Felix Nussbaum

The name they coined us – emigrants - is fundamentally erroneous, since this was not a voluntary migration for the purpose of finding an alternative place to settle. The emigrants found themselves not a new homeland but a place of refuge in exile until the storm passes - Deportees that’s what we are, outcasts. (Bertold Brecht)

 Felix Nussbaum, Jew at the Window, 1943

Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944) was born in Osnabrück, Province of Hanover, as the son of Rahel and Philipp Nussbaum. His father, Philipp, was a World War I veteran and German patriot before the rise of the Nazis. He was an amateur painter when he was younger, but was forced to work as a merchant for financial reasons. He therefore encouraged his son’s artwork passionately.

 Felix Nussbaum, My Father, 1926

In 1922 Felix Nussbaum began his studies at the Hamburg State School of Applied Arts. One year later Nussbaum attended the private Lewin-Funcke-School in Berlin where he met the Polish-jewish painter and his later wife Felka Platek (who studied there under Ludwig Meidner). In 1924-25 he was a student of the Berlin School of Fine and Applied Arts and a master student of Hans Meid in 1928-29. As of 1929, together with  Felka Platek, he rented a studio in Berlin (Xantener Straße 33).

Felka Platek, Self-Portrait, 1927

Nussbaum's early work was produced primarily in Berlin between 1920 and 1932. From 1924 onwards he attended the Preußische Akademie der Künste (The Prussian Academy of Arts) and as early as 1931 he was a well-known great amongst the artists of the young generation. If in his early pictures there are still traces of the painting style of Vincent van Gogh, the art to emerge from his time in Berlin is primarily influenced by Giorgio de Chirico and Carl Hofer, the painter who taught his trade in Berlin at that time. The artistic breakthrough came in 1931 with the great painting The Paris Square. It ridicules the "nobility" of the Prussian Academy of Arts (which was located there): 

 Felix Nussbaum, The Fantastic Square (The Parisian Square), 1931

As an award for his work, in October 1932, Felix Nussbaum travelled to Rome to be a studying guest at the Villa Massimo. As a result of the political situation evolving in Germany, he was never again to return to his home country. After Hitler came into power, Nussbaum's Berlin studio was set on fire because of his Jewish belief and some 150 works fell victim to the flames. During his travels along the Italian Riviera, Nussbaum succeeded, at least for a certain time, in counter-balancing the threatening events taking place in Germany by painting pictures that showed a soothing kind of beauty. But, from 1934 onwards, the colours, motifs and metaphors of his pictures attest to a foreboding, which warned of an uncertain future.

 Felix Nussbaum, Puppets, 1943

In 1934, Nussbaum took Felka Platek to meet his parents in Switzerland. Rahel and Philipp Nussbaum eventually grew homesick for Germany and, against his fiercest objections, they returned. This was the last time Felix would see his mother and father - the source of his spiritual and financial support. Felix and Felka would spend the next ten years in exile, mostly in Belgium. Thus began Felix's emotional and artistic isolation. 

Felix Nussbaum, Self-Portrait with Felka Platek, 1942

The February of 1935 saw Felix Nussbaum travelling on a tourist visa to the Belgian seaport of Ostend. This is where he proceeded to paint rather monotonous street and harbour scenes that became increasingly drab and gloomy. In 1937 Felix Nussbaum and Felka Platek moved to Brussels where they married and took up residence in an apartment in the Rue Archimède. In addition to some political works completed around 1938, Nussbaum began working on a series of still life paintings, in which things of  a "dead nature" were turned into symbols and metaphors reflecting his own political circumstances.

Felix Nussbaum, Prisoners in Saint-Cyprien, 1942

On May 10th, 1940, Germany invaded Belgium. The Belgian police then embarked on a massive wave of arrests of thousands of refugees originating from German territories. The refugees were taken from their apartments at dawn and instructed to take 48 hours worth of supplies. Also Felix Nussbaum was arrested on May 10th and, together with the other refugees, sent to the French internment camp at Saint Cyprien. In August/September he could escape and returned to Brussels where Felka (she had stayed in Brussels) and Felix were hidden and supported by Belgian sculptor Dolf Ledel. 

 Nussbaum's most famous painting: Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card, probably from late 1942. The Nazi occupation ID card states JEW in French: JUIF, and in Flemish: JOOD. 

