Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski

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Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski , b. Bartdorff (born March 24, 1874 in Berlin , † December 27, 1945 there ) was a German art collector and donor . After the sudden death of her husband Adolf Fischer , she headed the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne from 1914 until she was dismissed by the National Socialists in 1937 . She wrote numerous travel journals and publications on East Asian art.

Life

Frieda Bartdorff was born in 1874 as the daughter of a linen manufacturer in Berlin. After her training as a teacher for secondary schools for girls , she met the private scholar and globetrotter Adolf Fischer at a private invitation in the presence of Erich Schmidt in his Asian- style apartment Nollendorfeum at the end of 1896 . Just one day later, on December 26, 1896, Frieda Bartdorff got engaged to Fischer, 19 years her senior. The couple married on March 1, 1897. The 20-month honeymoon in September 1897 led via Vienna , Ahmedabad , Hong Kong , and Formosa to Japan and aroused Frieda Fischer's interest in East Asian art. The extensive diary entries she made on the travels formed the basis for her Japanese diary , which she published in 1938. The couple presented the art treasures they brought with them from Asia in 1900 during VI. Exhibition of the Vienna Secession and gained first experience with the planning and presentation of exhibitions.

In 1901, the couple dissolved the Nollendorfeum and transferred the art treasures to the Prussian state in the hope that they would find their way into the Völkerkundemuseum . The Völkerkundemuseum Frieda Fischer granted a lifelong pension for leaving the Fischer Collection . After the couple separated from property and obligations in Berlin, they began planning their second trip to Asia. In September 1901 the couple traveled via London to Burma , Japan and China. During this trip the first considerations arose to set up a separate museum for Asian art, detached from ethnological aspects. In the following years Frieda accompanied her husband, who worked as a scientific expert at the embassy in Beijing , on various trips through East Asia. The couple bought art objects for the Völkerkundemuseum Berlin as well as in their own name.

Fingernail protectors set with semiprecious stones , Qing Dynasty (gift from Frieda Fischer)

It was planned to exhibit the private collection in a new museum in Kiel . In 1909 the plans failed and the couple accepted the offer to set up the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne. After two years of construction, the museum was opened on October 25th and 26th, 1913 according to plans by Franz Brantzky as a new extension to the Kunstgewerbemuseum Köln am Hansaring as the first museum on European soil to present art treasures from East Asia. Only six months after the museum opened, Adolf Fischer died on April 14, 1914 while traveling in Merano .

Due to contractual agreements with the city of Cologne, Frieda Fischer took over the management of the museum after the sudden death of her husband at the age of 40 - as the second woman in Germany. In the following years she gained the reputation of an expert and reviewer for East Asian art - also through numerous trips and publications. In 1918 she had to undergo a stay in a sanatorium, which she broke off prematurely out of concern for her museum. In 1921 Frieda Fischer offered the city of Cologne a higher amount of money against payment of 5% interest and a lifelong annuity . A year later she donated an extensive collection of books to the city.

In 1921 she married the lawyer and Senate President at the Cologne Higher Regional Court, Alfred Ludwig Wieruszowski . The Nazis took her husband's Jewish descent as an opportunity to dismiss her from office in 1937, contrary to the contractual agreements with the city of Cologne, and to stop paying her annuity. As the founder of the museum, she was forbidden to enter the building after 1937. At Otto Kümmel's request , she was "refrained from " re- electing her to the board of the Society for East Asian Art in 1937 . Despite being dismissed as museum director, in 1938 and 1942 she published the travel diaries from her travels with Adolf Fischer through Japan and China. Without any significant financial income, the disenfranchised Fischer-Wieruszowski couple became impoverished. They were forced to take in several Jewish families in their house at Voigtelstrasse 26 in Cologne-Braunsfeld and be content with one room. They avoided the threatened deportation with the help of clergy friends and a Catholic professor. On October 20, 1944, the Gestapo forced them to leave their home.

