Bernhard Heller

Bernhard Heller (born February 4, 1878 in Borsum , † August 16, 1937 in Lathen ), known as Hellerbernd, was a German carpenter, sculptor and poet.

Life

The son of a farmer came into contact with wood carving as a child and showed great talent in it. After finishing school he gave up his right of inheritance at the court to become a wood carver, but at his father's request he did an apprenticeship as a carpenter and cabinet maker in Meppen . A son of his teacher was the later poet Bernhard Uphus , who probably inspired him to poetry. After completing his apprenticeship, Hellerbernd went on a hike. Between 1895 and 1900 he found thorough training in all sculptural work, primarily from Professor August Schmiemann in Münster and from Professor Max Klinger (1857–1920) in Berlin. At that time, Schmiemann had just commissioned the Kiepenkerl monument (1896) in the Westphalian city of Münster , which young Heller was now allowed to help create. He also got to know the famous woodcarver Augustinus Heumann here .

After two years of military service in Mörchingen (Lorraine), Heller returned to his home town of Borsum / Sande in 1902 at the age of 24. After the death of his brother and sister, Hellerbernd moved to Rhede-Sudende in 1907 and rented a small house for himself and his parents in order to pursue his profession with passion. When his father died soon afterwards, he was left alone with his now old and frail mother and devotedly cared for her. In 1914 he was drafted. On this occasion he created his most famous work, the bust of an old mother who, in silent plea, lifts her hands, wrapped in the rosary, with the cross on her heart, to heaven, and pleads for the life and return of her son. After the death of his mother in 1921 and the subsequent inflation, the artist became impoverished and lonely. He moved to Lathen, where he lived until around 1930 in the house of the merchant, poet and later member of the state parliament August Löning , who promoted him throughout his life. Hellerbernd created numerous impressive sculptural works, especially in churches, but also grave and war memorials, nativity scenes and other wood carvings that are reminiscent of Ernst Barlach. Around 1930 he had his own workshop with a few employees who helped with large orders. Although he worked tirelessly and forgetting himself all his life and was never short of commissions, out of modesty he often made his work pay well below value. Most of the works of art he created in the churches, chapels and caves, the war memorials and the gravestones in the cemeteries are signed by him with the abbreviation HB.

Bernhard Heller lived without a wife and children and personally always in poverty, which he expressly confessed to, as can be seen in his poem “So bün ick”. But from his verses it is also clear that as a dispossessed person he was nevertheless content with himself and did not feel poor. He has always been a humorous and funny person. He died on August 16, 1937 in the Marien Hospital in Lathen after being bedridden for over a year. Stone dust had attacked his lungs more and more in the course of his busy life.

Works

See the extensive catalog raisonné in Gerd Harpel's biography.

Poems

• So bün ick (So am I; a self-confession), in: Yearbook of the Emsländischen Heimatverein Vol. 7, Meppen 1960, pp. 89-90.
• An'n Aulkenbarg (Am Aulkenberg), in: Mein Emsland 7/1925, Papenburg 1925, p. 7
• Sömmeraobend (summer evening), in: Mein Emsland 9/1925, Papenburg 1925, p. 9.
• Mauder is dod (mother is dead), written in 1921
• Fieraobend (after work), in: Yearbook of the Emsländischen Heimatverein Vol. 7, Meppen 1960, p. 94.
• Ärntetied (harvest time), in: Emsland-Jahrbuch. Vol. 2, Osnabrück 1965, p. 152.
• Askendkörper Toren (Aschendorfer Turm), in: Emsland-Jahrbuch. Vol. 2, Osnabrück 1965, p. 152.
• Dai aolde Dbodschnieder (back then), written on June 17, 1935; in: Ems-Zeitung No. 143 of June 22, 1935.

literature

• Working group Hellerbernd (Ed.): Bernhard Heller - his life and his works . Werlte 2007. (With numerous illustrations of his works and an impression of his poems.)
• Christa Brinkers: Hellerbernd, a local sculptor from the Emsland . In: Yearbook of the Emsland Homeland Association . Volume 7. Meppen 1960, pp. 88-95.
• Christa Brinkers: Emsland in the mirror of its poetry . In: Emsland yearbook . Volume 2. Osnabrück 1965, pp. 127-176.
• Andreas Eiynck : Art. Heller, Bernhard. In: Rainer Hehemann (edit.): Biographical manual for the history of the Osnabrück region . Edited by the landscape association Osnabrück, Bramsche 1990, p. 128.
• Gerd Harpel: The natural stone relief from "Hellerbernd" in the old hermitage at Nienhaus in Aschendorf . In: Aschendorfer Heimatblätter . Edited by the Heimat- und Bürgererverein Aschendorf / Ems eV, issue 19/1992, Aschendorf 1992, pp. 2-10.
• Gerd Harpel: About the erection of war memorials after the 1st World War . In: Aschendorfer Heimatblätter . Published by the Heimat- und Bürgererverein Aschendorf / Ems eV, issue 25/1995, Aschendorf 1995, pp. 3-34.
• Gerd Harpel: Heller, Bernhard . In: Emsland history . Volume 7. Ed. By the Study Society for Emsland Regional History, Dohren 1998, pp. 147–155 (with an extensive catalog of works).
• Marga Hille: Memories of Hellerbernd . In: Emsland Calendar 1953 , Meppen 1953, pp. 69–72.
• Lexicon of Art - Painting, Architecture, Sculpture . 7th volume, Erlangen 1994, pp. 34-36.
• Johannes Rüschen: Bernd Helle (r), called Hellerbernd . In: Well-known Emsländer from the past. Biographical notes on Emsland personalities from the years 1200 - 1975 . Bremen 1988, pp. 153-161.