André Osterritter

André Osterritter , actually Andreas Osterritter (born April 26, 1906 in Bonn ; † August 8, 1957 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German painter , graphic artist and caricaturist .

Life

Training and World War II

Osterritter was born in Bonn as the oldest of seven children. Early on he felt the desire to become an artist and began training as a graphic designer in Cologne , Düsseldorf and Munich . In Düsseldorf he took his exams as a painter and also took private lessons in drawing and painting in Munich, Saarbrücken and Berlin ("Sperling School").

He married Käthe Wolbert on February 6, 1931, and his daughter Gerda (deceased in 2010) was born on August 8.

In May 1933 he took part - probably for the first time - in an exhibition entitled “Art and Knowledge” in the then Bonn City Museum in the Villa Obernier with the participation of local artists.

From 1934 to 1937 he worked as a freelancer for the University of Bonn and the Bonn Chamber of Agriculture, where, as he later said self-ironically, he had to draw “mainly heroic rabbits” . His first press caricatures fall during this period.

Between 1938 and 1940 Osterritter was committed to the Westwall as a graphic artist . During the Second World War he was drafted twice into the Air Force in Blankenese near Hamburg , but released after a few weeks. An ear disease made military service impossible for him. During the war, Dynamit Nobel AG in Troisdorf also asked for his graphic services.

After 1945

His marriage ended in divorce in November 1946. In January 1947, Osterritter married the music teacher and pianist Mia Wimmer. Together with her he lived in an apartment in Bad Godesberg- Mehlem , where he also set up his studio.

In the first three post-war years, Osterritter worked as a freelance draftsman and graphic artist, among others for the youth movement of the Belgian military authority in Bad Godesberg and the Hans Fischerkoesen film production . From 1948 he worked full-time as a graphic designer in the planning office of the city of Bonn and was significantly involved in the graphic appearance of the newly emerging federal capital. He was also successful as a freelance painter, draftsman and caricaturist. Above all, his numerous published press caricatures (including in the " Bonner Rundschau " and the " Rhein-Zeitung ") made him known beyond the borders of his hometown.

André Osterritter created a wide variety of graphic works for the city of Bonn and for trade and commerce, designs for floats for the Rose Monday procession and for at least two of the official Bonn carnival orders, elaborate wall paintings (e.g. for the old cathedral school and the Villa Friede in Mehlem), Drawings of Bad Godesberger and Bonn town views, which were also published in the press. In addition to this list one has to add his work as an illustrator (“Die Bonner Rheinbrücke”, “Bonner Welttheater”) and - if only rarely - as a police draftsman.

Osterritter created landscapes and cityscapes largely in oil on cardboard. A characteristic feature of this work was always a rather generous application of paint using a more spatula than a brush technique.

On August 8, 1957, Osterritter died completely unexpectedly in his apartment in Mehlem. His grave is in the Mehlem cemetery; His first wife, Käthe, has been resting at his side since 1978, who remained Osterritter's great love even after the divorce and both remarriage .

The Osterritter family is still artistically active today: Andé Osterritters nephew Maximilian Osterritter († 1999), stage partner of Christoph Schunck , was a cabaret artist - his grandson Gerd J. Pohl is a puppeteer.

Appreciation

The work of Osterritters went almost unnoticed for many years after his death. It was not until the late 1990s that his work received greater attention and was shown in several exhibitions. The Lord Mayor of Bonn Bärbel Dieckmann wrote on the occasion of a retrospective in October 2000: “His hometown and its people run through his entire artistic oeuvre as a motif. He has drawn, portrayed and artistically accompanied Bonn as the future capital. With his drawings [...] he made the people of Bonn smile at the time of lack but also of hope. "

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1933 Art and Knowledge : Group exhibition in the Villa Obernier (Municipal Art Museum), Bonn
• 2000 With a sharp pen against difficult times : caricatures in the house of the Springmaus , Bonn
• 2000 life lines of a Bonn painter : oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, caricatures and personal items from the estate of Osterritters in the house on the Redoute , Bad Godesberg
• 2008 André Osterritter: Caricatures from Bonn in the 50s : Caricatures in the Bonn- Tannenbusch district library

Literature (selection)

• (al): André Osterritter. Scramble for a grave of honor . In: Bonner Rundschau from June 15, 1999
• Michael Wenzel: In the footsteps of a Mehlemer cartoonist . In: General-Anzeiger , Bonn, July 13, 1999
• Marian crowd: Ironic, cheeky, but never hurtful . In: General-Anzeiger , Bonn, February 3, 2000
• Michael Wenzel: Found food for the jerboa . In: General-Anzeiger , Bonn, February 7, 2000
• Gerald Hunze: André Osterritter . In: Gerd J. Pohl (Ed.): André Osterritter. Lifelines of a Bonn painter . visual communication bonn, Bonn 2000
• Alfred Schmelzeisen: Easter knight caricatures presented in the exhibition . In: Blickpunkt . Bonn, October 25, 2000
• (wd): Quiet nature and snappy caricatures. André Osterritter in the house on the Redoute . In: Bonner Rundschau of October 28, 2000

Web links

• “ For the 100th birthday of the Bonn painter and caricaturist André Osterritter ”, General-Anzeiger , Bonn, April 26, 2006

swell

• Collection and archive André Osterritter, Bonn and Bergisch Gladbach (contact: Piccolo Puppenspiele )
• Stadtarchiv Bonn, SN 213 estate of André Osterritter, picture collection