Eduard Thöny

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Eduard Thöny, drawn by Th. Th. Heine

Eduard Thöny (born February 9, 1866 in Brixen / South Tyrol , † July 26, 1950 in Holzhausen am Ammersee ), Austrian draftsman , caricaturist and painter, was one of the most important employees of the satirical magazine Simplicissimus .

Thöny is one of the most productive employees of the magazine Simplicissimus , for which he created over three thousand caricatures in all the years of its publication, including from military, student and social life. His graphic work - preferably in ink and opaque white, often reworked with charcoal or pencil - is characterized by a photographic gaze that is nevertheless translated into the style of a lively and accurate handwriting. In painting, on the other hand, the preferred representation of hunting and equestrian images shows an aesthetic late impressionism .

Origin and years of apprenticeship

Eduard Thöny was the son of a South Tyrolean wood carver and sculptor. The family lived in the Vinschgau for generations . Franz von Defregger , his father's closest friend, his godfather and later his teacher, advised the family to move to the up-and-coming art metropolis in Munich. Eduard Thöny grew up here, shaped by the artistic atmosphere in his parents' house. From 1883 to 1892 he studied at the Munich Art Academy with Gabriel von Hackl , Ludwig von Löfftz and Defregger, interrupted by study visits and trips. He spent the summer semester of 1890 in Paris. There he studied the art of Edouard Detail with the aim of becoming a history and society painter and maintained contact with the Académie Julian through his compatriot and college friend Leo Putz .

In order to earn money, he worked on battle paintings by Louis Braun in Munich and regularly made humorous and photo journalistic articles for the "Münchner Humoristische Blätter", a weekly supplement to the "Neuen Münchner Tagblatt". In 1891/92 he accompanied Buffalo Bill and his Wild West troupe on a European tour.

Wilhelmine Imperial Era

In 1896, in the first year of the satirical weekly Simplicissimus founded by Albert Langen in Munich, Eduard Thöny began drawing for the paper (issue 30, October 24, 1896). Thönys Fach became the society and military caricature. With the help of the new type of photomechanical printing technology, the autotype , the original drawings were printed in the magazine - often in color.

Thöny was drawn from the provincial Munich to the metropolis of Berlin, where he was able to study the physiognomy of the military and the aristocracy, of the upper-class and the proletariat at close quarters in the heart of the Wilhelmine Empire. As a South Tyrolean, he had an outside view of this society, which enabled him to capture the physiognomic and social-psychological phenomena of the people of his time with a pointed and at the same time with a high degree of realism. Upper and lower classes, the military and the nobility, farmers and workers, cocottes and pimps, but also the diversity of people from foreign cultures populate his detailed pictures.

Because Thöny's drawings, with their chronological accuracy and revealing love of objects, depicted a society that largely corresponded to the readership of Simplicissimus , they played a major role in the magazine's great popularity. Because of their popularity, many of his drawings were reissued between 1899 and 1910 in albums under the titles "Der Leutnant", "Thöny-Album", "Military", "Vom Kadetten zum General" or "Der Bunte Rock". In addition, Thöny illustrated numerous books and designed book covers, especially for Albert Langen Verlag u. a. for Frank Wedekind , Guy de Maupassant , Marcel Prévost , Karl Bleibtreu , Theodore Roosevelt . His most popular series of images were the illustrations for Ludwig Thomas' filser letters, "Correspondence of a Bavarian member of the state parliament", published in Simplicissimus since 1907 .

Thöny traveled a lot, often in the company of his Simpl colleagues. He was a mountaineer, tennis and cycling polo player and ski pioneer. In April 1904 he rode his bike through the south of France, accompanied by Ludwig Thoma and Rudolf Wilke . They crossed from Marseille to Algiers, visited the oasis of Biskra, Bougie, Constantine and Tunis. From there they traveled by ship to Naples, visited Pompeii and Paestum and met the assembled editorial staff of Simplicissimus in Rome who had traveled to meet them.

In 1906 Eduard Thöny became partners of Simplicissimus together with the draftsmen Thomas Theodor Heine , Olaf Gulbransson , Bruno Paul , Ferdinand von Rezniček , Wilhelm Schulz and Wilke .

Caricatures and paintings by Thöny have been shown by Bruno and Paul Cassirer in Berlin since 1899, and by the Brakl and Heinemann galleries in Munich since 1906 . Copley Hall in Boston / Mass. showed his work in 1909 in their "Exhibition of Contemporary German Art".

