Albert Volk

Albert Volk. Etching by his brother-in-law Heinrich Seufferheld (1912)

Albert Volk (born September 13, 1882 in Frankfurt am Main , † March 16, 1982 in Heilbronn ) was a German painter , graphic artist and sculptor . After the First World War he designed and executed several war memorials in his Weinsberg workshop , then taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 1926 until the end of the Second World War , returned to Weinsberg in 1945 and received art orders, especially during the reconstruction on construction . He was significantly involved in the post-war re-establishment of the Künstlerbund and Kunstverein Heilbronn, which made him an honorary member, as did the Justinus Kerner Association in Weinsberg. He was awarded honorary coins by the cities of Weinsberg and Heilbronn.

Life

He was the son of the cashier Ludwig Volk and Anna geb. Hahn and attended the Adlerflychtschule in Frankfurt until 1899 . He then worked as a trainee draftsman, modeler and engraver in a metal goods factory in Stuttgart . From 1900 to 1903 he attended the art school of the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt and in 1904 switched to the royal teaching and experimental workshops in Stuttgart, where he was a student of Bernhard Pankok . During his time in Stuttgart he was also influenced by Adolf Hölzel . On October 14, 1911, he married Hedwig Martha Seufferheld (1889–1987), a sister of the artist Heinrich Seufferheld (1866–1940), and their daughter Lotte (1912–1961) was born soon after. From 1912 on, he was in charge of the studio and workshop management of the Stuttgart Exhibition Office and was entrusted with preparing for the Great Hygiene Exhibition that began in 1914.

During the First World War , Volk took part as a trained patient carrier in the Württemberg medical companies in France and Belgium. After his return from military service in December 1918, he settled in Weinsberg , the birthplace of his wife, and successfully obtained orders for war memorials . He made his designs and models in a rented office on Heilbronner Allee , in the house of the Heilbronner Chamber of Crafts . He executed the memorials in his workshop in Weinsberg. In Heilbronn he was one of the co-founders of the Heilbronner Künstlerbund and was also a course instructor at the Heilbronn Adult Education Center from 1922 to 1926 .

The inflation and economic crises of the 1920s forced Volk to shift the focus of his activity from sculpture back to graphics. In 1926 he returned to Stuttgart, where he taught artistic drawing and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and maintained his own studio.

Towards the end of the Second World War, Volks Apartment in the Stuttgarter Senefelder Straße was destroyed in 1944, so that he moved back to Weinsberg with his wife and took over the studio of his brother-in-law Seufferheld. In Weinsberg he documented the destruction of the city on April 12, 1945.

In 1950 he was involved in the re-establishment of the Heilbronner Künstlerbund, in 1955/56 in the re-establishment of the Heilbronner Kunstverein . He was the exhibition director of the Kunstverein until 1965, and in 1966 he was made an honorary member. Volk has also prepared and carried out 66 exhibitions for the Künstlerbund, for which he was also made an honorary member. He received another honorary membership in 1975 from the Justinus Kerner Association in Weinsberg, whose art collection he had looked after for many years. For his cultural commitment he was awarded the Silver Medal of Honor of the City of Weinsberg and the Golden Mint of the City of Heilbronn.

Volk died at the age of 99 in March 1982. His urn was buried in the Seufferheld honor grave in Weinsberg.

plant

War memorials

War memorial in Weiler an der Zaber

Capler's tomb in Oedheim

Albert Volk created several war memorials on a public commission in the 1920s. Sometimes he planned the monuments and executed them himself, sometimes he just supplied the designs.

