Free artist community Schanze
The Free Artist Community Schanze e. V. is an artists' association founded in Münster in 1919 , which has a decisive influence on cultural life in Münster through its lively exhibition activities and often establishes contacts with visual artists in other European countries. It is the oldest still existing association in Münster.
history
Following an initiative by Bernhard Peppinghege , the "Schanze" was founded in 1919 by young artists in the Lortzingsaal Münster. Initially, writers and performing artists from theater and dance also joined. The first chairman was the Berlin painter Friedrich Wilhelm Liel , who was also responsible for converting the Münster Zwinger into an artist's studio.
The exhibitions of the artists' association soon meant that current art was regularly discussed in the Münster newspapers for the first time.
At the end of the 1930s, after internal disputes, a concentration on the visual arts emerged. The contemporary press located the "Schanze" under the keyword New Objectivity .
Over the decades, the "Schanze" expanded its exhibition activities, in the meantime slowed down by the course of the century ( Second World War and Third Reich ) and by occasional internal crises. As the organizer of highly regarded exhibitions, the “Schanze” is an important part of cultural life in Münster and Westphalia and repeatedly provides artist contacts in other European countries.
In 1982 Klaus Ebert was elected Chancellor (chairman) of the association and held this office for a total of 15 years (1982–1988 and 1992–2000). Intensive contacts with the Dutch art scene, especially after Enschede , fell into his chancellorship . Willi Landsknecht was Chancellor from 2000 to 2003. Among other things, he succeeded in integrating new media and expanding contacts with artists abroad. From 2003 onwards, Klaus Tesching, a former student of Joseph Beuys , was Chancellor. Uli Grohmann was Chancellor from January 2015 to the end of 2016. Miriam Przygoda has been Chancellor since 2017. In 2019 the ski jump celebrates its 100th anniversary with exhibitions in the city museum, in the shop windows of the Prinzipalmarkt and in the House of the Netherlands in Münster.
Well-known members of the "Schanze" included Bernhard Bröker, Hans Kraft, Hans Pape , Waldemar Mallek , Carl Busch , Hanns Hubertus Graf von Merveldt , Josef Wedewer , Hans Kraft , Emil Schumacher , Ernst Hase , Ernst Hermanns and Axel Schulß (1952– 2009).