In 1908, at the height of his popularity and economic success, the artist acquired a lake plot of land in Holzhausen am Ammersee and in the following years had the existing gardener's house rebuilt according to plans by Bruno Paul. Artists from the Scholle circle had discovered the picturesque place on the west bank of the Ammersee as their summer retreat. They represented the Munich artist avant-garde of Art Nouveau . In Holzhausen, Adolf Münzer , Fritz Erler , Walter Georgi and the sculptor Mathias Gasteiger and his wife, the painter Anna Sophie Gasteiger, and for a time Olaf Gulbransson, owned studios and country houses.

First World War

At the beginning of the First World War , the Simplicissimus decided against further criticism of the German Empire and in favor of a conformist nationalist stance. Thöny was - as an Austrian and because he was no longer suitable for reasons of age for military service - as an official member of the kuk appointed -Kriegspressequartiers and used as a war painter from the first to the last year of the war on several fronts. His realistic front pictures, often done in charcoal and pencil, reported on theaters of war, marches and transports of the wounded and shaped the appearance of Simplicissimus in the war years.

In 1915, Thöny married Rosa Vierthaler, 25 years his junior, a niece of the Munich sculptors Johann and Ludwig Vierthaler . Three children, born between 1915 and 1918, resulted from this marriage.

1920s and early 1930s

The experiences of the First World War and the fall of the monarchy in Germany meant for Thöny the loss of his cartoonistic world of images. He was now increasingly responsible for Bavarian issues.

Equivalent to the weekly contribution to the Simplicissimus , which had become routine , he was increasingly occupied with painting. Hunting and equestrian pictures in the style of a late impressionist painting style became his preferred subjects. Mediated by the architect Paul Ludwig Troost , paintings in this style have been created for the lounges of the passenger ships of the North German Lloyd since 1922 . In 1928 his drawings were honored in a first solo exhibition in the State Graphic Collection in Munich . He was a member of the Munich Secession .

The Bavarian Ministry of Culture rejected Thöny's appointment as professor at the art academy - although it has been proposed again and again by the academy's appointment committee since 1926 - always with a view to his caricature activity, which was “dangerous to the state”.

The time of National Socialism

With the so-called Gleichschaltung des Simplicissimus in 1933, which persuaded the draftsman Th. Th. Heine and the editor Franz Schoenberner to emigrate, the glorious end of the important satirical magazine and its propagandistic abuse through Nazi politics began. The continued existence of the newspaper, which is respected in broad (educated) bourgeois circles, and its now equally aged and famous workforce feigned cultural continuity and alleged freedom of the press in the Nazi media landscape.

Thöny was a highly valued artist during the Nazi era. He received honors and awards. In 1933 he was made an honorary member of the Munich Art Academy and on April 20, 1938, he was appointed professor by Adolf Hitler , an honorary title without office or salary. In 1941 he received the Goethe Medal for Art and Science . He was a total of 38 works at the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich's Haus der Deutschen Kunst represented, including 1,940 with the oil painting Western Wall workers and colored chalk drawing Tyrolean farmers and in 1943 with the oil painting Waffen-SS in use . In the final phase of the Second World War , Hitler added him to the God-Favored List in August 1944 .

Until the magazine was discontinued, Thöny provided drawings from society and the military on a weekly basis without critically interpreting current political and social events during National Socialism. In many cases, however, his drawings only acquired a clear National Socialist tendency through the editorially added titles and texts, which he had never written himself.

Serious strokes of fate overtook the artist in the last years of his life. In May 1941, his youngest son died as a lieutenant in the war. In March 1944, the house in Holzhausen burned down to the ground. Countless drawings, paintings and documents were lost in the flames. In 1945 his eldest son was captured by the Soviets as an SS officer. Eduard Thöny did not live to see his return.

post war period

In 1950 Eduard Thöny died at the age of 84 in his house on the Ammersee and was buried in the cemetery in Holzhausen.

