Dorothea Brockmann

Dorothea Brockmann (alias Dorette, alias Dorothee; * July 12, 1899 in Holzminden ; † February 16, 1983 in Eichstätt ) was a German Benedictine and silhouette artist of the 20th century.

Life

She was the first of three children of the businessman Rudolf Brockmann and his wife Emma nee. Bratmann born and baptized Protestant. In the year she was born, her parents moved with their daughter to southern Germany, where they can be traced back to Lauf an der Pegnitz from 1908 and in Rosenheim from 1917 to 1920 . From autumn 1917 Dorothea attended the Royal and State School of Applied Arts in Munich , where her parents also moved in 1920; previously she was a student at the Nuremberg School of Applied Arts .

In Munich she made the acquaintance of Bessie (Elisabeth) Drey (* 1898), with whom she soon became friends. With her she founded the “Drey and Brockmann Workshop and School” in Munich in 1921, after she had passed the state examination at the arts and crafts school, for the manufacture and sale of arts and crafts. She traveled to Italy with her friend and, under her influence, converted to Catholicism in 1926. In the same year, the two gave up their Munich company. After Kösel & Pustet in Munich, where she had illustrated her friend's religious books, she found a partner in Auer-Verlag Donauwörth , who recorded her paper cuttings and drawings in the children's magazines "Kleiner Schutzengel " and "Großer Schutzengel". At the same time she illustrated the Eichstätter "Walburgis-Blätter".

In 1931 she joined the Benedictine Abbey of St. Walburg in Eichstätt with Bessie Drey ; she made her perpetual vows on January 6, 1936. In the seclusion of the monastery, she became an extremely versatile, hardworking and perfect designer of paper cutouts; Thanks to her artistic training, she also mastered painterly concepts when designing the cuts. She numbered her works from an unknown point in time. In total, more than 6600 scissors cuts from her hand can be verified, whereby she often cut in two layers, i.e. one and the same paper cut was made twice. The motifs range from religious themes to fairy tale illustrations to detailed depictions of plants and animals.

From the second half of the 1930s she was associated with Schwabenverlag in Ellwangen , which also published her first independent paper cutting book. The second was published by Kösel-Verlag in Munich after the Second World War.

Exhibitions

• For the first time, silhouettes and drawings of her were exhibited in Munich in 1926 at Schmidt-Bertsch in Ludwigstrasse.
• In 1979 a sales exhibition with around 200 exhibits was held in Eichstätt in the former Johanniskirche.
• In 1996 the Holzmindener Stadtmuseum acquired 56 Brockmann silhouettes from an antiquarian bookshop. Supplemented by loans from the St. Walburg Abbey in Eichstätt, the museum organized an extensive exhibition in 1999.
• In 2001, the Eichstätter Cathedral Treasury and Diocesan Museum presented a collection of paper cuttings, children's books and graphics by the Benedictine nun.
• The (only?) Brockmann painting that is constantly on view is the middle picture of the baroque antependium of the Frauenberg chapel in Eichstätt with a representation of the "Visitation", i.e. the visit of Mary to her base Elisabeth, created around 1940.
• In the chapel of St. Theresia in Schwarzenberg ( Vorarlberg ) can see the altarpiece she designed with the motif of Therese von Lisieux (made around 1932/1934).

Works

Standalone publications

• Dorothea Brockmann: Paper cuts. Preface by Ida Friederike Görres. Ellwangen: Schwabenverlag, 1936, 48 pages
• Dorothea Brockmann: Flowers in silhouette (Tafelwerk). Munich: Kösel-Verlag, 1953, 74 pages
• Postcard calendars based on works by Dorothea Brockmann were published from 1976 to 1989.

Third-party publications illustrated by Brockmann

• Hermann Vortisch: Die Brumsel von Saas-Fee, chats with a fly , 1926, with 28 drawings by Dorothea Brockmann
• [Brockmann illustrations in:] Little Guardian Angel and "Great Guardian Angel" (from 1927)
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: A little wretch. Picture book with colored paper cutouts , Berlin: Pestalozzi-Verlags-Anstalt, 1927
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: Picture Bible for Children , Munich: Kösel & Pustet, 1927
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: picture prayer booklet , Munich: Kösel & Pustet, (approx. 1927)
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: Children's legend , Munich: Kösel & Pustet, (approx. 1928)
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: The story of creation told to children , Munich: Kösel & Pustet, (ca.1928)
• Viktoria Fenzl: Look up and Purzelheinz, the funny Heinzel brothers. 1st edition 1928, Vienna: Deutscher Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 47 pages with drawings by Dorothea Brockmann (1945 further edition)
• [Brockmann illustrations in:] Walburgis leaves (from 1928/29)
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: How the dear angels help the Mother of God! Picture book , Munich: Kösel & Pustet, (ca.1929)
• Dorothea Brockmann and Bessie Drey: My prayer book. To the dear children , Höchst / Vorarlberg: Seeverlag H. Schneider, 1931
• For the 900th anniversary of the St. Walburg Abbey in Eichstätt, Paderborn 1935 (therein: 6-part series of silhouettes on the life of St. Walburga by Dorothea Brockmann)
• Anna Hils and Franz Kaiser: The picture book from the good Father Philipp. Pictures by M. Dorothea Brockmann OSB , Ellwangen: Schwabenverlag 1936
• Prayer primer. From the prayer and song source of the Catholic Church. Pictures by Dorothea Brockmann , Ellwangen: Schwabenverlag 1939
• Heinrich Kautz: Confessor. With numerous partly colored illustrations by Dorothea Brockmann. Donauwörth: Auer / Cassianeum, [1949], 48 pp.
• Heinrich Kautz: Communion child. With many pictures by MA Dorothea Brockmann OSB, Donauwörth: Auer / Cassianeum, [1949], 48 pp.
• Tierschutzfibel (silhouettes by Maria Dorothea Brockmann OSB), Augsburg: Tierschutzverein, 2nd edition 1968

literature

• Klaus Kreitmeir: Frauenbergkapelle, Eichstätt 1989 (with illustration of Dorothea Brockmann's antependium on page 8)
• Astrid and Matthias Seeliger: Dorothea Brockmann OSB (1899-1983). Paper cuts, children's books, commercial graphics, Verlag Jörg Mitzkat, Holzminden 1999, ISBN 978-3-931656-25-6