Friedrich Adolf Sötebier

Signatures from Friedrich Adolf Sötebier

Signature of Friedrich Adolf Sötebier from 1961. The signature is composed of the capital letters of the name Friedrich Adolf Sötebier (FAS) and the year 61 (for 1961).

Signature of Friedrich Adolf Sötebier from 1950. The signature is composed of the written name Friedrich Adolf Sötebier and the year 1950. The next signature is also on the portrait medallion.

Signature of Friedrich Adolf Sötebier from 1950. The signature is composed of the capital letters of the name Friedrich Adolf Sötebier (FAS). The previous signature is also on the portrait medallion.

The signature is composed of the capital letters of the name Friedrich Adolf Sötebier (FAS) and the year 68 (for 1968).

Friedrich Adolf Sötebier (born March 19, 1896 in Hohenbostel , † February 22, 1973 in Wennigsen (Deister) ) was a German academic sculptor. He became known for his interpretation of Martin Luther in his Luther statues. In Springfield , United States of America , he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1957. His artistic role models were Lucas Cranach the Elder , Ernst Barlach , Aristide Maillol and Wilhelm Lehmbruck . His plants are located in Germany, the United States of America and Canada.

Life

Friedrich Adolf Sötebier was born on March 19, 1896 in Hohenbostel . Because his parents died early, he grew up with his aunt in Hanover . He attended the Tellkampfschule high school in Hanover in the Südstadt district . His favorite school subject was drawing lessons; there he developed his drawing skills. In Darmstadt he studied electrical engineering at the Technical University of Darmstadt . In 1919 he began to study architecture at the Technical University of Hanover , but had to drop out due to lack of money. In 1920 he applied in vain for admission to the State Bauhaus Weimar . He later studied at the arts and crafts master school in Cologne. To finance his studies he worked in wood carving workshops. From 1924 he studied sculpture with the sculptor and professor Karl Killer (* 1873 - † 1948) and with Professor Joseph Wackerle (* May 15, 1880 - † March 20, 1959) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . From 1927 he was a master student of Professor Joseph Wackerle. He then went to Berlin , where he taught life drawing , head drawing and modeling. There he created the bronze girl figure in 1930 , which had stood in the village street of the former fishing village of Tiefwerder in Spandau until it was removed and melted down in the course of the non-ferrous metal collections in World War II . Friedrich Adolf Sötebier belonged to the Munich artist cooperative Luitpold Group Bund Munich and took part in the Düsseldorf - Munich Art Exhibition, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf from May 14th to August 31st, 1932. During the Third Reich , he gave up artistic work. In 1946 he was a co-founder of the "Association of Free Visual Artists".

On March 30, 1931 he married his wife Elsbeth geb. Litsche (* 1896; † 1977). The son Oskar-Adolf (born December 23, 1931) emigrated to Canada in 1952 and the son Fritz-Eilert (born March 17, 1936) also emigrated to Canada in 1954.

In 1948 Friedrich Adolf Sötebier returned to Hanover. Until 1959 he last lived at Podbielskistraße 288 (former house number 116, renamed 288). His studio was there in his apartment on the fifth floor. Until 1959, his workshop was located near this apartment in a barrack on Grete-Jürgens-Straße, which has since been demolished. He taught life drawing, head drawing and modeling at the Volkshochschule Hannover . In 1959 he built his house with workshop and studio in Wennigsen (Deister) according to his own ideas at Wiesenstrasse 25. He died on February 22, 1973 in Wennigsen; he was buried there in the cemetery.

Works (selection)

Bronze figures

Youth fountain in Wennigsen

Friedrich Adolf Sötebier created the 200 cm high bronze figure "Sinnende" in 1957. It stands in the city park of Hanover on the left outer wall of the "Rosencafé".

Portraits on portrait reliefs

Portrait relief of the architect August Heinrich Andreae on his tomb in the old St. Nikolai cemetery in Hanover.

Portrait of Johann Gerhard Helmcke on the Helmcke monument in the Georgengarten in Hanover.

Portrait relief of Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty on his tomb in the old St. Nikolai cemetery in Hanover.

Portrait relief of Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty on his tomb in the old St. Nikolai cemetery in Hanover.

