Friedrich Kurt Fiedler
Kurt Fiedler (born March 8, 1894 in Eichbusch , † November 11, 1950 in Dresden ) was a German graphic artist . Kurt Fiedler was open to the life reform movement from an early age and had various connections to the Werkbund , Kunstwart and Dürerbund . During the Weimar Republic he made a name for himself as an advertising artist and illustrator . In the post-war years he was one of the best-known poster designers in East Germany .
Life
Childhood and youth
Kurt Fiedler was born in the municipality of Eichbusch near Dresden as the son of the carpenter foreman Friedrich Emil Fiedler and his wife Augusta Emilie Nitzschner. When a teacher drew her attention to her son's talent, they enabled him to do an artistic training after graduating from elementary school, despite little financial means .
Around 1910 Kurt Fiedler attended evening school at the Dresden School of Applied Arts together with Hermann Glöckner and the later architect Edmund Schuchardt . Here students from simple backgrounds were supported. They received training in aesthetic product design within the meaning of the Deutscher Werkbund . Fiedler and Hunchback visited the class life drawing at Carl Rade . From 1911 to 1915 Kurt Fiedler studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule as a scholarship holder from a private patron and master class under Richard Guhr and Josef Goller .
First World War and Weimar Republic
During the First World War , Fiedler was initially used as a frontline soldier in France. He learned French through self-study and served as an interpreter.
After 1920 he and his young family moved to Dresden-Blasewitz into an apartment in the Dürerbundhaus . Not only were the offices of the Kunstwart and Dürerbund here, but also the library of the Dürerbund founder Ferdinand Avenarius, and this is where the Falken publishing house , which later became famous, was founded around 1925 . Kurt Fiedler was also a member of the Association of German Commercial Graphics . With the chairman of the Dresden local group, Bruno Gimpel , he remained personally connected even after the National Socialist " seizure of power ".
Kurt Fiedler had many stimulating contacts in this environment and he quickly made a name for himself. 1. Secretary of the Dürerbund and at the same time editor of the SPD newspaper Dresdner Volkszeitung was Wolfgang Schumann . Fiedler designed the head of this newspaper. For the Dürerbund and Callwey Verlag he illustrated the constellations book by Hermann Häfker , for the Dresden Planetarium book titles and from 1926 onwards he designed around 100 titles for journeys and adventures as well as the series Mit Sarrasani in South America by Hans Stosch-Sarrasani . The Dresdner Verlag Rudolph published many books for mass consumption on entertainment and advice topics with graphics by Kurt Fiedler, including several volumes from the successful Talisman library . The series was edited by Harry Winfield Bondegger and was committed to the Neugeist movement . Only a few copies have survived of the Jüdische Jitze , which appeared in two editions up to 1930. An unknown author satirically used the pseudonym H. Itler .
During the 1920s , Kurt Fiedler was a sought-after poster designer . He received important commissions from the Justus Friedrich Güntz Foundation , including the 43rd Federal Festival of the Federation of German Cyclists and the large anniversary edition of the Dresdner Anzeiger (1930). Kurt Fiedler was awarded a prize for a poster for the 1929 World Advertising Congress in Berlin. The tourism industry was one of his most important clients as a commercial artist . After 1930 he also made some well-known drawings .
National Socialism
After a short break around 1930, Kurt Fiedler and his family returned to the Dürerbundhaus, where they shared a floor with their brother-in-law Edmund Schuchardt and his Jewish wife Fanny. (The floor had previously been occupied by Else Avenarius, the widow of Ferdinand Avenarius and daughter of Rudolf Doehn .) After the "seizure of power" by the National Socialists in 1933, Kurt Fiedler, known as an active SPD member, was soon searched. He stayed at a distance from the new regime in the years that followed. When the Nazis carried out their propaganda exhibition Degenerate Art in 1937 , he instead drove to the World Exhibition in the Palais de Chaillot in Paris with the support of BG Teubner . He created advertising graphics for Ilse Bergbau AG and Christoph & Unmack on the occasion of company anniversaries.
During the Second World War Kurt Fiedler was used as an interpreter in a company of French prisoners of war. From September 1940 they had to set up a prisoner-of-war camp in Zeithain and were later relocated to Niedergeorgenthal . His family was threatened because of protests by Kurt Fiedler against the inhumane camp conditions. The experiences of this time had a lasting impact on his political attitude. After his retirement in 1942, he worked at the TH Dresden as a technical draftsman .
