Elisabeth Mühlenweg

Elisabeth Mühlenweg (born May 27, 1910 in Linz (Austria, maiden name Kopriwa ), † September 15, 1961 in Allensbach ) was a German painter and illustrator .

biography

Elisabeth Mühlenweg was born as the daughter of the dentist Friedrich Kopriwa and his wife Gustava (née de Verette). After graduating from the "Federal Teachers Training Institute" in Linz in June 1930, she was probably aiming for a pedagogical career. However, she attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna , which at that time had been training women for ten years. 1930-1934 she was there in the master class of Ferdinand Andri . After graduating with honors on July 1, 1933, she passed the teaching examination for “drawing at secondary schools” in October 1934 at the Vienna University of Technology, which was attended parallel to the art academy .

In 1932 she met Andri Fritz Mühlenweg in the master class , whom she married after graduating from the academy on September 9, 1933 in Beaucaire in the south of France .

In March 1934 she gave birth to the first of their seven children in Vienna, their first daughter Regina. After regular payments from Fritz Mühlenweg's paternal inheritance could no longer be transferred to Austria due to the thousand-mark block , the family moved to Germany in January 1935, Allensbach am Bodensee . Professional plans failed - submitted designs for picture books did not find a publisher. Despite her excellent certificates and qualifications, her application to join the German school service was rejected.

The son Christian was born in June 1935, the daughter Claudia in August 1938, the daughter Cornelia in September 1939, the son Andreas in March 1941, the son Florian in January 1944, and the daughter Sabine in February 1950.

In the meantime, she also took over the organization of the Konstanzer painter group in 1938 , which she had founded together with her husband Fritz Mühlenweg and befriended artist colleagues Sepp Biehler , Alexander Rihm and Werner Rohland . When the men of this group were called up for military service for the Second World War , they sent exhibitions and other activities out of their daily routine with many children. a. in Munich , Freiburg im Breisgau and Mannheim (see below). However, the group quickly disintegrated: W. Rohland moved to Dresden in 1939, A. Rihm died in a swimming accident in 1944 .

During the war and after the war, Elisabeth Mühlenweg got her family through with the execution of commissioned paintings . She was also known for her cooking and baking skills. The regionally known painter and poet Bruno Epple was impressed by the life, diversity, culture and activity in the Mühlenweg house.

Her husband's breakthrough as an author took place in the early 1950s ( On a secret mission through the Gobi desert ).

On September 15, 1961, Elisabeth Mühlenweg died after a long kidney disease, a day and a half after her husband's last fatal stroke.

plant

Elisabeth Mühlenweg's artistic oeuvre mainly includes pictures of children, flowers and landscapes in oil , foil pictures , reverse glass painting , watercolors and book illustrations .

From November 1938 she had exhibitions as a member of the Constance painter group 1938 (see above). Elisabeth Mühlenweg created an artfully bound, self-painted and self-written cookbook as a wedding present for her friend, Liesel Blattner , a craftsperson from Konstanz . Their own children inspired the Mühlenweg couple to write a series of mostly unpublished children's books, for which Fritz Mühlenweg wrote the texts.

After Elisabeth Mühlenweg's father left the Catholic Church with his family in 1916 and became Protestant, she converted back to Catholicism at the age of 36 - deeply felt faith became a source of strength and inspiration for her. Her religiously inspired pictures gave consolation and help to many people according to various letters. The then Freiburg Archbishop Conrad Gröber also admired them. In the spring and summer of 1947 she painted two life-size images of saints for the house chapel at the St. Blasien college : St. Aloysius and St. Joseph . A way of the cross was destroyed in the fire of the monastery in May 1977.

Further religious works of art were created for churches in Freiburg and as commissioned work for the Wald monastery (numerous pictures, vestments, Christmas, fasting and resurrection carpets and a large-format wall hanging with motifs from the life of Saint Lioba ). These were primarily payments for the otherwise unaffordable stays and high school diplomas for the four daughters in the convent school.

In 1948/1949 the paintings Noli me tangere and Madonna (today in the parish hall of St. Nikolaus, Allensbach) as well as two wall hangings for the high altar of the Catholic Church in Allensbach (workload for the resurrection carpet: 250 hours) were created. In addition, she created two tapestries using embroidery and application technology based on the medieval weaving craft motifs of the “weaver frescoes” in the Haus zur Kunkel (Konstanz) on behalf of Schiesser , Radolfzell. In 1951 a large-format Madonna picture followed for the baroque left side altar of the church in Horn (today in the parish hall of St. Johannes, Horn). This painting was also widely recognized by his friend Otto Dix .

She also worked as an illustrator for the Konstanzer Zeitung Südkurier , the literary monthly magazine Die Erzählung (1947–1950), the ferryman and the annual house calendar of the Herder publishing house in Freiburg, as well as handicrafts: painting chip boxes, wooden boxes, peasant cupboards, bottles and ceramic plates , Making nativity figurines and toy houses. In 1960 she designed six tapestries using application technology on behalf of the Allensbach political community for the newly built elementary school (today in the Allensbach local history museum).

