Adolf Beyer

Adolf Beyer (born August 19, 1869 in Darmstadt ; † July 19, 1953 there ) was a German painter and art politician under National Socialism .

Life

Adolf Beyer was the son of the Darmstadt theater painter Carl Beyer (1826–1903) and his wife Charlotte, b. Hertel. The father recognized his son's talents early on and encouraged him to the best of his ability. Beyer attended the Karlsruhe Art Academy and the Munich Art Academy . He was particularly influenced by Carl von Marr in Munich. From 1898 he worked as a freelance artist in Darmstadt. Together with Ludwig Habich , he ran a painting and art school in Darmstadt from 1901 and worked at the Grand Ducal teaching studios for applied arts (craft art school) from 1907. In 1911 he was given the title of professor . Through the chairmanship of the Free Association of Darmstadt Artists, which he founded in 1898, he had a decisive influence on the exhibition scene in Darmstadt. His anniversary exhibition on Eugen Bracht in 1912 caused a sensation far beyond the Darmstadt borders.

Weimar Republic and National Socialism

With the beginning of the Weimar Republic and the emergence of a different taste in art based on Expressionism , Beyer fell behind in terms of art politics and turned into an ultra-conservative and illiberal art critic. Beyer felt connected to the fascist movement as early as the 1920s . In 1923 he reported the painter Otto Dix to his painting Salon II for disseminating lewd representations. This complaint was rejected by the Darmstadt Regional Court and the local art scene as an attack on artistic freedom . In 1931 he painted a large-format oil painting that depicted Adolf Hitler in a fighting and heroic pose. He gave his work the title Der Führer in der Kampfzeit . In the course of the seizure of power by the Nazis, this was supported by the Government of the People's State of Hesse purchased and received in the Ministry pride of place.

Beyer was an avowed member of the NSDAP . A list of city councilors listed Adolf Beyer as city councilor since 1933. From the beginning it had its seat in the unified Darmstadt town hall. When the German Spring Exhibition took place in 1934 and the Darmstadt Art Show of German Masters in 1935 , Adolf Beyer was the person responsible for creating a broad public for the national and national understanding of art of the Nazi regime. The Nazi mayor of Darmstadt Otto Wamboldt praised Beyer as part of the Darmstadt Culture Prize awarded to him in 1943 as someone who “... after the National Socialist seizure of power ... made himself unreservedly available to fulfill the city's art and cultural policy tasks ".

During the opening speeches of various art exhibitions, including one on Mathildenhöhe , he repeatedly expressed his relationship to the Nazi dictatorship.

Beyer's attitude during the Nazi era was initially not questioned after 1945.

Beyer had been with the painter Anna Beyer (1867–1922), b. Becker, married. The marriage resulted in a son Immo (1907–1976).

Adolf Beyer was buried in the Darmstadt forest cemetery (grave site: L 8b 2).

plant

Beyer mainly painted portraits, nudes, landscapes and pieces of flowers. His works include:

• Under fir trees (acquired from the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt )
• Portrait of a young man (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt)
• At the fountain (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt)
• My father (etching)
• Scene from Niebergalls Datterich
• Large picture of the Alster
• At the old forester's house
• View of the Rhine plain (Darmstadt Municipal Collection)
• The green hair band
• Actor G.
• Portrait of the painter Carl Beyer
• several portraits of the Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen (1905, formerly in the Darmstadt justice building; another monumental portrait in the Giessen university auditorium)
• Portrait of Reich Chancellor A. Hitler (oil, life-size, formerly in the Darmstadt Ministry of the Interior)

Honors

• 1943: Culture Prize of the City of Darmstadt
• There has been a Beyerweg in Darmstadt-Arheilgen since 1973. In 2013 the city of Darmstadt decided not to name the Beyerweg after Adolf Beyer, but after his father Carl Beyer.

literature

• Reich manual of German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . 1st volume. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, ISBN 3-598-30664-4 , p.?.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Knieß: Local art politics in Germany from the end of the First World War to the end of the Weimar Republic. Darmstadt as an example . Dissertation Marburg an der Lahn 1984.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Knieß: Adolf Beyer . In: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt . Theiss, Stuttgart 2006, p. 85 f. ( Digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beyer, Adolf In: Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft . Volume 1. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930. Retrieved from the German Biographical Archive, pp. 8–9.