Serious place

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Self-portrait 1908

Ernst Heinrich Platz (born September 13, 1867 in Karlsruhe , † January 17, 1940 in Munich ) was a German mountain painter, illustrator and alpinist .

resume

His father taught mathematics and natural sciences at the Karlsruhe high school and was a founding member and chairman of the local Alpine Club section. As a geologist, too, often out and about in the great outdoors, he awakened enthusiasm for the mountains in Ernst Platz. He studied architecture for six semesters at the Karlsruhe Technical University in 1887/90 , but then dropped out and moved to Munich, where he devoted himself exclusively to painting and mountaineering. After private studies with Julius Exner (nudes, portraits), he went to the Academy of Arts for three years from 1891-1894 , where he studied classical painting with Professor Alexander von Wagner . Wagner advised him to test his skills in nature ( plein air painting ).

When both the essay and the illustrations were included in the yearbook of the “German and Austrian Alpine Club”, this strengthened his turn to painting and mountaineering. In addition to the easy-to-sell landscape paintings, he liked to focus on the people in the mountains. They were also the focus of those first two works that he exhibited in the Munich Glass Palace from 1893 : "Memento Mori" and the "Climber in the Limestone Alps" .

In October 1889, the African explorer, geographer and publisher had Hans Meyer to 5,895 meters the highest mountain in Africa, Kibo ( Uhuru Peak or under German colonial rule Kaiser-Wilhelm-peak ) in Kilimanjaro together with the mountaineers Ludwig Purtscheller and the locals Yohani Kinyala Lauwo to climbed for the first time. In 1898 he traveled again to Kilimanjaro for further research in the field of volcanology and glaciation as well as the measurement of the tropical high mountains. Platz accompanied him, took part in the second ascent of the Kibo from the north via the Hans Meyer Scharte and brought numerous pictures and sketches from his first big trip abroad back to Munich. However, he contracted a malaria infection during the trip , which restricted his mountaineering activities for three years. Hans Meyer used some of the pictures to illustrate his book "Der Kilimandjaro. Reisen und Studien", published in 1900.

A distinctive 3,852 m high single peak consisting of basaltic fragments and lava coverings in the Kilimanjaro Mountains was named after the painter "Platzkegel". The name was initially lost after the former German colony came into English possession. Unaware of the origin of the name, the new colonial rulers translated “Platz” with “Place”. In this way, the summit was sometimes called "Cone Place". Current scientific publications use the name "square cone" again.

  • Kilimanjaro 1898

  • Mount Kilimanjaro from Moshi

  • Kibo, Kilimanjaro from the camp of the saltpetre cave

  • Arusha steppe in front of the Meru from Moshi

  • Aboriginal settlement in front of Kilimanjaro

  • Mawensi peaks, 5355 m

  • Bridge over the Pangani River in Korogwe

  • Old mosque on the beach at Zanzibar

Ushba (4,698 m) with the village of Mazeri in Svaneti

During the successful Caucasus expedition in 1903 under the direction of the explorer Willi Rickmer-Rickmers , he limited himself to the visual documentation of this trip. In 1911 he took part again in a trip to the Caucasus , here too the yield of pictures was greater than his entries in the tour book. A Himalayan expedition planned for 1914 failed when the First World War broke out .

The almost 50-year-old Platz volunteered and experienced the war behind the front. After that, Ernst Platz did a lot of mountain trips, but no more demanding high-altitude tours and no longer outside of Europe. This was due not least to the post-war period, which was financially difficult for artists, as a quote from June 7, 1922 suggests: "... the pre-war dream of comfortable work has remained a dream, and I have no illusions."

In 1929 Ernst Platz took part in the art exhibition in the Munich Glass Palace with the painting Dent d'Herens .

Ernst Platz died at the age of 72 on January 17, 1940 in Munich and was buried in the main cemetery in Karlsruhe .

Ernst place private

Platz corresponded to the loner type, which was also attributed to his painting activity. He was never married, nor did he have any children; even ties to friends are not recorded. Nevertheless, he did not exclude himself from both the artistic ( Munich Artists 'Cooperative , Munich Artists' Comradeship ) and alpine ( Academic Alpine Club Munich , German and Austrian Alpine Club ) club life. His favorite vacation spot was Pettneu am Arlberg , where he spent several weeks a year.

Mountain tours

Platz did not belong to the elite of the mountaineering guild of the time, but he managed to make some remarkable tours, among them: first ascent of Watzmann from St. Bartholomä (1895), first ascent of Fensterlturm (1895), Stabelerturm (1895), Winklerturm (1896), Piz Bernina (1897), Kibo first ascent from the north via Hans Meyer-Scharte / second ascent (1898), Caucasus: (1903), 1911: Schau-Choch , Mainkpars-Tau , Kalasan-Tau (all first ascent).

evaluation

Ernst Platz's work is strongly oriented towards his earning potential. In addition to his landscapes and portraits, he was an avid painter and draftsman of commercial art such as postcards, posters, newspaper advertisements, caricatures and book illustrations. His architecture studies are also reflected in pictures showing buildings or interiors. The most lasting impression, however, was his movement studies, which were often only sketchy. They were the reason for his popularity as an illustrator of alpine textbooks and mountain sports catalogs. The most famous mountain painters of this time next to Platz ( Compton and Reschreiter ) have not dealt with this topic in any detail. Today these pictures offer valuable, because rare, references to the constantly changing equipment and clothing of alpinists.

literature

  • Maike Trentin-Meyer (author), German Alpine Association (ed.): Ernst Platz. Mountaineer painter and illustrator . Alpine classics; Vol. 21. Berg bei Bruckmann, Munich 1997. ISBN 3-7654-3063-3
  • P. Werner Lange: Kilimanjaro, The white mountain of Africa book review with mention of Ernst Platz and Platzkegel

Web links

Commons : Ernst Platz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Ernst Platz ( Memento of the original dated August 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the Stedrucke.de website  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sterucke.de
  2. ↑ Cf. Maike Trentin-Meyer: Mountaineer painter Ernst Platz . Munich 1997
personal data
SURNAME Place, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Platz, Ernst Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mountain painter and alpinist
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1940
Place of death Munich