Fidus

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Fidus (1931)
Light prayer (1913). Color lithograph
Design for a Beethoven temple (1903)

Fidus (bourgeois Hugo Reinhold Karl Johann Höppener , born October 8, 1868 in Lübeck , † February 23, 1948 in Woltersdorf ) was a German painter, illustrator and important representative of life reform .

Life

Early years of life

Hugo Höppener was born in Lübeck in 1868 as the son of pastry chef Julius Höppener and his wife Camilla (née Stender). At Easter 1887, his parents sent him to the pre-school of the Munich Academy . After only three months he left the academy and became a student of the painter and nature apostle Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach in Höllriegelskreuth , from whom he received his stylistic stamp and the artist name “Fidus” (The Faithful). He dedicated himself to the life reform ideas of vegetarianism , belief in light, nudism and a natural way of life. Anarcho-socialist ideas of land reform and vegetarian pacifism dominated the intellectual world of the young Fidus. Diefenbach and Fidus were sentenced to jail in 1888 for their nudism. Furthermore, he was a member of the life reform associations Deutsche Gartenstadtgesellschaft , the Bund Deutscher Bodenreformer as well as a member of the Bund for all-round life reform of the whole of Germanness , in the Association for Physical Culture and in the German Association for sensible physical discipline .

In 1889 Fidus continued his studies at the Munich Academy. The acquaintance with the theosophist Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden led to collaboration as an illustrator for the magazine Sphinx . From then on, Fidus represented a mystical natural religion and advocated ideas for a sexual reform . The specific Art Nouveau of his pictures was henceforth enriched with esoteric symbols - lotus blossoms , egg shapes, crosses and sun signs . The cyclical circular structure of life, the return of man to the divine womb, the merging of the sexes and redemption through light were recurring pictorial motifs. He also drafted plans for gigantic temples for a new religion of nature and light, in which the people should gather for devotion. His most famous picture was the "prayer of light", created several times, for the first time in 1908. From behind it shows a naked young, androgynous -looking man on a mountain peak, who in emphatic movement worships the sun, spreading his arms in the form of a rune of life . This image also became a cult image of the youth movement in connection with the first Meißner meeting .

1890-1914

In the early 1890s, Fidus made trips to Norway, Istria and Italy. In 1892 he settled in Berlin, where he came into contact with literary bohème, established himself as an illustrator and worked for the newly created literary-artistic magazines Pan , Simplicissimus and Jugend . Fidus' first exhibition took place in 1893. In addition to his graphic work, which presented the naked person without the usual allegorical or mythological "disguises", Fidus painted landscape pictures in which he processed impressions of his journeys to the north; since 1903 he organized slide lectures to present his pictures. Around 1900 Fidus was one of the most famous painters in Germany.

From 1892 to 1895 he lived with the poet Franz Evers in Berlin. In 1895 he had his first "marriage" with Amalie Reich (1862-1946), from which a child emerged, for which he, however, denied paternity. This “marriage” was not a legalized marriage, but a so-called “free union”, according to the views of marriage reform at the time. Other, now legalized, marriages followed: 1900 with Elsa Knorr († 1915), who he accused of being of Jewish origin, and in 1922 with Elsbeth Lehmann-Hohenberg . In addition, Fidus in Woltersdorf (see below) loved the young pastor's son Georg Bauernfeind , who starved himself to death in 1911 because he was an obsession to slim. In 1912 he founded the Sankt-Georgs-Bund, which was supposed to turn against the "dragon of materialism".

In Berlin, Fidus also joined the Theosophical Society and was a co-founder of a theosophical lodge (presumably the Esoteric Circle or DTG ).

"Fidushaus" in Woltersdorf , which was built between 1908 and 1910 according to the artist's designs in the local style

Fidus had notable contacts with intellectual circles at the time, for example Willy Pastor and Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , as well as the Friedrichshagener Dichterkreis , Heinrich and Julius Hart and Gustav Landauer . He also kept in close contact with the Garden City Movement, the Land Reform Movement and the Wandervogel . He visited the reform colonies in Amden on Lake Walen and the Monte Verità of Ascona. His early admirers included B. Hermann Hesse .

Fidus illustrated numerous books. In 1905, the special May Day issue of the social democratic magazine “ Vorwärts ” appeared with a title page designed by Fidus. In the same year he also illustrated Richard Ungewitter's The Nudity . (Stuttgart 1905).

In 1906 Fidus received the financial means to set up a self-designed studio, which was built in the Woltersdorf villa colony Schönblick on Köpenicker Strasse, east of Berlin, and from 1908/1909 had a residential wing added; there he lived with his wife Elsa, his two children, the poet Gertrud Prellwitz , who was friends with Elsa, and Franz Bernoully (died in 1915). The house became a “kind of place of pilgrimage for the reform movement”.

