Erich Mercker

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Erich Mercker (born October 20, 1891 in Zabern, French Saverne , Alsace , † September 9, 1973 in Munich ) was a landscape, industrial and urban painter and speed skater .

Life

Mercker studied civil engineering at the TH Munich from 1911 . From around 1915 he began - as an autodidact - to devote himself to oil painting . In the 1920s he made trips to Austria , Italy , southern France , Sweden and Norway . During this time numerous Impressionist landscapes were created, painted with a spatula . He also painted the first industrial pictures, for which Mercker would become famous, in this era. Since 1921 he was a member of the Munich Artists' Cooperative (MKG). In 1926 he also became a member of the Munich artist associations "Ring" and "Isar". In 1937 he took part in the World Exhibition in Paris and received the “great gold medal” for four monumental oil paintings. Since 1938 he has been represented several times at the Great German Art Exhibitions of the National Socialists in the Munich House of Art , such as 1939 with The site of November 9th (day of the Hitler putsch ), 1940 marble for the Reich Chancellery , 1941 granite quarries Flossenbürg , 1942 U-Boats and still . In 1941, his opus Hermann-Göring-Werke was also exhibited.

The work from the quarry of the Flossenbürg concentration camp , made in 1942, is part of the exhibition at the memorial. It falsely depicts the quarry as a civilian craft business, working inmates are barely recognizable as such in the picture.

After 1945 he mainly painted for large companies such as MAN , Volkswagen and Bayer . His extensive oeuvre (it is estimated to be over 3,000 oil paintings) has hardly been explored. Mercker is one of the most important industrial painters of the 20th century. His pictures are also offered at well-known auction houses such as Christie's in London or Dorotheum in Vienna.

His works are u. a. represented in the following museums: German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven; German Historical Museum Berlin; Bavarian State Painting Collections Munich; City Museum Kiel ; Kurpfälzisches Museum Heidelberg ; Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg; Frankenthal City Museum ; West Prussian State Museum Münster ; Milwaukee School of Engineering , Grohmann Collection.

Mercker was also a talented speed skater. In 1912 he was German champion, in 1913 runner-up in the all-around competition, and in 1912 he also won the Eberhardt Streich challenge award .

literature

  • Hans Vollmer: General Lexicon of the Fine Artists of the 20th Century . 3: Kaal - Pyykkö. German Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-363-00730-2 (unchanged reprint of the original edition from 1956.).
  • Klaus Türk: People and work . Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2003, ISBN 3-89861-209-0 .
  • Volkmar von Pechstaedt: Erich Mercker . Hainholz, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-932622-94-4 .
  • Lars U. Scholl: Furnaces on the Ruhr: a painting by the industrial painter Erich Mercker . In: Paczkowski, Renate (ed.): '... the most distant future will thank you': Preserving and shaping Kiel's history and culture . Wachholtz, Neumünster 2004, ISBN 3-529-02493-7 , pp. 549-571 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 406.
  2. ↑ Dirk Gundel on Julius Seyler with mention of Mercker .
personal data
SURNAME Mercker, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German landscape painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Zabern, French Saverne , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH September 9, 1973
Place of death Munich