Alfred Hennings

Alfred Otto Paul Hennings (born October 25, 1919 in Magdeburg ; † March 11, 2014 in Krumbach ) was a German designer , artist and art educator.

Life

Blue landscape

Hennings developed a pronounced inclination and talent for the visual arts early on. She was promoted at the College of Applied Arts in Magdeburg in 1938 and 1939. During the military service and the years in Soviet captivity, he was only able to pursue them occasionally. One or the other participation in exhibitions during the war as well as occasional work with motifs from everyday war life shows the extraordinary talent of Hennings. His aesthetic feeling was also shaped by the magnificent landscapes of the high Caucasus, where he spent some of "his" Soviet years. For Alfred Hennings, the 1950s became an “apprenticeship and wandering time”: from 1950 to 1953 he completed an apprenticeship as a wood sculptor in Minden and a specialist class for sculpture in Wiedenbrück . Degree with honors. He studied painting at the Royal Academy in Mechelen (Belgium) with Roesen and free and applied graphics with Krafft at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld . After the state examination in 1958, Alfred Hennings set up a design studio at Melitta-Werke in Minden, which he managed until 1964. From 1965 he worked as a freelance designer, artist and art teacher in Bavarian Swabia . Many well-known companies were among his clients. Solo exhibitions, prizes at competitions and purchases of his works in public ownership promoted Alfred Hennings' reputation as one of the leading figures of the Central Swabian art scene. The artist gladly and competently passed on his art to students of the VHS Krumbach, to students of the Simpert-Krämer-Gymnasium Krumbach, the technical college Krumbach, the vocational school for occupational therapy in Günzburg . In September 1984, the State Institute for School Education and Educational Research in Munich appointed Alfred Hennings to the curriculum committee "BFS for occupational and occupational therapy".

plant

Commercial graphics are mostly short-lived. Not with Alfred Hennings. His packaging for the Melitta coffee filter bag, created over 60 years ago, has remained almost unchanged to this day, a timeless trademark. Other designer works by Alfred Hennings, for example the “Fruchtring” logo, have become classics of this genre, so to speak.

The list of works by Alfred Hennings compiled by Thomas Heitele includes 575 titles. Experimenting with a wide variety of techniques and participating in the developments in art in the 20th century are present in this work. For the relief of the paintings (using extremely strong industrial cardboard ), the tissue paper collage and the use of colors from the printing industry , Alfred Hennings developed his own techniques and set striking artistic accents. His preferred subjects are people, in a confined space together, against and with one another, breaking light, doors and exits, bold bridge constructions and burning questions of the times. In Alfred Henning's works, the solid graphic training, the pronounced feeling for the plastic, the grandiose color treatment and a strong tendency to philosophical-aesthetic reflection, broken by a strong element of humor, result in fruitful communication.

Over bridges, painting relief

The question of the praying mantis, oil

Prizes and awards

• 1st prize in the competition for packaging designs (Greiling cigarettes) 1956
• 5th prize at the “Concours d'affiches Congres Mondial” - world exhibition in Brussels 1958
• 1st prize of the RWK (Rationalization Board of Trustees of German Business) at the CIOS emblem competition in 1971 (over 300 entries from 16 countries)

literature

• Bauer, Peter: German-German course of life. Alfred Hennings and his escape to the West in 1949 . In: ders (Hg): The silk thread holds. Economic miracle and a new beginning in Central Swabia from 1945 to 1965 . Krumbach 2007, pp. 200-204
• Bauer, Peter: Alfred Hennings: 1919, 1939, 1949 - the turning point shaped his life . In: ders. (Ed.): War - unleashed, tamed . Krumbach 2009, pp. 31–36 (draft cover by Alfred Hennings)
• Bütow, Kurt: European artist lexicon: painting and drawing art. Bavaria, Königsbrunn 1995, ISBN 3-931236-00-5 .
• Lindenmayr, Heinrich and Thomas Heitele (eds.) Bridging: Alfred Hennings - artist, designer, teacher . Krumbach 2009 (Series of publications by the Mittelschwäbisches Heimatmuseum Krumbach, Volume 3)
• Lindenmayr, Heinrich: A comrade died almost every day. The Krumbach artist Alfred Hennings on his five years in Soviet captivity . In: Peter Bauer (ed.): Am seidenen Faden. End of the war and a new beginning in Central Swabia . Krumbach 2005, pp. 142-144