The Dürerbundhaus perished on February 13, 1945 when Dresden was destroyed . Fanny Schuchardt was spared the transport to the concentration camp , which was scheduled for February 16 . Until the end of the war she kept in hiding with the help of papers that Kurt Fiedler had forged for her sister-in-law, and so survived the Holocaust as a Jew in Dresden .
post war period
After the destruction of Dresden, Kurt Fiedler and his family were taken in by his brother Martin Fiedler in Eichbusch . He was involved as head of the local council of Rockau and worked on the board of the association of visual artists in the Kulturbund in Dresden. As an artistic employee of the SED's regional leadership in Saxony , he was formally equal to Wilhelm Schubert , who came from the KPD and later won the GDR national prize . His son Frank became a teacher and a well-known homeland researcher.
Kurt Fiedler is counted among the most important designers of political posters in the post-war years. Many works from this period, including a poster for the DEFA documentary film Junkerland in Bauernhand (1947) by director Joop Huisken , are now in the German Historical Museum , the Academy of Arts (Berlin) , the Federal Archives , the Leipzig City History Museum and the City Museum Bautzen . Junker land in peasant hands is also shown in a permanent exhibition in the House of History in Bonn.
A historical feature
Kurt Fiedler from Dresden has repeatedly been confused with the impressionist Kurt Fiedler (born November 19, 1878 in Berlin) in the past . The works and life data of Friedrich Kurt Fiedler were "transferred" to Kurt Fiedler from Berlin. This error goes back to Dressler's art manual, which incorrectly assigned the address of Friedrich Kurt Fiedler's family in Dresden-Gruna around 1930 . Kurt Fiedler from Berlin lived at Bülowstrasse 20 from 1908 until at least 1943 . Dressler's mistake was continued in the General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the 20th Century .
estate
Part of the estate is in the Dresden City Archives (collection 17.6.3.5: 79 files; drawings, advertising graphics, political posters, book cover designs, newspaper advertising).
literature
- Frank Fiedler , Uwe Fiedler: Between Dürerbund and Kulturbund. From the life of the Dresden graphic artist Kurt Fiedler . In: Sächsische Heimatblätter vol. 55, 2009, 1, ISSN 0486-8234 , pp. 10-18.
Web links
- Documentation on life and work, 31 p. (PDF, 6 MB)
- Article ( memento from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) in the (former) personal wiki of SLUB Dresden
- Biography in the Stadtwiki Dresden
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Glöckner - A Patriarch of Modernity . Published by John Erpenbeck . The morning. Berlin 1983. pp. 44-45.
- ↑ Usage graphics. Vol. 2, 3/1925. Prof. HK Frenzel (ed.). Publishing house Phöenix Illustrationsdruck und Verlag GmbH Berlin.
- ↑ Dürerblatt. ed. from the Dürerbund. 45th sheet. December 1926.
- ↑ wiedler.ch ( Kurd Kisshauer : The starry sky in the field glass . Prometheus books series , Walter Dexel concept ; The Planetarium of the City of Dresden . Güntzsche Foundation )
- ^ Ernst Günther: Sarrasani. History and stories . Edition Sächsische Zeitung 2005.
- ^ Butler, Hiram E. (San Francisco). Practical methods of ensuring success. Secrets of sex life; Buchanan, Uriel (Chicago). How to Gain Presence of Mind and Energy; Kritzinger, HH Earth rays, stimulus strips and divining rod
- ↑ www.dhm.de (poster giant prelude 43rd Federal Festival of German Cyclists )
- ↑ Hiertstein - Katzenstein area . Printing: Wilhelm Limpert. Dresden, around 1930. Poster, offset print 59 × 46 cm. Font: Grotesque & Fraktur. Austrian National Library Vienna, collection of leaflets, posters and ex-libris, EPOC holdings.
- ^ Catalogs of the Dresden art exhibitions Brühlsche Terrasse 1931, 1933, 1935, 1936.
- ↑ www.deutschefotothek.de (drawing Sonja and Frank - the two oldest children of Friedrich Kurt Fiedler)
- ↑ German Office (WASt)
- ^ Fritz Donner: Exhibition on the 30th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic . Berlin, Altes Museum. October 3 to December 31, 1979, p. 324.
- ↑ Dr. Sylke Wunderlich: Pasted over - posters from the GDR . Schwerin, August 24 to October 21, 2007. Exhibition catalog pp. 11, 48, 157, 173.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fiedler, Friedrich Kurt |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fiddler, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German graphic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 8, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Eichbusch |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 11, 1950 |
| Place of death | Dresden |