Eduard Thöny at the reception of his contemporaries

"He succeeded, like no other German draftsman before him, in grasping the type of the elegant and demi-mundane"

- Albert Langen , founder and editor of Simplicissimus , 1898

“The same Thöny, who around 1900 painted the noble officers at the dinner of the non-noble commercial councilors, the liveried valets, the whiskers, the candle-flickering table, found himself under the compulsion in 1943 to glorify the leveling compulsive heroism of Stalingrad in gloomy snow trips. A generation must live long when the historical epochs are so short; too long for her fame "

- Golo Mann in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , No. 272, November 23, 1963 on Thöny's Simplicissimus pictures from World War II

Solo exhibitions (selection)

The graphic work

  • "Münchner Humoristische Blätter", 1888–1895
  • "Simplicissimus", vol. 1, 1896 to vol. 49, 1944
  • "The Boer War", ed. by Ludwig Thoma, Munich 1900
  • “Simplicissimus” calendar
  • " Youth ", 1921ff

Anthologies

  • “Der Leutnant”, Munich 1899.
  • "Thöny-Album", Munich 1900.
  • "Military", Munich 1901.
  • "From Cadet to General", Munich 1906.
  • “The Colorful Rock”, Munich 1910.

Book illustrations (selection)

  • Marcel Prévost , “Parisian Husbands”, Munich 1896.
  • Karl Bleibtreu, "Aspern", Munich 1902.
  • Ludwig Thoma , "Correspondence of a Bavarian member of the state parliament", Munich, Volume I 1909, Volume II 1912.
  • Oskar Maria Graf , "Bayerisches Lesebücherl", Munich 1925.
  • Sigmund Graff and Walter Bormann, "3000 Words Front-German", Magdeburg 1925.
  • Walter Ziersch, "Ludwig Thoma and the City of Munich", Munich 1936.
  • Kurt Huber and Paul Kiem, "Oberbayrische Volkslieder", Munich 1937.
  • Max Dingler , "The Turkish Driver", Erfurt 1943.
  • Josef Maria Lutz, "Bayrisch", Munich 1950.

Envelope drafts (selection)

Illustrated books and catalogs

  • "Cocottes, farmers and soldiers", ed. by Hans Reimann, Hanover 1957.
  • "Lived fast", ed. by Jochen Heddergott, Munich 1966.
  • "Eduard Thöny 1866–1950", catalog Museum Villa Stuck Munich, Wilhelm Busch Museum Hanover, Maretsch Castle Bozen, arr.: Dagmar von Kessel-Thöny, Munich 1986/87.
  • "Berlin around 1900", ed. by Dagmar von Kessel-Thöny, Munich 2003.
  • "Lyonel Feininger Caricature. Caricatures Eduard Thöny ”, ed. by Danilo Curti-Feininger, Bozen 2003.
  • "Eduard Thöny", ed. by Dagmar von Kessel-Thöny, foreword by Paul Flora , Lana 2004.

Appreciations

In 1964, Eduard-Thöny-Strasse was named after him in the Solln district of Munich .

literature

  • Otto Thomae: The Propaganda Machine. Fine arts and public relations in the Third Reich . Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-7861-1159-6 .
  • Dagmar von Kessel-Thöny: Eduard Thöny 1866–1950 . Catalog for the exhibition in the Museum Villa Stuck Munich, Wilhelm Busch Museum Hanover and Maretsch Castle Bozen. Goltz, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-925501-01-0 .
  • Robert Thoms: Great German Art Exhibition Munich 1937–1944 . Directory of artists in two volumes. Volume I: painter and graphic artist. Neuhaus, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-937294-01-8 .
  • Michael Seeber (Ed.): Eduard Thöny 1866–1950. Contours, figures, natures. For the 150th birthday of the South Tyrolean master caricaturist in “Simplicissimus”. Exhibition catalog, Hofburg Brixen, March 19 - June 30, 2016, Bozen 2016.

Web links

Commons : Eduard Thöny  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ October 26, 1883: 04449 Eduard Thöni. In: Matriculation Book 1841–1884. (online at: matrikel.adbk.de ) (accessed June 7, 2013)
  2. ^ Honorary members of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. (Accessed December 30, 2015; PDF; 172 kB)
  3. ↑ Otto Thomae: The Propaganda Machine. 1978, p. 197.
  4. ↑ Otto Thomae: The Propaganda Machine. 1978, p. 325 f.
  5. ↑ Carl Kraus , Hannes Obermair (ed.): Myths of dictatorships. Art in Fascism and National Socialism - Miti delle dittature. Art nel fascismo e nazionalsocialismo . South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and State History Castle Tyrol, Dorf Tirol 2019, ISBN 978-88-95523-16-3 , p. 170–171 (with ill.) .
  6. ↑ Database of the Central Institute for Art History, German Historical Museum and House of Art with information on all exhibited works of art
  7. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 612.
  8. ^ Eduard-Thöny-Strasse. In: sollner-hefte.de. Retrieved June 17, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Thöny, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian draftsman and caricaturist
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Brixen
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1950
Place of death Holzhausen am Ammersee