Fred Eckersdorf

Fred Eckersdorff (March 12, 1909 , † May 3, 2003 ) was a German sculptor and painter .

Extract from the mosaic Rosa Mystika, parish church St. Kosmas and Damian, Bödefeld / Sauerland

In the years of reconstruction after the Second World War, he dedicated himself to the restoration and design of churches and is regarded as one of the representatives of contemporary "expressionist church painting". Winfried Aloysius (called Fred) Eckersdorff (the name is often incorrectly spelled with an f) was born on March 12, 1909 as the son of Wilfried Eckersdorff and Henriette Helena Eckersdorff. Knauf was born in Essen. He attended the Essener Kunstgewerbeschule (Folkwangschule) and was later a student of Jan Thorn Prikker . From 1932, at the age of 23, he worked as a freelance artist with a studio in Emmerich. From the beginning he turned to the restoration and design of churches first in Thuringia and Upper Silesia, then of churches on the Lower Rhine and in the Sauerland. During the Second World War he was drafted into military service from 1939 to 1945, mainly in Russia. The focus of his artistic activity in the following decades was in North Rhine-Westphalia, especially in the design of churches in the Archdiocese of Paderborn. The residence and studio was in Meschede. There he lived and worked together with his wife Elisabeth Eckersdorff geb. Brook.

In the course of the restoration of the St. Johannes Evangelist church in Eversberg (today part of the city of Meschede), Fred Eckersdorff discovered ceiling paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries in the choir and in the nave. He exposed corresponding ceiling paintings in the Brabecke chapel in 1948.

Also in 1933, Fred Eckersdorff carried out the painting of the St. Martinus Church in Reelsen (today part of Bad Driburg). A year later, he painted the church of St. Josef (Mühlhausen) .

At the end of the 1930s, Fred Eckersdorff began designing the large mosaic for the parish church of St. Cosmas and Damian (Bödefeld) , which was only completed after returning from the Second World War. In the following years he received further commissions to design the parish church and to restore the main altar.

In 1953, Fred Eckersdorff created the central altarpiece with the crucifixion group in the parish church in Hausberge, Minden district.

For the St. Bonifatius Church in Paderborn, Fred Eckersdorff was commissioned in 1954 with the interior design and the production of mosaics.

In 1956 he created the altar mosaic Christ ~ the Risen One for the parish church of St. Johannes Baptist in Nieheim .

The plaster mosaics Dream of St. Martin and St. Agatha in the dungeon for the St. Martinus Church in Olpe . According to Eckersdorff's drafts, the World Judge was made from Anröchter natural stone over the portals of St. Peter's Church in Werl.

After designs Ecker village was from Anröchter stone Judge above the portals of the Church of St. Peter in Werl made.

The mosaics of the Stations of the Cross for the parish church in Meschede were also created in the 1950s .

In 1955 and 1957, Fred Eckersdorff created the glass windows in the churches of St. Apollonia, Bad Wünnenberg, St. Michael, Borchen-Kirchenborchen and St. Heinrich, Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock-Sende.

Fred Eckersdorff also worked for churches in Dortmund-Hörde, Lichtenau, Fredeburg, Grevenstein, Lemgo and Ramsbeck as well as on public buildings such as town halls, schools and kindergartens. He created works in wood, bronze, stone, glass and ceramics for companies, savings banks and private individuals.

literature

• F. Mund: Renewal of the interior of St. Martin in Olpe. In: Old and new art in the Archdiocese of Paderborn. 9th annual gift of the Association for Christian Art e. V. Paderborn 1959, pp. 81-96.
• G. Loewe: Our churches St. Martin and Mariae Himmelfahrt in new decorations. In: Heimatblätter from the Olpe district. 41, 1961, pp. 119-126.
• Manfred Schöne: Olpe / Biggesee. Catholic parish church St. Martinus (= Little Art Guide No. 1244). Schnell und Steiner publishing house, Munich / Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-7954-4963-4 , p. 8.
• Stephan Teutenberg: The way of the cross to the hermitage. In: City gazette for Meschede and the communities of Bestwig and Eslohe. No. 134, 1985.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fred Eckersdorff, painter - Congratulations on today's (75th) birthday. In: Westfälische Rundschau. March 12, 1974.
2. ↑ The Way of the Cross. ( Memento of March 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) at: meschede.de
3. ↑ Fred Eckersdorff, painter - Congratulations on today's (75th) birthday. In: Westfälische Rundschau. March 12, 1974.
4. ↑ St. John the Evangelist. ( Memento from October 28, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) at: meschede.de
5. ^ Report of the Provincial Conservator for the year 1933, Westf. 19.Bd. 1934, p. 277/278 with illus.
6. ↑ Heinrich Marx: Is my home. Lippstadt 1958, p. 333.
7. ^ Albert Sauer: Fred Eckersdorffs work in the Reelsener church. In: Driburger Zeitung. 20./21. January 1934.
8. ↑ Dr. Reinhold: The divine human drama of redemption - altar triptych completed - a masterpiece by the painter Eckersdorff. In: Mindener Tageblatt. May 30, 1953.
9. ↑ Victory of Faith and Trust - the new altar triptych in the Catholic. Church local mountains. In: Westfalen Zeitung. January 10, 1953.
10. ^ Wilhelm Tacke: The painting of the St. Bonifatius Church in Paderborn. In: Old and New Art in the Archdiocese of Paderborn. 4, 1954, p. 62.
11. ↑ kirche-in-nieheim.de
12. ^ PR Roeder: St. Martin and St. Agatha. In: Sauerländer Volksblatt. November 16, 1957.
13. ↑ st.-peter-werl.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
14. ↑ propstei-werl.de
15. ^ Stephan Teutenberg: The way of the cross to the hermitage. In: City gazette for Meschede and the communities of Bestwig and Eslohe. No. 134, 1985.
16. ↑ glasmalerei-ev.de