Fritz Bergen

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Heilbronn , view of the sugar factory on the Rosenberg
Illustration for Andrew Brown the red spy by Friedrich J. Pajeken in the first edition from 1894.

Fritz Bergen (born November 5, 1857 in Dessau , † January 9, 1941 in Munich ) was a German painter and illustrator .

Life and artistic activity

Fritz (actually Friedrich) Bergen was born as the son of the actor, director and set designer at the Ducal Court Theater in Dessau , Ludwig Bergen , and his wife Wilhelmine, nee. Greve, born. From 1877 to 1879 he studied at the Leipzig Art Academy; on October 27, 1879, his entry into the nature class of the art academy in Munich is documented, where he continued his education until 1891. In the meantime, he stayed in Stuttgart in 1884/85 to illustrate works by Friedrich Wilhelm Hackländer (1816–1877) for Krabbe Verlag. In 1883 he married Magdalena Raab from Inning am Ammersee, where her father Alois Raab held the post of postmaster. The marriage had three sons: Claus , born in Stuttgart in 1885, became a draftsman and painter like his father; Hans , born in Munich in 1890, and Otto, born in Munich in 1896. The latter was a childhood friend of the future fighter pilot Ernst Udet , joined the Air Force during the First World War and fell in an aerial battle over Heudicourt in Lorraine in 1917.

Fritz Bergen officially settled in Munich in 1895. He was a member of the Munich Artists' Cooperative and also belonged to the Association of German Illustrators . He was a co-founder and in 1927 chairman of the Süddeutscher Illustratorenbund , Landesgruppe Bayern. He provided countless drawings as templates for the wood engraving illustrations of the popular magazines of the time, such as Die Gartenlaube , Illustrierte Zeitung , Leipzig, Vom Fels zum Meer , Neuer Deutscher Jugendfreund and the daughter album published by Thekla von Gumpert . Book publishers in Stuttgart and Leipzig favored his “sharply characterizing” illustrations, which appeared in youth publications and adventure stories by John F. Cooper , Charles Dickens , Carl Falkenhorst , Eugène Sue , Jón Svensson and others, among others . Around 1900 he illustrated the second complete edition of Ottilie Wildermuth's works for Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft , edited by her daughter Adelheid. In addition to wood engravings , his work was also implemented as line etchings and (color) autotypes . At the turn of the century he was "one of the busiest German illustrators". As a painter he preferred to work in oil but also in gouache technique (tempera). He preferred “dramatically moving scenes accented with light effects”. Bergen's strength lay in the "design of milieu and ambience". In 1888 he painted the portrait of the publisher Carl Friedrich Ernst Frommann for the Leipzig bookseller's house .

Archival material

  • Registration documents (PMB): Bergen, Friedrich : Munich, City Archives.

literature

  • Bergen, Fritz . In: Ulrich Thieme , Felix Becker (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker. tape 3 : Bassano – Bickham . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1909, p. 393 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Wilhelm Spemann: Golden Book of Art. Spemann, Berlin / Stuttgart 1901, No. 1112.
  • Wilhelm Spemann: Art Lexicon. A handbook for artists and art lovers. Spemann, Berlin / Stuttgart 1905 (edited with the assistance of G. Aarland).
  • Association of German Illustrators (Hrsg.): Black and white: a book of drawing art. Fischer & Franke, Berlin 1903, p. 104 (fig.).
  • Friedrich Jansa: German visual artists in words and pictures. Jansa (self-published), Leipzig 1912.
  • Horst Ludwig: Munich painter in the 19th century. Volume 1: Adam – Gaupp. Bruckmann-Verlag, Munich 1981.
  • Friedrich Schegk: Lexicon of travel and adventure literature. Corian-Verlag, Meitingen 1988 (contains a complete bibliography on Fritz Bergen and illustrations).
  • Marcus Osterwalder: Dictionnaire des illustrateurs: 1890-1945: XXe siècle, première génération: illustrateurs du monde entier nés avant 1885 (artistes du livre, dessinateurs de la presse et de la mode, caricaturistes, bédéistes et affichistes). Ides et Calendes (Édition), Neuchâtel (Switzerland) 1992 (edited with the assistance of JA Agelink van Rentergem).
  • Hans Ries: Illustration and illustrators of books for children and young people in German-speaking countries 1871–1914. The range of images from the Wilhelminian era. History and aesthetics of the original and printing techniques. international lexicon of illustrators, bibliography of their work in German-language books and magazines, on picture sheets and blackboards. [Research project on historical children's and youth literature within the framework of the research center for children and youth literature at the University of Cologne]. Wenner-Verlag, Osnabrück 1992 (published with the assistance of Theodor Brüggemann).
  • Art Chronicle. Weekly for arts and crafts. Seemann-Verlag, Leipzig 1886, p. 187.
  • Art Chronicle. Weekly for arts and crafts. Seemann-Verlag, Leipzig 1888, pp. 139, 160.
  • LJ Reitmeier: Dachau. Views and testimonials. Dachau 1976, 167-169.
  • Siegfried Weiß : Art career aspiration. Painter, graphic artist, sculptor. Former students of the Munich Maximiliansgymnasium from 1849 to 1918. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-86906-475-8 , pp. 341–342 (Claus Bergen).
  • H. Ries: Bergen, Fritz . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 9, Saur, Munich a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-598-22749-3 , p. 335.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Bergen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ matriculation 1841-1884, 03749 Fritz mountains.
  2. ↑ Kerstin Theis: Wehrmacht Justice on the "Home Front": The Military Courts of the Replacement Army in World War II . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-040561-3 , p. 96 ( google.de [accessed on July 30, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b c d H. Ries: Bergen, Fritz . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 9, Saur, Munich a. a. 1994, ISBN 3-598-22749-3 , p. 335.
personal data
SURNAME Bergen, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Dessau
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1941
Place of death Munich