Alois Kuhn (cartoonist)

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Alois Kuhn (* 1940 in Krinsdorf in the Trautenau district ) is a German draftsman and caricaturist .

Life

Kuhn started drawing at an early age. The family originally came from Austria. After 1938 based in Krinsdorf, the widow with her 3 children, the father was killed in World War II, was expelled from Czechoslovakia to Vacha in the former GDR , where he learned the trade of a locksmith. Later he studied mechanical engineering in Schmalkalden .

Since he was only marginally able to pursue his inner calling as a draftsman after work, he decided in July 1976 against any financial and state-integrated security to give up his work in the VEB Kombinat Robotron Erfurt and from then on worked as a freelance caricaturist . His lighter drawings quickly found their way into various newspapers and magazines in the GDR . He outlined both the ailments of his fellow men and the great philosophical questions of that time.

Imprisonment in the GDR

He suffered a fate similar to that of the famous caricaturist Honoré Daumier , who was arrested in 1832 for his critical drawings. In July 1979, Alois Kuhn was arrested in his studio at Leipziger Strasse 44 after years of observation (since 1975) for anti-subversive incitement due to his political caricatures and, after about three months of pre-trial detention, was finally sentenced to 18 months in prison. A description by State Security of one of its 'anti-subversive' caricatures reads:

... Another picture showed a grandmother reading a fairy tale to a child. This book of fairy tales read - "Märchen 79" - and the text below it was - "Once upon a time, you could hike in all directions, as far as you wanted" ...

In March 1980 the federal government bought him free from the GDR prison through the mediation of Wolfgang Vogel . He was taken directly from the detention center by bus across the border through the release of prisoners . In the following years he lived in the west of the divided city of Berlin .

Work in the Federal Republic of Germany

His caricatures were printed in large, well-known magazines (e.g. Die Welt, Spiegel, FAZ). In various television programs, Germany discussed the human rights violations in the state next door, using the example of Kuhn's experiences.

In the context of political education, he worked as a speaker nationwide until 1992, for example for the House of the Future , the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation , Paneuropean Union and the All-German Institute . Numerous exhibitions have been organized in various larger cities. E.g. from the Brüsewitz center , the Villa Streccius or Siemens .

To this day, Alois Kuhn draws, sketches and describes his caricatures and now lives in seclusion in the Franconian Forest .

Books

  • Berlin heart with a snout. Alois Kuhn. Berlin 1981
  • Freedom Has Already Begun. Alois Kuhn. Berlin 1984. Verlag Haus am Checkpoint Charlie
  • The dangerous pencil. Alois Kuhn. Berlin 1986. Oberbaum Verlag
  • Wall book - 20 years fall of the Berlin Wall - caricatures by Alois Kuhn. Stammbach 2009. Christine Faust Verlag
  • Caricatures from Kuhn, 1981, Verlag Haus am Checkpoint Charly

Collaboration on books

  • When Neuchâtel and Valangin were still with Prussia 300 years ago . Olaf Kappelt . Berlin 2008. Historica-Verlag
  • Walk with Frederick the Great . Olaf Kappelt, 2008. Berlin. Historica publishing house
  • A bad Ofanga . Dialect stories by Richard Seuss. With caricatures by Alois Kuhn. Stammbach 2012. Christine Faust Verlag

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.aloiskuhn.eu/DDR/ddr_z072_366.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.aloiskuhn.eu  
personal data
SURNAME Kuhn, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cartoonist
DATE OF BIRTH 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Krinsdorf in the Trautenau district