Thursday Society (Alfter)

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The Thursday Society in Alfter was a culture and art initiative, as part of which readings, concerts, lectures and exhibitions on art and philosophy were regularly held in Alfter Castle from 1947 to 1950 .

history

At the beginning of 1947, artists and those interested in art organized a loose group around the abstract painters Hubert Berke , Joseph Fassbender and Hann Trier, who moved to the Rhineland after the Second World War, in order to offer interested citizens a platform for engaging with art, culture, politics and society at joint meetings . The idea for the initiative emerged at the end of 1946 at a number of meetings that had been organized by the lawyer and later deputy councilor of the Rhein-Sieg district, Willi Weber (1906–1990). The group's actions were supported by the family of Prince Franz zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck in Alfter, who made his property available for events early on. Art historians Toni Feldenkirchen and Hermann Schnitzler were co-organizers of the group .

A first lecture by Otto H. Förster took place on a Thursday, January 23, 1947; presumably therefore the naming. The first event at Schloss Alfter was a lecture by Gottlieb Söhngen on "Augustine, the man of the turning point". On July 20th, the “Day of Abstract Art” was organized as the first major exhibition event. After a lecture by Werner Haftmann (“The Artist in Time”), Fritzleo Liertz read his own texts from works by Kafka and Rilke and Rudolf Hagelstange . The pianist Tiny Wirtz played a sonata by Paul Hindemith . Hermann Schnitzler gave a slide show entitled “Picasso in us”. In addition to works by Berke, Faßbender and Trier, the exhibition also included works by Eugen Batz , Georg Meistermann and Erich Müller-Kraus . Already in February d. J. had formally constituted the society in order to be able to appear as the official organizer before the occupation authorities; however, there was no entry in the register of associations. For invitations to guests outside the Alfter restricted area, special permits had to be applied for from the police. The art performance “The Flies” by Sartre in 1948 was very well received. During the reading, soot-blackened scratches made by Berke, Faßbender and Trier were projected onto glass plates on the wall of the room. Due to the large number of guests, the reading had to be repeated.

Poets, theater critics, art experts, musicians, actors, politicians and interested citizens took part in the events of the society. Among them Elisabeth Langgässer , Käthe Augenstein , Rudolf Hagelstange , Ewald Mataré , Elisabeth Flickenschildt , Carlo Schmid , Werner Haftmann , Albert Schulze-Vellinghausen , Josef Pieper , Eberhard Welty or Werner Höfer . A personal invitation was required. In addition to artists, the members of the society also included art collectors and dealers such as Josef Haubrich , Hans Carl Scheibler , Alex Vömel , Hella Nebelung , Werner Rusche, Peter Ludwig and Hans Melchers. The Thursday Society was thus also a meeting point for the Rhenish art trade. From February 1947 to April 1950, 34 events were held. Despite the difficult transport conditions of the time, up to 200 guests appeared. The last invitation of the Thursday Society on Wednesday, April 26, 1950, concerned a concert with the cellist Ludwig Hölscher .

meaning

The Thursday Society did not see itself as a classic artist community, even if it wanted to revive abstract modern art after the end of the war. For the participants, it was above all a forum for intellectual orientation and cultural debate. The very different speakers, performers and discussants at the events tried to find a foundation of values ​​for the Federal Republic of nearby Bonn. The need to come to terms with the National Socialist era and the development of democracy based on the humanities and diverse culture were key issues in the discussions. In addition, the initiative was one of the earliest manifestations of abstract art after 1945; the exhibition in July 1947 is rated as the first abstract art exhibition since the end of the Second World War.

In 2014, the House of Alfter History in Alfter presented an exhibition on the Thursday Society.

From June 23 to July 14, 2019, an exhibition with works by Hubert Berke and his daughter Eva Ohlow took place in Alfter Castle under the title “Thursday Society 2.0”.

literature

  • Christoph Wilhelmi: Artist groups in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 1900. A manual. Hauswedell, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7762-0400-1 , pp. 112-113 (No. 50).
  • Hans M. Schmidt : A community of lonely people, a bond between the self-employed. Post-war artist associations. In: From the rubble. Art and culture in the Rhineland and Westphalia 1945–1952. Habelt, Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-7927-0871-X , pp. 423-432.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Aust , Joseph Fassbender: Joseph Fassbender / Günter Aust (= Ministry of Culture of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia [Hrsg.]: Monographs on Rhenish-Westphalian art of the present . Volume 22 ). A. Bongers, Recklinghausen 1961, DNB  450185753 , p. 9 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Heribert Dietz : The Thursday Society on the Foothills (1947–1950) . In: Our foothills: Lyrical landscape between Cologne and Bonn (= Kunstverein Kunstgeflecht e.V. [Hrsg.]: Magazine Rhein! Issue 14). BoD - Books on Demand, Bornheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-935369-38-1 ( p. 57 ff. In the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Ilse Mohr: Poems, Music and Abstract Art. In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). September 15, 2011, accessed March 23, 2020 .
  4. ^ The Thursday Society in Alfter . In: Daniela Wilms (Ed.): Competition for Modernism: On the history of the art trade in Cologne after 1945 . Walter de Gruyter , 2012, ISBN 978-3-05-006245-7 ( p. 149 f. In the Google book search).
  5. ↑ a b Maxi Sickert : The Thursday Society at Alfter . In: Carsta Zellermayer (Ed.): Thursday Society 1947–1950 . Zellmayer Gallery Berlin, 2010 ( online ).
  6. ↑ a b Jochen F. Rohlinger: Exhibition: Prince invited art to the castle. In: Bonner Rundschau. May 1, 2014, accessed March 23, 2020 .
  7. ^ Sabine Fehlemann: Hann Trier: monograph and catalog raisonné . Wienand Verlag, 1990, ISBN 978-3-87909-219-2 , pp. 52 .
  8. ^ Christoph surcharge: The theoretical discourses on modern art in the post-war period . In: Julia Friedrich and Andreas Prinzing (eds.): “That's how you started, without a lot of words” - exhibition and collection policy in the first years after the Second World War . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-035011-1 ( p. 21 in the Google book search).
  9. ↑ Sonja Weber: Alfter should again be the hotspot of art. In: General-Anzeiger (Bonn). June 19, 2019, accessed March 23, 2020 .