Bust of Adolf Tellkampf in the foyer of the Tellkampf School in Hanover

• 1930: The bronze girl figure stood in the village street of the former fishing village of Tiefwerder in Spandau , the exact location in the village street at that time is not known. The 20 kilogram figure was removed and melted down as part of the non-ferrous metal collections in World War II .
• 1950: The Tellkampf bust is in the entrance area of ​​the Tellkampfschule grammar school in Hanover , Altenbekener Damm 83, in the Südstadt district .
• 1950: Redesign of the Second World War destroyed Relief - medallion with a portrait of Johann Gerhard Helmcke on Helmcke Memorial in George Garden of Hanover at the mansions Avenue corner Schneiderberg Franziusinstitut. The portrait relief bears the signature of Friedrich Adolf Sötebier. The Helmcke memorial was created in 1928 in honor of Johann Gerhard Helmcke (1750-1824), a wealthy master baker from Calenberger Neustadt, who bought Herrenhäuser Allee from the French around 1807 during the French occupation, thereby saving the avenue from being deforested . Several of the trees planted by Ernst August Charbonnier in 1726/27 are still standing at the entrance to the avenue on Königsworther Platz . The Helmcke memorial was renewed in 1950 after war attacks in World War II; Friedrich Adolf Sötebier created the portrait medallion. The inscription on the shell limestone block was designed by another artist, whose artist signature has not yet been identified (as of April 2012).
• 1954: Figure of Oscar Winter from the Holzmarktbrunnen at the Holzmarkt in Hanover . The Holzmarktbrunnen stands in front of the Leibnizhaus .
• 1957: Friedrich Adolf Sötebier created the 200 cm high bronze figure Sinnende in 1957 without commission. It was later set up by the city of Hanover in the city ​​park of Hanover. It is located there on the left outer wall of the Rosencafé. The access is from Clausewitzstrasse to Kleefelder Strasse as far as the Rosencafe sign .
• 1957: The bronze bust of the regional bishop August Marahrens is probably in the Loccum monastery , Im Kloster 2, 31547 Rehburg-Loccum.
• 1958: Bronze sculpture of a floating figure as a memorial in the Böhler Friedhof in Plettenberg .
• 1957: The bronze Luther statue stands on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne , Indiana , United States .
• 1960: Luther at 38 stands as a second version of the bronze statue of Fort Wayne in front of the First Lutheran Church in Louisville , Kentucky , United States .
• 1960: The Luther bust is in Wennigsen (Deister) on Degerser Strasse on the forecourt of the monastery church. It is a replica of the head of the bronze statue that Friedrich Adolf Sötebier made for the city of Springfield, Illinois, but which is now in Fort Wayne .
• 1961: Portrait relief by Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty on the 1901 memorial in the old St. Nikolai cemetery in Hanover. The portrait relief bears the signature of Friedrich Adolf Sötebier.
• 1968: Reproduced portrait relief of August Heinrich Andreae on his tomb in the old St. Nikolai cemetery in Hanover.
• Bust of Frieda Fey (born 1875 in Springe near Hanover, died 1963 in Münster )
• The flute player is in the schoolyard of the Adolf Grimme School at 38 Langenäcker Street in Barsinghausen . The original flute is no longer there, it has been replaced by a short bronze pipe.
• 1972: The Jünglingsbrunnen was commissioned by the Transport and Beautification Association Wennigsen and the last completed work by Friedrich Adolf Sötebier. It stands in Wennigsen (Deister) next to the Klosteramthof street , around which the Wennigsen monastery, the parish hall and youth center of the Marien-Petri parish, the memorial for the victims of fascism and a residential building are grouped. At the time, sculpture broke a taboo, and many Wennigers were outraged by the naked youth.

Master student

• 1952–1962 Irmgard Siebrecht
• 1960 Henning Voss

Honors

• For the Luther statue on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield (Illinois) , he received an honorary doctorate from the local university in 1957. The model for the Luther statue was a copper engraving from 1520 and a painting from 1526 by Lukas Cranach the Elder . The Luther statue was moved to the Concordia Theological Seminary campus in Fort Wayne , Indiana , United States in the fall of 1976 .

Quote

Martin Luther 1526 by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Friedrich Adolf Sötebier used this image as a template for his Luther statues.

