Franz Karl Bühler

Franz Karl Bühler (born August 28, 1864 in Offenburg , † 1940 in Grafeneck ) was a German blacksmith and painter. He was recognized for his work as a German blacksmith . For three years he taught as a lecturer at the Strasbourg School of Applied Arts . His works are also known as a painter , which he produced in various institutions and which were published by Hans Prinzhorn under the pseudonym "Franz Pohl".

Life

After his school days in Offenburg, Franz Karl Bühler completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith in his father's blacksmith workshop. In Karlsruhe and Munich (1886 to 1887) he attended the arts and crafts schools and was very successful. In 1887, Bühler took part in the competition exhibition of German ironwork organized by Hermann Götz with a furnace screen and received an honorary diploma for it.

In May 1893, Bühler was called to the Strasbourg arts and crafts school as a teacher of art locksmithing. In the same year he traveled to the world exhibition in Chicago , where a gate system forged by him was awarded a (gold) medal. After three years of teaching, Bühler was fired by the school management. From then on, Bühler suffered from severe paranoia , so that he was placed in the Swiss insane asylum in Breitenau. After a short stay, he came to the Illenau sanatorium for two years, and finally in 1900 he found accommodation in the Emmendingen sanatorium. There he spent most of his life creating a variety of paintings. These pictures aroused the interest of Hans Prinzhorn in 1919 , who added pictures by Franz Karl Bühler to his collection under the pseudonym Franz Pohl.

Even more than thirty years after Bühler 'disappeared' in the sanatoriums and nursing homes, his works were exhibited as an art fitter: “But there we also find drawings and works from a time almost half a century ago: Government architect Meyer only has one thing today a man known to a few people from Offenburg, the university professor Dr. Prinzhorn set a monument in his standard work 'Die Bildnerei der Schizophrenen'. Franz Bühler, who had been mentally ill in Emmendingen for decades, the son of the late master fitter Bühler here, was a very great craftsman. He was an art fitter, teacher at the School of Applied Arts in Strasbourg, writer, multidilletante. With a unique wrought iron gate, which will hopefully get a place in Offenburg in the new city park, at the world exhibition in Chicago with the highest award, he achieved great success until his spirit was incurably dead. He's still working today. His drawings are bizarre, but what he still draws and paints today as a seventy-year-old shows his artistic talent. Many valuable pieces could still be saved from his healthy days; it was brought to the exhibition here. Everyone who stands in front of these works and remembers the personality of Franz Bühler will have a tragic experience. ”(Excerpt from a report in the Badische Presse, morning edition of October 3, 1931, Volume 47, No. 459, page 3, on the occasion the Ortenau Autumn Fair.)

Franz Karl Bühler was not allowed a quiet retirement in Emmendingen - like many other inmates of the nursing and sanctuaries, he was brought to Grafeneck in 1940 as part of the systematic killing of 'unworthy life', known as Aktion T4 , and killed there by carbon monoxide.

Work (selection)

Ironwork

• wrought iron bouquet (Offenburg)
• three-leaf gate system ( Chicago World's Fair , 1893)

painting

• Bechle, Ettlinger (October 13, 1900)
• Remembrance (January 24, 1904)

literature

• Keller-Kempas, Ruth: Franz Karl Bühler - A biography . In: Franz Karl Bühler, Pictures from the Prinzhorn Collection (1993), Ed .: Museum im Ritterhaus, Offenburg.
• Lüttgen, Gerda-Marie (Ed.): Brochure Tour of Stolpersteine. 120 stumbling blocks, 11 fates in detail (2013), Offenburg.

Web links

• Homepage of the Prinzhorn Collection
• Homepage Museum im Ritterhaus, Offenburg