Aldo Carpi

Aldo Carpi (born October 6, 1886 in Milan ; † March 27, 1973 ibid) was an Italian artist, painter and author of reports from the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp , which he initially sporadically, after February 13, 1945 almost wrote to his wife every day. The letters were edited by his son Pinin and published for the first time in 1971.

biography

Youth and artistic development

Aldo Carpi was already involved in the fine arts as a teenager and in 1906 became a member of the Accademia di Brera , an art academy in Milan . There he met some of the most famous Italian painters of the time, including Giuseppe Mentessi , Carlo Cattaneo , Achille Funi and Carlo Carrà . In the following year, Carpi was able to present some of his works at an exhibition in the Pinacoteca di Brera , one of the most important art museums in Italy. In 1912 he received an invitation to the Venice Biennale , where his works were frequently represented until his death.

During the First World War he was drafted into the Italian army, fought on several fronts and became known for a photo report of the withdrawal of the Serbian army published in an anthology . In 1917 he married Maria Arpesani, with whom he had six children. In the years after the end of the war he created mostly religious pictures and picture cycles and designed glass windows for numerous churches, including the Milan Cathedral and the Benghazi Cathedral, which was newly built during the Italian colonial period . For his work he was awarded the Prince Umberto Prize ( Premio Principe Umberto ) in 1925 . In 1927 he created the frescoes in the Basilica San Simpliciano in Milan . In 1930 he was appointed to a professorship for painting at the Accademia di Brera.

Life in the time of fascism

In the years that followed, his house became a meeting place for artists and intellectuals who were critical of Italian fascism , but held back publicly in order not to exceed the tolerance limit of the fascist regime under Mussolini . This tactic only worked until September 1943, when German troops freed Mussolini, who was deposed and imprisoned in July 1943. In the German-occupied part of northern Italy, a puppet government allied with Germany was set up under Mussolini and the "Republic of Salo" was founded. In this situation Carpi, who was living with his family in the Lombard village of Mondonico at the time, was denounced by a fellow artist. Carpi and his sons, four of whom were organized in the resistance, learned of the arrest planned for January 23, 1944, and hid near the house, from where they watched the arrival of an SS unit. While the sons were able to escape, Carpi returned to the house to protect his family. He was arrested and first transported to the San Vittorio prison in Milan and then to the Gusen concentration camp .

Captivity in Gusen concentration camp

Carpi survived the Gusen camp, which was run as a satellite camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp . In fictional letters to his wife, he described everyday life in the concentration camp in reports and drawings that testify to deep humanity. As a painter, Carpi enjoyed some freedom in the camp, as many SS men had him portray them. The Gusen camp was liberated by American troops on May 5, 1945, and Carpi discovered that American military personnel also liked to have him portrayed them. In his reports he began to think about the future of his family and the political future of Italy. He learned that Italian concentration camp inmates from all parts of Germany should be brought by the Americans to the assembly point in Regensburg , so that they can then be transported back to Italy together from there. He was transported from the Gusen concentration camp to Regensburg on June 10, 1945 from Linz via Passau in the Danube valley. Carpi recorded in detailed reports the impressions gained during the journey of the post-war situation with the stream of refugees and the following almost two-month stay in Regensburg.

Aldo Carpi at the opening of an exhibition in 1959

Stay in Regensburg / return home

In the reports from Regensburg he described his comfortable living situation in a house together with American soldiers and Russians who ran the household. After initial contact with the approx. 2200 Italians who were brought together in Regensburg, who were housed in the barracks of the destroyed aircraft works of Messerschmitt GmbH , Carpi stayed away because their brutal behavior in the city and their lack of interest in the future of Italy did not appeal to him. In the winding streets of the barely destroyed old town of Regensburg he undertook city explorations and made many visits to the Regensburg Cathedral , where he found many " beautiful Gothic sculptures, created with the highest level of artistry with love and faith ". On long walks on the banks of the Danube, Carpi explored the difficult conditions prevailing at the time, which had arisen due to the destruction of the Danube bridges to supply the inhabitants. With sensitive words he described the hardship of old women when transporting food over makeshift bridges and embankments and with the eyes of a painter he observed the river landscape and the ruins of the port buildings against the backdrop of the cathedral towers. In summary, he stated: “ The war has left its mark, but in the vast landscape you hardly notice it, as if it didn't even exist. Nature takes its course undeterred "

At the end of July 1945 the Italians were transported from Regensburg to Italy. When he got home, Carpi learned that his son Paolo had been murdered in the Groß-Rosen concentration camp . Aldo Carpi died in Milan in 1973.

Web links

• Diario di Gusen

Individual evidence

1. ^ Aldo Carpi: Diario di Gusen. Lettere a Maria. Edited by Pinin Carpi. Garzanti Publishing House, Milan 1971.
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Eugen Trapp: Regensburg in the summer of 1945, literary mood pictures by the Milanese painter Aldo Carpi . In: Negotiations of the historical association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg . tape 154 . Historical Association for Upper Palatinate and Regensburg, 2014, ISSN  0342-2518 , p. 261-274 .