Bernhard Grotzeck
Bernhard Grotzeck (born August 30, 1915 in Insterburg , East Prussia , † August 30, 2008 in Pewsum ) was an East Frisian painter and long-time chairman of the East Frisian District Association of the Federal Visual Artists (BBK). Professionally, he worked as a civil servant in the finance and tax administration of Emden until his retirement in 1980 .
Life
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Trimborn_und_Grotzeck_2.jpg/220px-Trimborn_und_Grotzeck_2.jpg)
Bernhard Grotzeck came from a Prussian civil servant family. His father Wilhelm Grotzeck worked as a clerk at the Insterburg district court. Bernhard Grotzeck attended the local grammar school, which he completed in 1935 with the final exam .
Already in his youth Grotzeck occupied himself with painting and other areas of artistic creation. His uncle taught him drawing and painting. He also took part in art seminars and sought contact and collaboration with other painters, graphic artists and sculptors early on. The planned study at the Art Academy in Königsberg was denied to him due to the circumstances of the time. After school, Grotzeck was called up for the Reich Labor Service and then for military service. Towards the end of the Second World War , Grotzeck fell into captivity for a short time and was released from the Netherlands to East Frisia in 1945. From 1948 he lived in Norden (East Friesland) , where he tried to earn a living as a freelance artist. Here he also made contact with the free economy movement Silvio Gesells and became involved in their partisan branch, the Radical Social Freedom Party , for which he ran in constituency 26 for the first German Bundestag in 1949 . In the north he married his wife Milli, née Hasbargen. He was linked to her by a lifelong marriage that resulted in three children.
In 1953, Bernhard Grotzeck was taken on as a civil servant in the finance and tax administration in Emden. In 1958 the family moved to the East Frisian port city, which was to become the center of his artistic work in the following years. 1973 Grotzeck joined the East Frisian section of the Association of Visual Artists (BBK). In 1981, one year after his retirement, he was elected chairman of the BBK. He remained in this position until 1992.
plant
Grotzeck's work comprises 2,700 titles, around 150 of which are owned by the family. Shortly before his death, the artist bequeathed a selection of his work to the East Friesland Foundation of the East Frisian Landscape . The 232 pictures include drawings, watercolors, and oil and emulsion works.
The motifs of Bernhard Grotzeck's works are mainly East Frisian landscapes, still lifes , portraits of family members and scenes from family life . In addition, he dealt with satirical topics. After his retirement, pictures and drawings of this genre developed into his main field of work and became known beyond the borders of East Frisia.
Exhibitions
Until 1968 Bernhard Grotzeck exhibited mainly in East Frisia. In 1977 he took part with his satirical works in an international exhibition in the House of Humors in Gabrovo , Bulgaria , where he received the bronze medal for his artistic work. Two years later he was a second time with some of his works in the House of Humor , where some of his satirical drawings are still on display today. The House of Art in Leer has been exhibiting pictures by Grotzeck since 2009 . These are loans from the Ostfriesland Foundation .
Further pictures can be found in the Lower Saxony ministries for science and art as well as for European affairs. The Ostfriesische Graphothek is in possession of 8 landscape paintings and a satirical work. The Aurich district also owns some of Grotzeck's plants.
Appreciations
In 1993 Bernhard Grotzeck was honored with the Indigenate of the East Frisian Landscape for his artistic oeuvre.
literature
- Thomas Aldick: Animal satirical. In: Ostfriesland Magazin. Norden 1995, No. 8, pp. 68-71.
- Thomas Aldick: “There are few who can only look through buttonholes”. In: Ostfriesland-Magazin. Norden 1990, No. 6, pp. 99-100.
- Heiko Jörn: The painter Bernhard Grotzeck. In: Ostfriesland-Journal. Aurich 1986, No. 11, pp. 55-58.
- Jakob Raveling: When football wasn't rolling: games and sports in the northwest. With drawings by Bernhard Grotzeck. Oldenburg 1990.
- Silke Osman: With passion and talent. We introduce: The painter Bernhard Grotzeck from Insterburg. In: The Ostpreußenblatt. Independent weekly newspaper for Germany. Volume 42 / Episode 35 (August 31, 1991), p. 9.
- Milli Grotzeck, Bernhard Grotzeck: painting and drawings. Satire and humor, socially critical acts, portraits, landscapes. Emden 1995 (with an autobiographical contribution by the artist: A look back at my life as a painter ).
- Pictures by Bernhard Grotzeck can be found published in the Ostfriesischer Kunstkalender. Aurich 1977, 1983 and 2007.
Web links
- Literature by and about Bernhard Grotzeck in the catalog of the German National Library
- Heiko Jörn: Bernhard GROTZECK In: Biographical Lexicon for East Friesland. ( Ostfriesenelandschaft.de PDF).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Heiko Jörn: Bernhard GROTZECK. S. 1, In: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland . ( ostfriesenelandschaft.de PDF), accessed on June 22, 2014.
- ^ Printing and publishing house GmbH (formerly Quandel): Address book for Insterburg with dismantling. Compilation with the help of official source material. 1919. Insterburg 1918, p. 149, column I.
- ^ A b c Silke Osman: With passion and talent. We introduce: The painter Bernhard Grotzeck from Insterburg. In: The Ostpreußenblatt. Independent weekly newspaper for Germany. Volume 42, episode 35, August 31, 1991, p. 9.
- ↑ Grotzeck, Bernhard . In: Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdB - The People's Representation 1946–1972. - [Gaa to Gymnich] (= KGParl online publications ). Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties e. V., Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020703-7 , pp. 406 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2014070812574 ( kgparl.de [PDF; 297 kB ; accessed on June 19, 2017]).
- ↑ Heiko Jörn puts the change of residence as early as 1950 ( ostfriesenelandschaft.de PDF).
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Grotzeck, Bernhard |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter and tax officer |
DATE OF BIRTH | August 30, 1915 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Insterburg , East Prussia |
DATE OF DEATH | August 30, 2008 |
Place of death | Pewsum |