1944 marked the fruition of the deadly Nazi machine’s plans for the Nussbaum family. Philipp and Rahel Nussbaum were killed in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in February. Like being aware of his own upcoming death, in Nussbaum's last painting, Triumph of Death (dated 18 April 1944), skeletal creatures play and dance to music within a a barren wasteland: 

Felix Nussbaum, Triumph of Death, 1944

A matter of weeks later, on 20 June, Felix Nussbaum and Felka Platek were denunciated, arrested by German armed forces and given the numbers XXVI/284 and XXVI/285. On August 2, they arrived in Auschwitz where both were murdered a couple of days later. On September 3, Nussbaum’s brother was sent to Auschwitz, and three days later his sister-in-law and niece were murdered there. In December, Nussbaum's other brother Justus - the last of the family - died from exhaustion in the concentration camp of Stutthof. With one fell swoop, the Nussbaum family was officially and completely exterminated.

 The Nussbaum family, 1915. Justus, Rahel, Felix and Philipp.

In 1998, the Felix Nussbaum Haus in Osnabrück - designed by Daniel Libeskind - opened its doors. More of 170 of his is works are permanently exhibited there. They also provide an excellent online catalogue.

Georg Schrimpf

 Georg Schrimpf, Figures in a Landscape, c. 1925

Georg Schrimpf (1889-1938) was born in Munich. He was an autodidact, visiting an art school just for eight days. Since his childhood Georg was obsessed with drawing, painting and copying works of the great masters. His father didn’t see the artistic talent of his son and forced him, in 1902, into a bakery apprenticeship. Since 1905 Georg Schrimpf travelled for some years through Belgium, France, Switzerland and Northern Italy, working as a waiter, baker, and coal shuffler, before he settled in Munich (1909). There he developed a decorative and Expressionist style, and his first designs were published in Franz Pfemfert’s periodical Die Aktion.

Georg Schrimpf, Oskar Maria Graf, 1927

In 1913, Schrimpf first met his lifelong friend Oskar Maria Graf, also a learned baker, but later a famous novelist, who left Germany 1933. The friends visited together Italy and Switzerland, where they stayed a couple of months in an anarchist community near Ascona. Two years later, Schrimpf went to Berlin where he worked in a chocolate factory. In his free time he used every minute for drawing, painting, and wood carving. He continued to work in an Expressionist style comparable to that of Heinrich Campendonk, providing designs for influential periodicals like Der Sturm and Kunstblatt.

 Georg Schrimpf, On the Balcony, 1929

In 1916, the famous publicist and art expert Herwarth Walden exhibited some paintings and woodcarvings of Schrimpf in his gallery. At this time (and in this gallery) Schrimpf met Maria Uhden, also a painter. They married in 1917 and moved to Munich. Maria Uhden died in August 1918 as a result of the birth of their son Markus. Maria's death was to have a striking effect on Schrimpf's subsequent artistic work, which became more lyrical and precise, and which most often featured young women, for example Young Girl Seated:

Georg Schrimpf, Young Girl Seated, 1923

After the end of the First World War, Schrimpf played an active role in the short-lived Münchner Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) and joined the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) for a couple of months. But, contrary to his leftist political views, there is no daily politics, no exciting city life, no social critque in his works, revealing a curious ambivalence of his personality. Schrimpf's work is characterized by clean outlines and tender coloring. Each image presents a tremendous silence - in direct contrast to his restless wandering life. His motives are mainly women and landscapes. He paints women in front of the mirror, women at the window, and his landscapes are deserted, pure nature.

Georg Schrimpf, Woman on a Couch, 1925

Schrimpf's painting style was influenced by his repeated visits to Italy, his admiration of Renaissance art, and his contacts with the Valori Plastici group, notably Felice Casorati. His friendship with Carlo Carrà (who in 1924 wrote a small biography about Schrimpf) confirmed this tendency towards a timeless, poetical realism, placing his post-war work within the more romantic trends of the New Objectivity.

Georg Schrimpf, Still Life with Cat, 1923

Since 1926 Schrimpf taught at the Staatliche Kunstschule in Munich. In 1933, he was appointed a professor at the Westenriede-Gewerbeschule in Berlin-Schönberg by its director, painter Alexander Kanoldt, but was dismissed in 1937 because of his "red past". For the same reason the Nazis banned his works from public exhibitions, and some of his paintings were included in the notorious 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition in Munich. One year, 1938,  later Georg Schrimpf died in Berlin. You can see more of his works in my Flickr set.

Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler

 Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, The Absinth Drinker (Self-Portrait), 1931

Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler (1899-1940) was born in Dresden where, in 1915,  she began her artistic studies at the Dresden School for the Decorative and Applied Arts. She also took extracurricular courses in drawing and painting with Otto Gussmann at the Dresden Fine Art Academy. In 1919, Elfriede Wächtler came into contact with Franz Pfemfert's circle, the Berlin Dadaists and, most importantly, the Dresden Secession Group (founded, amongst others, by Otto Dix and Conrad Felixmüller). Lohse-Wächtler rented space in Felixmüller's Dresden studio and began to earn her living as a freelance illustrator. Otto Dix and Conrad Felixmüller introduced Elfriede Wächtler to the artist and singer Kurt Lohse and they married in 1921. 