Exhibitions

• 1936: Wessenberg-Haus Konstanz : special exhibition Elisabeth Mühlenweg, overview of previous complete works, with drafts for glass windows , frescoes and tapestries
• 1937: Kunstverein Konstanz: with pictures by Fritz Mühlenweg , Sepp Biehler , Werner Rohland and Alexander Rihm, among others
• 1939: Special show Constance painter group 1938 (Diary entry: ... opening after long difficulties. - because of the censorship by the National Socialists )
• 1940: Mannheimer Kunstverein and Kunstverein Freiburg: as before
• 1941: Kunstverein Karlsruhe : as before; Baden-Baden : 3rd Upper Rhine Art Exhibition
• 1945: Wessenberg-Haus Konstanz: with Fritz Mühlenweg, Sepp Biehler and the sculptor Walter Diesch
• 1946: Constance Culture Weeks: French and German painting
• 1947, like 1945: Freiburg: with husband as a member of the exhibition of the Badische Secession
• from now on every year: City of Singen , art exhibition (oil painting roses has been hanging in the anteroom of the wedding room of the Singen town hall since 1959 )
• 1948: Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein : Christian contemporary art
• 1949: Freiburg, Augustinermuseum : Christian art of our time
• 1950: Freiburg, Casino : Baden artists
• 1951: Munich, Haus der Kunst : as in 1947 (Werkschau Bad. Secession)
• 1958: Vienna, at the invitation of Ferdinand Andri : Memorial exhibition for his 85th birthday together with works by her husband
• 1963: Konstanz, Dr. Scholz: Memorial exhibition
• 1964: Singen, Town Hall: dto.
• 1996: Gaienhofen , Hermann Hesse Museum: Pictures by the artist couple Mühlenweg
• 2006: Allensbach, Gnadenkirche: Complete exhibition of Elisabeth and Fritz Mühlenweg
• 2010: as before: Local history museum of AGA Allensbach: Special exhibition on the 100th birthday of Elisabeth Mühlenweg
• 2020 (May 9th to August 30th) several works in: Profession: Artist! Ten German painters on Lake Constance

Publications

• 1948/1949: The Allensbach Madonna was widely distributed as an art postcard from the te Neues publishing group, as well as posters and devotional pictures .
• The Christmas story told according to the Holy Scriptures. Illustration. Otto Maier Verlag, 1949.
• Nuni. Herder, 1953; Author: Fritz Mühlenweg .
• Come you children! Illustrations; Author: Albert Thomas. Herder, Freiburg 1954, 1986.
• Punch with the wind clock. Illustrations; Author: Fritz Mühlenweg. Herder, Freiburg 1956.
• In those days / The story of the boy who brought the two fish and five loaves of bread - A communion tale for children. Illustration. 1957, 1972, 1978; Author: Fritz Mühlenweg.
• Religious instruction for the two lower years of primary school. With 8 pictures by Elisabeth Mühlenweg. 1958.
• The family outing. Bilderbuch, Herder, Freiburg 1960; Author: Fritz Mühlenweg.
• Real and False Spells: Tales from Mongolia. Illustrations. Herder, Freiburg 1963; Author: Fritz Mühlenweg.
• Cookbook for Liesel , 2010; Facsimile of the cookbook for Liesel Blattner .
• Fritz and Elisabeth Mühlenweg: The family excursion / Zugaatai ​​aylal - A story . New edition in German and Mongolian, Lengwil 2011.

Awards

• Nuni , Kasperl with the wind clock , In those days : awarded as the “most beautiful German books” of 1953, 1956 and 1957.

reception

At the end of June 2012, a Mühlenweg Museum was opened in the family's former home in Allensbach on Lake Constance .

In Allensbach there is an Elisabeth Mühlenweg street.

See also

• Tami Oelfken , German writer and reform pedagogue friends with the couple
• Martha and Otto Dix , close friends, family-related (painter) couple and their daughter Nelly Dix , also a painter and author
• Helen and Kurt Wolff , also befriended (publisher) couple

swell

• Inga Pohlmann: The Allensbach artist Elisabeth Mühlenweg. In: Hegau - Women - History , hegau - Yearbook 66/2009 of the Geschichtsverein e. V. Singen (Hohentwiel) , pp. 241-264.
• as above, in: Allensbacher Almanach 2010. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Allensbach (AGA) e. V. (Ed.), Annual Issue No. 60, pp. 13–21.
• Barbara Stark: Elisabeth Mühlenweg. A book illustrator in the field of tension between family and art. In: From the Antiquariat NF, 9 (2011) No. 2, pp. 63–68.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elisabeth Kantzenbach: Alias ​​- Outlines of the life picture of Nelly Dix-Thaesler called Nelly Alias ​​Dix (1923–1955). Bertuch-Verlag 2011, p. 155
2. ^ Ekkehard Faude on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition The artist couple Elisabeth and Fritz Mühlenweg (November 27, 2010)
3. ↑ Development of a new painting technique: on gold or silver-colored aluminum foil , from the back on a soft surface, embossing of the motif, so that a relief appears on the front, which is then (partially) painted with tempera paint; independent effect through gloss and embossing
4. ↑ As a facsimile ed. and expanded by Ekkehard Faude : Elisabeth Mühlenweg - Cookbook for Liesel. Libelle-Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-905707-42-7 .
5. ^ Letter from Conrad Gröber to Elisabeth Mühlenweg from January 19, 1947, Fritz Mühlenweg estate, Franz-Michael-Felder-Archiv, N 58: B: 5: 4
6. ↑ Profession: Artist! Ten German painters on Lake Constance. May 9 - August 30, 2020, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz; Exhibition leaflet , accessed on May 24, 2020
7. ↑ allensbach.de: Mühlenweg Museum - A literary exhibition (12 June 2012)