expelled from the country as an enemy alien by the British authorities; though officially an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire with special rights, Egypt had been under British military occupation from 1882 on. Leaving all his possessions behind, he went to Milan with his family, where the relatives of his Italian wife lived. As he had to stay in a neutral country in order to receive his pension from Egypt, he moved on to Zürich after Italy declared war on her ally, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, on 23 May 1915. The world in which he had lived collapsed. The sudden death of his son (17) in the autumn of 1914 was a great blow, from which he never really recovered and which considerably aggravated his situation. The man, who had been full of optimism all his life, gradually broke. He developed a gastric illness and died during an operation. In accordance with his wish, he lies buried in the grave he himself designed for his son in Milan (Cimitero Monumentale). When his widow died in 1949, she was buried next to them.István Ormos: Max Herz Pasha 1856–1919. His life and career. (Études Urbaines 6/1-2). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo, 2009, pp. 1–48, 481–484. .
Activities Conservation of monuments In the 19th century, the state of preservation of Arab-Islamic monuments in Egypt deteriorated rapidly. In order to counteract this process, Khedive Tawfīq founded the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe in 1881. In it Max Herz inherited the seat of the retiring Franz Pasha in 1887 and from 1890 filled the post of chief architect, which was expressly created for him.On the Comité and its activities, see Achille Patricolo: La conservation des monuments arabes en Égypte. Roditi, Cairo, 1914. Alaa El-Habashi: Athar to monuments: The interventions of the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe. PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2001. Philipp Speiser: Die Geschichte der Erhaltung arabischer Baudenkmäler in Ägypten. (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo, Islamische Reihe, 8). Heidelberger Orientverlag, Heidelberg, 2001, pp. 47–94. . The Comité's president was ex officio the waqf minister; however, the actual direction of affairs lay in the hands of the chief architect. Decisions were taken collectively in the sessions of the Comité, which consisted partly of Egyptian and partly of European members. However, on account of his qualification, experience, the devotion to his job, his capacity for work and last but not least his position, Herz played a decisive role in the Comité, which soon extended the sphere of its activities to monuments of Coptic architecture too. (The preservation of monuments of ancient Egyptian [pharaonic] architecture was the task of a different government agency.) Max Herz filled this post for a quarter of a century (1890–1914), and in this capacity he played an outstanding role in the preservation of monuments of Arab-Islamic and Coptic architecture. We are indebted to him for the survival of a number of monuments, while in the case of restored monuments it was he who more or less determined the form in which they appear today. His outstanding achievements along with his amiable personality won him general recognition; his activities are regarded as exemplary to this very day. Herz followed the method of "stylistic restoration". It meant ridding a monument of later additions of low quality and restoring it to its original, most splendid, even ideal shape, "which may never have existed at any given time" (Viollet-le-Duc).[Eugène-Emmanuel] Viollet-le-Duc: Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle. B. Bance, A. Morel, Paris, 1858–1868, VIII , p. 14. The other extreme approach to architectural preservation demanded the avoidance of any sort of restoration or reconstruction; only the preservation of the monument in its actually existing shape was permitted, without any additions.Jokka Jokilehto: A history of architectural conservation. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1999, pp. 137–244. . Herz was a believer in stylistic restoration but practised it with moderation, good taste and common sense. This approach was determined in part by the chronic lack of funds at the Comité's disposal, which did not allow complete restoration on a large scale. At a very early stage the Comité decided that its foremost task was to secure the survival of the greatest possible number of monuments, which children of a happier and richer age would subject to complete restoration.Philipp Speiser: Die Geschichte der Erhaltung arabischer Baudenkmäler in Ägypten. (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo, Islamische Reihe, 8). Heidelberger Orientverlag, Heidelberg, 2001, pp. 68–70. .