 Otto Dix, The Painter Kurt Lohse, 1914

In 1925, the couple moved to Hamburg, where Kurt Lohse found employment as a chorus singer. The couple finally separated in 1926. Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler's most creative phase coincided with the Hamburg period. Her main works in oil, pastel and watercolour - city views, self-portraits, couples, prostitutes and subject matter drawn from the working-class environment - were produced between 1927 and 1931. In 1928, she participated in several New Objectivity exhibitions.

 Kurt Lohse, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, 1927

Due to a nervous breakdown, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler was interned in the Hamburg-Friedrichsberg psychiatric clinic in 1929. There she did the "Friedrichsberger Heads", roughly sixty drawings and head and body studies in pastels of psychiatric patients. After her recovery, Lohse-Wächtler experienced another productive phase and, in 1930-31, showed her work at venues that included the prestigious Hamburger Kunsthalle. 

 Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Paar [Lovers], 1930

After her her mental state deteriorated again, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler returned to her parents' home in Dresden in 1931 At her father's instigation she was committed to the Arnsdorf psychiatric institution, where she was diagnosed as schizophrenic. Initially, Lohse-Wächtler had the opportunity to continue her artistic work in Arnsdorf. After the Nazi-régime came into power in 1933, she was "asked" to agree to a voluntary sterilisation. She didn't agree and, as a consequence, lost all her "privileges". In 1935,  she was declared mentally incompetent, her marriage with Kurt Lohse was separated, and she was sterilized by force under the Nazi Euthanasia Program.

 Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Lissy (Self-Portrait), 1931

Defamed as "degenerate art" in 1937, Lohse-Wächtler's work was in part destroyed. She herself fell victim of the Nazi régime and died in the gas chamber at Pirna-Sonnenschein under the regulations of the "T4" euthanasia program on 31 July or 1 August 1940. Today, there are several places in Hamburg and Dresden remembering Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, and her work is regularly exhibited.  You can see more works of Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler and Kurt Lohse here in  my Flickr set.

Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler, Couple (A Flower), 1930

Also interned in the Arnsdorf psychiatric institution (since 1938) was Marianne Schönfelder, an aunt of Gerhard Richter, who was to become one of the world’s best-paid artists. Marianne was forcibly sterilised and, by 1945, starved to death by Nazi doctors. Gerhard Richter remembered her in his famous 1965 painting Tante Marianne. Painted after an old family photo, it shows Gerhard Richter as a baby with his then fifteen years old aunt:

Gerhard Richter Tante [Aunt] Marianne, 1965

Gerhard Richter’s late father-in-law, Heinrich Eufinger, was the SS doctor responsible for carrying out the sterilisation of the mentally ill and for implementing the euthanasia programme in the Dresden area. Richter, without realising it, had married into a family deeply implicated in the killing of his aunt. You can read more details about this painting and the terrible family story behind it in this 2006 article of the London Times.

Georg Trakl - Grandsons Unborn

Georg Trakl, The Ravens, 1913

Over the black crevice
at noon the ravens rush with rusty cries.
Their shadows touch the deer’s back
and at times they loom in gnarled rest.

O how they derange the brown stillness,
in the one acre itself entranced,
like a woman married to grave premonitions,
and at times you can hear them bicker

about a corpse they sniffed-out somewhere,
and sharply they bend their flight towards north
and dwindle away like a funeral
march in the air, shivering with bliss.

 Otto Dix, Sunrise, 1913

One year after Georg Trakl's poem and Otto Dix' painting, visions of the impeding disaster, both men were called to the military. World War I had begun. In July 1914, shortly before being drafted by the Austro-Hungarian Army, Georg Trakl received a large monetary gift from the then unknown philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who was distributing his enourmous inheritance to artists. Unfortunately, Trakl never was able to use the money. His emotional instability became worse under the strains of war and he was hospitalized numerous times as a result of depression and suicide attempts. After several bloody defeats at the hands of the Russians, Trakl was left to single handedly care for 90 wounded men in a barn near Grodek where he wrote the following poem:

 Albin Egger-Lienz, Den Namenlosen (Those Who Have Lost Their Names), 1914

Georg Trakl, Grodek, 1914

At evening the autumn woodlands ring
With deadly weapons. Over the golden plains
And lakes of blue, the sun
More darkly rolls. The night surrounds
 
Warriors dying and the wild lament
Of their fragmented mouths.
Yet silently there gather in the willow combe
Red clouds inhabited by an angry god,
 
Shed blood, and the chill of the moon.
All roads lead to black decay.
Under golden branching of the night and stars
A sister's shadow sways through the still grove
 
To greet the heroes' spirits, the bloodied heads.
And softly in the reeds Autumn's dark flutes resound.
O prouder mourning! - You brazen altars,
The spirit's hot flame is fed now by a tremendous pain:
The grandsons, unborn.

