Franz Pixner

Franz Pixner (born June 3, 1912 in Ried im Innkreis ; † August 1, 1998 in Vienna ) was an Austrian Marxist and Spain fighter , sculptor and painter.

Life

Pixner was born on June 3, 1912 as the son of a master baker in Ried im Innkreis. In 1926 he began an apprenticeship as a carpenter there, from 1928 to 1932 he attended the specialist class for modeling and wood carving in Hallstatt (today HTBLA Hallstatt). He then came to Vienna, where he attended master classes in sculpture and life drawing with Michael Powolny and Albert Paris Gütersloh at the Vienna School of Applied Arts .

Pixner was a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth and their Rieder Chairman, in 1931 he became a member of the Austrian Communist Party . In 1935 he was expelled from the university because of his work for the Red Aid and taken to the Wöllersdorf detention center . In 1936 he was arrested again for political activity, his imprisonment lasted until February 1937. In June 1937 Pixner went to Spain, where he fought on the side of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War against Franco and was seriously wounded in a partisan operation. In 1939 he was sent to the Gurs internment camp in France and emigrated from there to London after his release, where he stayed until the end of the Second World War .

In 1946 he returned to Vienna. He resumed his studies in sculpture with Fritz Wotruba at the Academy of Fine Arts . Pixner lived as a freelance artist in Vienna until his death in 1998. He was buried at the Kagran cemetery .

Pixner was married to Minna Kohn (1919–2003), the sister of the chemist and Nobel Prize winner Walter Kohn .

Awards

In 1983 he was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Fine Arts in the sculpture category. In Vienna-Donaustadt the Franz-Pixner-Weg is named after him.

Works

• Bust of the German interbrigadist Hans Beimler (Gurs 1939)
• several anti-fascist sculptures on behalf of the municipality of Vienna
• Freedom Fighters Memorial on the Atzgersdorfer Friedhof (1954)
• Wooden bust of the Floridsdorf Schutzbund leader Georg Weissel, who was executed in 1934
• Memorial sculpture for Rudolf Beer next to the Volkstheater.
• several works of art in public spaces, for example in the Kurpark Oberlaa , on the community building at Neilreichgasse 85-89 in Favoriten and in the community building on Erdbergstrasse 16-28 in Vienna-Landstrasse (1961/66).
• Memorial plaque for those who died in the February fights in the Goethehof in 1934 (Goethehof 1984).

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  Freedom fighter memorial on the Atzgersdorfer cemetery

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  Play sculpture clown in the Kurpark Oberlaa

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  Memorial plaque in the Goethehof

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  Memorial sculpture for Rudolf Beer next to the Volkstheater

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  Bust of Rudolf Much in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna

Web links

Commons : Franz Pixner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Pixner, French Austrians for Spain's Freedom 1936-1939. DÖW , accessed on April 16, 2014 (with images). 
• Franz Pixner. In: monuments.univie.ac.at. Retrieved May 7, 2017 . 
• Irene Filip: Photo exhibition Franz Pixner. September 2013, accessed April 16, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Pixner grave site , Vienna, Kagraner Friedhof, Group 13, Row 3, No. 4.
2. ↑ Photo of the grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery, Gate IV. 17 25a 10
3. ↑ Edith Rosenstrauch-Königsberg: From metal grinder to Germanist . Stations in life and historical research of an emigrant and remigrant from Vienna. Ed .: Beatrix Müller-Kampel. Böhlau Wien, 2001, ISBN 3-205-99307-1 ( limited preview in the Google book search [accessed on April 16, 2014]).
4. ↑ Figure bust Georg Weissels (owned by the DÖW). Retrieved April 16, 2014 . 
5. ^ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Gedenken und Mahnen in Vienna 1934–1945 . Vienna 1998, p. 149 .
6. ↑ Housing complex at Neilreichgasse 85-89. Wiener Wohnen , accessed on May 12, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Goethehof residential complex. Wiener Wohnen , accessed on April 16, 2014 .