In Herz's practice "stylistic purity" meant that in the case of periods whose architecture was well known owing to the existence of numerous monuments, he regarded as permissible the analogical reconstruction of structures whose original shape was unknown. This was the case with the mosques from the Late or Circassian Mamluk period, which was represented with numerous splendid mosques in Cairo, the exquisite minarets of which, for instance, were in many cases damaged on account of their fragility. On the other hand, the architecture of the Fatimid period was little known, therefore he left the ugly late replacement of the original minaret of the Aqmar Mosque (519/1125) untouched when he restored it, because he had no information regarding its original shape and knew very little about Fatimid minarets in general.The low quality structure was added in 1397 or 1412. Doris Behrens-Abouseif: The minarets of Cairo. Islamic architecture from the Arab conquest to the end of the Ottoman Empire. With contributions by Nicholas Warner. Photographs by Bernard O'Kane. I.B. Tauris, London-New York, 2010, p. 205. . (His successors exercised considerably less self-restraint in the reconstruction of the Fatimid mosque of al-Salih Talai (555/1160), about the original shape of which they possessed only very scanty information.)Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell: The Muslim architecture of Egypt. [Clarendon, Oxford, 1952–1959; reprint:] Hacker Art Books, New York, 1978, vol. I, pp. 275–288; pl. 97-108. The replacement of missing structures (e.g., fountain, pulpit) as required by "stylistic restoration" was an urgent necessity from a practical viewpoint in the case of mosques, irrespective of whether their original shape was known or not, because religious observation was to be resumed in them after the completion of restoration by the Comité.See István Ormos: Preservation and restoration. The methods of Max Herz Pasha, chief architect of the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe, 1890–1914. In: Historians in Cairo. Essays in honor of George Scanlon. Ed. Jill Edwards. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo-New York, 2002, pp. 123–153. . István Ormos: Max Herz Pasha 1856–1919. His life and career. (Études Urbaines 6/1-2). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo, 2009, pp. 49–90. .
There is a continuous debate going on about the theory and practice of architectural conservation all over the world, in which various, widely differing views and standpoints are voiced, often depending on the given circumstances.See, e.g., John H. Stubbs: Time honored. A global view of architectural conservation. Parameters, theory, and evolution of an ethos. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2009. In its theory and practice the Comité followed the latest standards represented in the Western world. The method adopted by the Comité under Herz Pasha is regarded as exemplary and is actually followed in the practice of conservation in Egypt to our very day. It is only natural that conflicting views are also voiced in such a complex question, especially given the circumstance that in the period under discussion the Comité functioned in a country under British occupation. The Comité's activities were characterized by a high-level professionalism, thoroughness and devotion. Nairy Hampikian wrote when she completed the restoration of Bab Zuwayla (485/1092), one of the Fatimid gates of the medieval city: "I have deliberately included many minor details in the recapitulation of these activities of the Comité, because I believe they will help counter hasty conceptual and political judgments on its activities. ... The love and care which was transmitted to these monuments through the work of the Comité, the meticulous professionalism by which its members worked, and the sincerity of their efforts is often underappreciated. Furthermore, the degree of seriousness with which these people approached their work is only really apparent when one follows its line of thinking with regard to a single structure over a number of years."Nairy Hampikian: Medievalization of the Old City as an ingredient of Cairo's modernization: Case study of Bab Zuwayla. In: Making Cairo medieval. Ed. Nezar AlSayyad, Irene A. Bierman, Nasser Rabbat. Lexington Books, Lanham-Boulder-New York-Toronto-Oxford, 2005, p. 222. . The Comité carefully documented its activities. This documentation has survived; its scholarly investigation has begun. The Comité published an annual Bulletin in French about its activities; they were also translated into Arabic.A nearly complete series is accessible on the internet now:
Monuments completely restored by Herz Source:For a detailed treatment of Herz's activities in the field of architectural conservation, see István Ormos: Max Herz Pasha 1856–1919. His life and career. (Études Urbaines 6/1-2). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo, 2009, pp. 107–312. . the Fatimid gate of Bab Zuwayla (485/1092) the Aqmar mosque (519/1125)Keppel Archibald Cameron Creswell: The Muslim architecture of Egypt. [Clarendon, Oxford, 1952–1959; reprint:] Hacker Art Books, New York, 1978, vol. I, pp. 241–246; pl. 82-85. Nicholas Warner: The monuments of Historic Cairo. A map and descriptive catalogue. (American Research Center in Egypt Conservation Series, 1; An American Research Center in Egypt Edition). The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo-New York, 2005, pp. 93–94 (no. 33). .