Friedrich Adolf Sötebier wrote in December 1950 at the beginning of his artistic career about the nature of portraiture:

• To clarify, let me say a few things that may sound immodest here and there about the nature of the art of portraits: The portrait is not about bringing an objective idea, but more about a congruence of the given form, the one way or another is to win convincingly with the essence of what is depicted. "Faces have their origin in those who see them," said an important figure. The human being is more than an anatomical structure made of flesh and bone. Schopenhauer once defended himself against the painter Hamel against an inferior way of representing and being represented with the words: “The portrait is excellently painted, but it is not me. This is a limited village mayor. Remember, young man, the portrait shouldn't be a mirror image, the daguerreotype delivers that better. The portrait has to be a lyrical poem from which a whole personality speaks to you with all of his thinking, feeling and wanting. "May I quote the remarks of the critic P. Wertheim:" If the photographer had already existed in Luther's time, then the image that he would have had to pass on to us of the great reformer would probably have been quite different from this type of defiant, unshakable religious fighter that Cranach created for the world and who embodies for us the epitome of Luther's struggle against God. Perhaps we would have had nothing more than a typical monk's face in the photographed Luther, perhaps a fanatical, spiritual one, but perhaps just that of a successful church politician who also attached great importance to the enjoyment of this earthly existence, and would thus be poorer by one great illusion. The imaginary, the spiritual personality, that is what he peels out of the person of Luther as heartwood, as that which is worthy of eternity. "

literature

• Ehrtfried Böhm (texts), Reinhold Lessmann (photos): new plastic in hannover / sense of art, patronage, urban aesthetics / an example in the mirror of two decades. Steinbock-Verlag, Hannover 1967, p. 29, 83 and ö.
• Friedrich Wüllner: From Wennigsen's past. Contributions to local history. Wennigsen, Eigenverlag, 1973, p. 112.
• Newspaper article A life between stone and sculpture in the Leine-Nachrichten of the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of March 13, 2013.

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Adolf Sötebier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ He admired Wilhelm Lehmbruck's sculpture Die Kniende .
2. ↑ Admission on a trial basis and rejected applications for admission as well as withdrawn registrations by students.
3. ↑ Karl Killer
4. ^ Düsseldorf - Munich Art Exhibition, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf from May 14 to August 31, 1932.
5. ↑ See here
6. ↑ Günther Jahn: The buildings and art monuments of Berlin - city and district Spandau , Verlag Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1971, page 355
7. ↑ Announcements No. 202 of December 1st, 2009 page 3 - 7 ( Memento of the original of March 3rd, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 911 kB) of the Association of Alumni of the Tellkampfschule (formerly Realgymnasium) zu Hannover e. V. 
8. ↑ Announcements No. 204 of December 1, 2010, pages 8 - 10 ( Memento of the original of September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) 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. (PDF; 6.9 MB) of the association of alumni of the Tellkampfschule (formerly Realgymnasium) zu Hannover e. V. 
9. ^ Rainer Ertel: Holzmarktbrunnen. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 307.
10. ↑ Illustration from 1967 in: Ehrtfried Böhm, Reinhold Lessmann: neue plastik in hannover ... page 29.
11. ↑ Hans Otte:  Marahrens, August. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 100 f. ( Digitized version ).
12. ^ Lexicon of the city of Plettenberg.
13. ^ Smithsonian American Art Museum: Entry in the Art Inventories Catalog
14. ↑ German: Luther at the age of 38. When Martin Luther was thirty-eight years old in 1521, he stood before the Diet of Worms and refused to revoke his Lutheran teaching.
15. ^ Smithsonian American Art Museum: Entry in the Art Inventories Catalog.
16. ↑ http://www.reisebuero-cruising.de/images/web/Tourismus-Service/Informationsmaterial/GruenerFaden2011.pdf The Green Thread. Circular routes through Wennigsen am Deister. Page 3 number 6.
17. ^ Helmut Zimmermann : From the stone gate to Herrenhausen. Forays into Hanover's history. Verlag Ellen Harenberg-Labs, 1986, ISBN 3-89042-018-4 , p. 20.
18. ↑ http://www.reisebuero-cruising.de/images/web/Tourismus-Service/Informationsmaterial/GruenerFaden2011.pdf The Green Thread. Circular routes through Wennigsen am Deister. Page 2 number 4.
19. ↑ Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of February 16, 1972.
20. ↑ Henning Voss
21. ↑ The Luther statue on the campus of Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield.
22. ↑ Quotation from communications no. 76 ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 911 kB) of the Association of Alumni of the Tellkampfschule (formerly Realgymnasium) zu Hannover e. V., published Easter 1951.