1914-1945

War memorial in Woltersdorf, the image plate of which was created by Fidus in honor of the fallen Woltersdorf soldiers of the First World War War memorial in Woltersdorf, the image plate of which was created by Fidus in honor of the fallen Woltersdorf soldiers of the First World War
War memorial in Woltersdorf, the image plate of which was created by Fidus in honor of the fallen Woltersdorf soldiers of the First World War

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Fidus had turned to folk ideas under the influence of Wilhelm Schwaner . However, he spoke out against the general hurray patriotism , instead demanded that Germany should free itself from foreign cultural influences in order to fulfill a moral mission for the world.

After 1918 Fidus lost its artistic influence, and materially it was worse for him. He blamed artistic internationalism ( Expressionism , Dadaism and “ New Objectivity ”) and capitalist marketing tendencies for this misery .

In 1932 Fidus joined the NSDAP after contacting Joseph Goebbels . As recently as 1925 he had turned against the utopia of a “pure-bredness” in the publication “Den Rasse-Raßlern”. According to this, the Germans are historically a mixed people, and it only depends on the emotional “sunniness” of the people, not on racial characteristics. Despite hopes in the new government, despite petitions to Hitler and Goebbels to support his temple art financially, he was largely rejected by the new rulers. The SS newspaper " Das Schwarze Korps " mentioned him in 1936 as a kitcher of Nordic art. His application to introduce the "New Germanic script" he had developed was brusquely rejected in 1936. A planned Nuremberg art exhibition for the Nazi party rally in 1936 collapsed because Hitler was so "disgusted" at the sight of monumental portraits that he had already encountered that he ordered all works to be returned.

In 1937 Fidus' portfolios were confiscated and the sale of Fidus prints was banned. Hitler also had the distribution of his portrait painted by Fidus prohibited on postcards. Fidus wearily criticized the National Socialist cultural functionaries as "cultural bonzen" and "barbarians". Stylistically, he remained true to his unconventional "soft Art Nouveau", which was very atypical for the time. On the occasion of his 75th birthday in 1943, despite his distance from the National Socialist regime, he was appointed honorary professor.

After 1945

Fidus' grave in the Woltersdorf cemetery

After the Second World War he continued to represent his “light German” ideas. In order to gain better access to natural produce and food, Fidus painted portraits of Stalin and Lenin for the Soviets and, on behalf of the SED , Rudolf Breitscheid . In 1946 he joined the free religious community in Berlin and declared that he would vote for the CDU . On February 23, 1948, Fidus died of a stroke in Woltersdorf .

estate

Part of the Fidus estate is in the archive of the German youth movement , which is part of the Hessian State Archive in Marburg . It was made accessible in 2005/2006 and most of the works it contains were digitized. Another part of the estate is kept in the Fidus archive of the Berlinische Galerie . A collection that has already been developed is located in the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Another as yet undeveloped part of the estate is in the Haller family archive, Reichenberg Manor, now owned by Jack Daulton in Los Altos Hills , California . Also of interest for Fidus research are the bequests of the Fidus publisher Fritz Heyder (1882–1941), which are also in the Berlin Academy of the Arts, and the Max Bruns ' in the Minden municipal archive .

