Elisabeth Grünwaldt

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Elisabeth Grünwaldt (born December 1, 1871 in Mitau , † May 10, 1961 in Hohnstein , Saxon Switzerland ) was a German educator , doll designer , costume designer and silhouette artist .

life and work

In the service of people

Elisabeth Grünwaldt was born on December 1, 1871 in Mitau in Courland . Her father ran a care facility where she came into contact with poor and orphaned children at an early age. From these encounters out was her wish, educator and to be a kindergarten to open. She opened a German kindergarten in Libau , where she also trained future teachers. Her nickname "Tante Lieschen", with which she became known far beyond the borders of her home country in her later days as an artist, came from this time of educational work.

During the First World War , Grünwaldt came into contact with soldiers who belonged to the Wandervogel movement . The meanwhile mature woman found herself in their ideals of life. She had a special friendship with a young man named Max Jacob , who discovered his love for puppet theater as part of the Wandervogel movement ; From now on, that of the Grünwaldt was to be inextricably linked with the rest of his life.

Hartenstein

After the end of the First World War, Grünwaldt had to close her kindergarten and together with Max Jacob went to Hartenstein in the Ore Mountains , where he founded his first puppet theater, the “Hartensteiner Puppenspiele”. In 1921 the already 50-year-old started all over again and from then on devoted herself professionally to designing the hand puppet costumes , later also to the production of her own, mostly extremely imaginative animal figures for Max Jacob's stage.

Mockery

In 1928 the "Hartensteiner Puppet Shows" moved to Hohnstein in Saxon Switzerland and started an unprecedented artistic reform of the puppet theater, which was previously mainly at the annual fairs , under the name of " Hohnsteiner Puppet Show ". The playgroup around Max Jacob now included numerous other puppeteers, including Rudolf Fischer . Together with Jacob's wife Mariechen, Elisabeth Grünwaldt was something like the “ mother courage ” of the gamblers and paid attention to the lifestyle of the adventurous young men with educational vigilance.

Silhouette

Elisabeth Grünwald already learned the art of paper cutting in her youth . At first it was mainly landscapes and portrait cuts of children and adults, but delicate flower motifs and moving grasslands soon became her preferred motifs. In her years in Hartenstein and Hohnstein, the distinctive heads of the puppets carved by Theo Eggink for the Max Jacobs stage shaped Grünwaldt's silhouettes, which she signed with "EGH" (Elisabeth Grünwaldt Hohnstein) after moving to Hohnstein in 1928. Grünwaldts Scherenschnitte a. a. as illustrations in storybooks, on calendars and on art cards.

The later years

Shortly after the seizure of power , the "Kasperfamilie", as the growing circle around Max Jacob called itself, had to move to a house on the outskirts of Hohnstein ( a concentration camp was set up by the National Socialists in their previous domicile, the mighty Hohnstein Fortress ); Elisabeth Grünwaldt also moved into this building, henceforth known as the “Kasperhaus”, and set up her workshop there, where she continued to work as a costume and doll designer for the Hohnsteiner Puppet Shows. On the side she made her paper cuttings, the sale of which repeatedly ensured the survival of the often financially weak puppy family.

Grünwaldt lived in this house for almost thirty years and remained artistically active well into old age. The artist and teacher died on May 10, 1961 in Hohnstein. Her grave is in the small cemetery, which is right next to the former Hohnsteiner puppet theater (later the cinema). Max Jacob and his wife Mariechen were later buried next to her.

Friedel Kostors , who had already worked as Grünwaldt's "right hand man", continued Grünwaldt's creative work after her death in Hohnstein.

Effects of their work

Through her work, Elisabeth Grünwaldt has left a strong mark on the face of today's puppetry. Above all, the animal figures she devised populate the puppet stages - in many ways, modified and modernized. In the Puppet Theater Museum (PuK) in Bad Kreuznach , which houses the internationally known "Rother Collection", many of her costume design works can be seen, mostly in conjunction with carved hand puppet heads by Theo Eggink .

There have been several exhibitions with her silhouettes in recent years, including in Gera , Dresden and Bautzen . The Sebnitz Artificial Flowers and Local History Museum "Professor Alfred Meiche " has a large number of Grünwaldt's silhouettes, as does Gerd J. Pohl's puppet theater collection .

Other sources

  • Puppet show collection Gerd J. Pohl : around forty paper cuts and several letters from the artist, a historical animal figure, numerous photo and written documents as well as extensive material about Max Jacob and his Hohnstein puppet shows.
  • Poem "Not for you!" By Lieschen Grünwaldt in the Düna newspaper v. March 29, 1903

literature

  • Astrid Fülbier: Hand puppet and marionette theater in Schleswig-Holstein 1920 - 1960. Kiel 2002.
  • Elisabeth Grünwaldt: In Max Jacob's puppet workshop. In: Elisabeth Grünwaldt. Annual gift 1961 for the Friends of the Hohnstein Puppet Play , Hamburg 1961.
  • Max Jacob: My Kasper and me. Memoirs of a puppeteer , Rudolstadt 1964.
  • Herbert Just (Ed.): Mensch, fool, wise man. Puppeteer (Festival of the 70th birthday of Max Jacob), Kassel and Basel 1958.
  • Friedrich Klemm: A fulfilled life. In: Elisabeth Grünwaldt. Annual gift 1961 for the Friends of the Hohnstein Puppet Play , Hamburg 1961.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Grünwaldt, Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German educator, doll maker, costume designer and silhouette artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Mitau
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1961
Place of death Hohnstein , Saxon Switzerland