“They took my museum, my intellectual child, and the town hall forbade me to enter it. I was advised there to divorce my husband, and the Gestapo deported me. . "

- Letter from Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski, Dresden 1944

The couple fled to friends in Dresden , where Alfred Wieruszowski fell seriously ill. At the beginning of 1945 he was admitted to the Jewish hospital in Berlin, where he died in February 1945. Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski, who was also seriously ill at the time, died ten months later - on December 27, 1945 - in Berlin. She was buried there at the side of her second husband in the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery .

Honors

The grave site for Adolf and Frieda Fischer (hall 74 A)

Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski was a member of several professional societies, such as the German Oriental Society and the Society for East Asian Art, in which she was also a member of the board until 1937.

In 1952 the remains of Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski were transferred from the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee to Cologne, where she was buried in the Melaten cemetery at the side of her first husband, Adolf Fischer. The tomb, which was inaugurated on November 3, 1920, was created by the sculptor Georg Grasegger . The grave, which was extensively restored with funds from the support group of the Museum for East Asian Art, is now maintained by the city of Cologne as an honorary grave .

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the museum's founding, the Cologne City Center District Representation decided in March 2014 to name the path around the Aachener Weiher in the immediate vicinity of the Museum of East Asian Art after Frieda Fischer.

Publications by Frieda Fischer-Wieruszowski

  • with Alfred Salmony: The Chinese stone sculpture. (= Publications of the Museum for East Asian Art, Cologne, Volume 1). Cologne 1922.
  • Museum of East Asian Art. Haas & Grabherr, Augsburg 1922.
  • The art of the east. the East Asian Museum Cologne. German Art and Decoration, Volume 51, 1922, pp. 32–43.
  • with Karl With: The Japanese sculpture. (= Publications of the Museum for East Asian Art, Cologne, Volume 2).
  • Museum for East Asian Art of the City of Cologne Hansaring 32a. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1927.
  • Museum of East Asian Art - Treasures from Cologne museums in Cologne-Deutz, State House. Exhibition catalog. Cologne 1928.
  • The Mongol invasion of Japan: a Japanese scroll. De Gruyter, 1935, East Asian Journal, New Series Volume 11, pp. 121–124.
  • Home decor in Japan. East Asian Journal, New Series, Volume 12, 1936, p. 204.
  • Japanese lacquer art of the 18th century in the service of a European satire. East Asian Journal, New Series, Volume 12, 1936, pp. 213-215.
  • Japanese diary: teaching a. Wandering years. Bruckmann, Munich 1938.
  • Chinese diary: apprenticeship and wandering years. Bruckmann, Munich 1942.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Finding aid of the Museum für Völkerkunde. (PDF) Retrieved July 25, 2016 .
  2. ↑ 100 years of the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne. (No longer available online.) In: www.museenkoeln.de. Archived from the original on July 23, 2016 ; accessed on July 24, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.museenkoeln.de
  3. ^ Museum of East Asian Art: Birthday party at the honor grave. Retrieved July 25, 2016 .
  4. ^ Ulrich S. Soénius (Ed.), Jürgen Wilhelm (Ed.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 157.
  5. ↑ A113 Purchases and Gifts. In: Historical Archive of the City of Cologne - Holdings 608 Culture Department. City of Cologne, accessed on July 25, 2016 .
  6. ^ Announcements of the German Society for East Asian Art . In: East Asian Journal . tape 13 , 1937, pp. 260 .
  7. ↑ 100 years of the East Asian Museum in Cologne. Adolf and Frieda Fischer founded the MOK in 1913. In: www.rheinische-art.de. Retrieved July 25, 2016 .
  8. ↑ A19 - Association for the Promotion of the Museum of East Asian Art. In: Historical Archive of the City of Cologne - Holdings 608 Culture Department. City of Cologne, accessed on July 25, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Musenblätter - The independent culture magazine. In: www.musenblaetter.de. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .
  10. ↑ City of Cologne: Agenda item: naming the path around the Aachener Weiher. In: ratsinformation.stadt-koeln.de. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Open Council Information System. In: politik-bei-uns.de. Retrieved July 24, 2016 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fischer-Wieruszowski, Frieda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Frieda (first married name); Bartdorff, Frieda (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art collector, founder, museum director and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1945
Place of death Berlin