literature

  • Oskar Beyer:  Fidus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 138 ( digitized version ).
  • Claudia Bibo: Naturalism as a Weltanschauung . Biologistic, theosophical and German-ethnic imagery in the poetry illustrated by Fidus (1893–1902). With an appendix: Organization of the German Believer Movement . Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1995.
  • Fidus - Hugo Höppener, diary January to July 1945, ed. by Rolf F. Lang on behalf of the Kulturhistorisches Verein Friedrichshagens eV with support from the Heimatmuseum Köpenick. Müggel-Verlag Rolf F. Lang: Berlin-Friedrichshagen 1999, ISBN 3-9806805-0-9 (edition friedrichshagen 1).
  • Wolfgang de Bruyn (Ed.): Fidus. Artist of everything light . Verlag Schelzky & Jeep: Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89541-141-8
  • Janos Frecot , Johann Friedrich Geist , Diethart Kerbs : Fidus. On the aesthetic practice of bourgeois escape movements . Extended new edition, Hamburg 1997.
  • Jost Hermand : From Art Nouveau hippie to German fanatics. In: Jost Hermand (ed.): The appearance of the beautiful life . Frankfurt am Main 1972, pp. 55-127.
  • Michael Neumann: Fidus - iconographer of youth . In: Gerhard Ille, Günter Kohler (Hrsg.): Der Wandervogel. It all started in Steglitz . Berlin 1987.
  • Marina Schuster: Fidus - a sympathetic artist of the national cultural movement. In: Handbook for the "Völkische Movement" 1871–1918 , ed. by Uwe Puschner , Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Saur: Munich a. a. 1996, pp. 634-650.
  • Marina Schuster: Fidus. Painter of chaste nudities . In: nudism and living environment . Studies on the prehistory and early history of nudism in Germany, ed. by Michael Grisko. Kassel 1999, pp. 207-237.
  • Marina Schuster: Light prayer. The icon of the life reform and youth movement . In: The Century of Images . 1900 to 1949, ed. by Gerhard Paul. Göttingen 2009, pp. 140–147.
  • Manfred Wedemeyer : Fidus - Magnus Weidemann , an artist friendship 1920–1948 . Kiel 1984.
  • Claus-Martin Wolfschlag : The painter Fidus and the evaluation of his work in the light of post-war research . In: Yearbook on the Conservative Revolution . Wesseling 1994.
  • Rainer Y: Fidus the temple artist . Phil. Diss. Göppingen 1985 (2 volumes).
  • Edi Goetschel: Fidus series. The illustrations for Günther Wagner's price list drawn in Zurich in 1904 . Montsalvat-Verlag: Zürich 2011.
  • Albert Burkhardt (Ed.): Fidus. From Friedrichshagen to Woltersdorf. Letters to Albert Weidner 1903-1939. In: Friedrichshagener Hefte , No. 17, 1998 (Montsalvat-Verlag).
  • Ulrich Alexander Goetz: Art. Hugo Höppener, in: Michael Fahlbusch , Ingo Haar , Alexander Pinwinkler (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Völkischen Wissenschaften. Actors, networks, research programs. With the collaboration of David Hamann, Vol. 1, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-042989-3 , pp. 302–305.

Web links

Commons : Fidus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Marina Schuster: Fidus. In: Handbook for the "Völkische Movement" 1871–1918 . Edited by Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Saur, Munich a. a. 1996, pp. 904-905, here: p. 904.
  2. ^ Uwe Puschner: The völkisch movement in the Wilhelmine Empire. Language - race - religion . Darmstadt 2001, p. 167, ISBN 3-534-15052-X
  3. ↑ Marina Schuster: Fidus - an opinion artist of the national cultural movement. In: Handbook for the "Völkischen Movement" 1871-1918 , ed. by Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Saur, Munich a. a. 1996, pp. 634-650, here: p. 642.
  4. ↑ Hinrich Jantzen: Names and Works Volume 4, dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main, p. 51 ff.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang de Bruyn (Ed.): Fidus. Artist of everything light, Berlin 1998.
  6. ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller: Man for man. A biographical lexicon . Frankfurt am Main 2001, p. 225.
  7. ↑ German Biographical Encyclopedia & German Biographical Index. CD-ROM, Saur, Munich 2001, ISBN 978-3-598-40360-6 .
  8. ↑ Kurt Holm: Fidus as a book decoration artist. In: Zeitschrift für Bücherfreunde , 7th year 1903/1904, Vol. 1, pp. 30–39.
  9. ↑ Arnd Krüger : There Goes This Art of Manliness: Naturism and Racial Hygiene in Germany, in: Journal of Sport History 18 (Spring, 1991), 1, pp. 135-158, cf. P. 138. http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1991/JSH1801/jsh1801i.pdf
  10. ↑ Marina Schuster: Fidus - an opinion artist of the national cultural movement. In: Handbook for the "Völkische Movement" 1871–1918 , ed. by Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Saur: Munich a. a. 1996, pp. 634-650, here: p. 641.
  11. ↑ Marina Schuster: Fidus. In: Handbook for the "Völkische Movement" 1871–1918 , ed. by Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Saur: Munich a. a. 1996, pp. 904-905, here: p. 905.
  12. ↑ Frecot / Geist / Kerbs: Fidus 1868-1948 , Rogner & Bernhard, December 1997, p. 210
  13. ↑ Marina Schuster: Fidus - an opinion artist of the national cultural movement. In: Handbook for the "Völkischen Movement" 1871-1918 , ed. by Uwe Puschner, Walter Schmitz and Justus H. Ulbricht. Saur: Munich a. a. 1996, pp. 634-650, here: p. 644.
personal data
SURNAME Fidus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Höppener, Hugo Reinhold Karl Johann (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1948
Place of death Woltersdorf (near Berlin)