Trakl could not adequately relieve the pain of his patients on his own, and he witnessed the splattered brains of one soldier who shot himself. Trakl then went outside, and after seeing some of the local Ruthenians hanging from trees, suffered a mental breakdown and threatened to shoot himself. In October, Trakl was hospitalized in Cracow, Poland, and received a visit from a friend who encouraged Trakl to send for his benefactor Wittgenstein. Unfortunately, Trakl injected himself with a fatal dose of cocaine, a probable suicide attempt, on November 3, 1914, three days before Wittgenstein arrived (three years later, Trakl's sister Grete shot herself at a party after failing to overcome her drug addiction).

Telegram of Georg Trakl to his publisher Kurt Wolff: "I should be very delighted if you would send me a copy of my new book Sebastian in Dream. Being ill and hospitalized here in Garnisonsspital Krakau - Georg Trakl."

Kurt Wolff published Sebastian in Dream in 1915, which would garner Trakl a small, but loyal following in Germany and Austria.  Wittgenstein's opinion of Trakl's poems was this: "I do not understand them; but their tone pleases me. It is the tone of true genius."

You can find the above telegram (and countless other treasures) in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Yale University.

Leo Breuer

Leo Breuer (1893-1975) was born in Bonn. Although he started his artistic career as a New Objectivity painter, he is today best remembered for his abstract art. Breuer studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Cologne between 1912 and 1915 when he was drafted to fight in the First World War. He soon was taken prisoner of war and spent almost four years in Russian captivity. Released in 1918, he continued his studies in Cologne and Kassel, and became a member of the leftist artist group Rheinische Sezession in 1928. 

 Leo Breuer, The Coal Carrier, 1931

 

Between 1930 and 1934 Breuer had a studio in Berlin. After the Nazis had declared his art as "degenerate", Breuer emmigrated to Brussels where he worked as a restorer until 1940. After the German occupation of Belgium, Breuer was arrested and sent to the notorious Gurs internment camp in Southern France. After the liberation of France, in 1944, Breuer moved to Paris where he joined the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. Since 1952 he maintained studios in Paris and Bonn. Breuer died 1975 in Bonn.

Carl Grossberg Catalogue

Carl Grossberg, The Paper Machine, 1934

I have recently posted about the German painter and graphic artist Carl Grossberg. You can see more works of him in this online catalogue by Michael Hasenclever Gallery, Munich.

Yva (Else Neuländer-Simon)

 Yva, Ramona in the little flying machine, 1929

Else Neuländer (1900-1942) was born in Berlin where she opened her first photo studio in 1925. Yva soon became a popular fashion and portrait photographer and published in many prestigious newspapers and magazines such as Die Dame, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung and Münchner Illustrierte Presse. At the height of her career, she employed up to ten employees in her studio. Yva briefly cooperated with photographer Heinz Hajek-Halke in 1926. 

Yva, Charleston, 1926

Since 1929 Yva worked for the Ullstein publishing house. Friedrich Kroner, the editor of the Ullstein-Verlag, commissioned Christian Schad in 1930 to paint a double portrait showing two young women, which would serve as a color cover for the publisher's magazine Uhu. Kroner wanted Schad to portray one of his female friends, in the company of Schad's girlfriend, Maika Lahmann. While Schad normally took his own photos, on this occasion he used a portrait of Maika and her friend which had been taken by Yva. He painted Freudinnen (Friends) during September-October 1930 in his Hardenbergstrasse studio, Berlin.

Christian Schad, Friends, 1930

Due to her Jewishness, Yva was prohibited from exercising her profession (Berufsverbot) after the Nazis had seized power in January 1933. Her studio was now officially run by her "arian" friend Charlotte Weidler. In 1936, the later famous photographer Helmut Newton began his apprenticeship in Yva's studio. Two years later, Yva had to finally give up the studio. She then worked as a radiographer in the Jewish Hospital in Berlin. In 1942, Yva and her husband, Alfred Simon, were arrested and deported to the Majdanek concentration camp where they were killed most probably in 1942.

Yva, Max Liebermann, from the series "Celebrities from behind", before 1930

The building in Berlin's Schlüterstraße 45, which was her last home and studio, now houses the Hotel Bogota. Yva's photos are displayed in the hall on the fourth floor - the former studio.