• Design and execution of the war memorial in Untergruppenbach : framed wooden panel in the Johanneskirche , inauguration 1920, no longer available today
• Design and execution of the war memorial in Weiler an der Zaber : sandstone panel with iconographic representations, associated stone bench, in front of the Church of the Holy Cross , inauguration in 1921
• Design and execution of the war memorial in Bad Rappenau - Bonfeld : stone name plaques with a relief depicting a dying warrior at the Evangelical Church , inauguration on April 29, 1923, supplemented by plaques with the names of other fallen soldiers after the Second World War
• Design and execution of the war memorial in Gemmrigheim : sandstone panels in the Johanneskirche , created between 1919 and 1923
• Design and execution of the war memorial at the State Viticulture School in Weinsberg : Sandstone plaque with the names of 23 former viticulture students who died
• Design and execution of the war memorial plaque in the Hildthalle in Weinsberg : painted wooden plaque
• Design and execution of the war memorial plaque in the Turnerzimmer der Traube in Weinsberg : painted wooden plaque
• Design and partial execution of the war memorial at the Johanneskirche in Weinsberg: three-winged stone complex with decoration of figures and coats of arms, figures of the people, execution of script and architecture by the Weinsberg sculptor J. Scheerer, inauguration in 1923
• Draft of the memorial plaque of the Neckarsulm Warrior Association in the Gasthof Prinz Carl : Memorial plaque with the symbol of the exhausted warrior
• Draft of the war memorial in Güglingen : stone memorial with ornate crowning at the Leonhard chapel, inauguration on January 21, 1923, executed by the Pfaffenhofen sculptors Schwarzkopf and Klenk
• Draft of the war memorial in Nordheim-Nordhausen: sandstone stele with hipped roof, iron cross and dove of peace, inauguration on November 20, 1921, executed by the Pfaffenhofen stonemasons Gebr. Schwarzkopf
• Draft of the war memorial in the agricultural school in Stuttgart-Hohenheim: metal memorial plaque, executed by Hüttenwerke Wasseralfingen (the school was closed in 1973, the plaque is kept in the archive of the University of Hohenheim)
• Draft of the war memorial in Weiler near Weinsberg: stone memorial on the castle garden wall, inauguration in 1922, executed by the Weinsberg sculptor J. Scheerer, dismissed in the 1970s
• Draft of the war graves at the cemetery in Weinsberg: six war graves combined to form a memorial, low wall surface with inscriptions, oak leaves and cross ornaments as well as benches, executed by the Weinsberg sculptor J. Scheerer (no longer available)
• Participation in the draft of the war memorial in Bönnigheim : stone memorial plaques on the outer wall of the tower, joint planning with Dipl.-Ing. Wägenbaur, Tübingen, executed by the Bönnigheim sculptor Stahl

Another part of the complex of war memorials and war graves is the tomb designed and executed by Volk for Hans Wolfgang Capler von Oedheim called Bautz , who died in the war in 1917, in the cemetery in Oedheim . Hans' brother Dietrich was also buried there in 1967 and his name was added to the tomb.

Other work

Relief sculpture by Albert Volk in front of the ZEAG building in Heilbronn

After the Second World War, Volk received numerous commissions in the context of art in architecture . These include u. a. the keystone on the portal of the town hall of Weinsberg and the bust of Justinus Kerner in the Justinus Kerner grammar school in Weinsberg , as well as a facade relief at the Heilbronn power station. For the new construction of the administration building of the Württemberg Portland Cementwerk in Heilbronn, which was destroyed in World War II, Volk created a relief sculpture from Heilbronn sandstone in 1950 , which is intended to symbolize the population's will to rebuild by depicting people, cement and electricity from the hydropower plant in Lauffen am Neckar. The relief sculpture has been decorating the outdoor area in front of the ZEAG administrative headquarters in Heilbronn since 2009 .

Volks Werk also includes free artistic work in different techniques. Such works are also in public ownership, including the woodcut Badehäuschen am Untersee in the Heilbronn municipal museums .

Remarks

1. ↑ Interpretation of the relief sculpture according to the information board attached to it.

literature

• Norbert Jung: 1914 - Albert Volk - War Memorials - 2014 , Heilbronn 2014, ISBN 978-3-934096-39-4
• 30 years of the Heilbronn Artists' Association, summer exhibition 1979 , Heilbronn 1979, p. 148/149.