Fritz Koch-Gotha

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Fritz Koch-Gotha (born January 5, 1877 as Friedrich Robert William Koch in Eberstädt , † June 16, 1956 in Rostock ) was a German graphic artist, draftsman, caricaturist, illustrator and writer.

Life

Friedrich "Fritz" Koch was born as the son of reserve lieutenant and estate inspector William Koch and his wife Emma, ​​b. Arnoldi, born in Eberstädt near Gotha . In 1880 the family moved to Breslau , but only four years later they returned to Gotha, where Koch completed elementary school and grammar school. In 1895 he graduated from commercial college here. Since he was denied the military career desired by his father due to an accident (a fall while doing gymnastics with subsequent hearing loss), he followed his artistic inclinations and studied painting from 1895 to 1899 at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and the Kunstakademie Karlsruhe .

From 1902 he worked in Berlin as a freelance illustrator and press draftsman , in 1904 he moved permanently to the capital of the Reich, where he became a permanent employee of the renowned Berlin illustrators of Ullstein Verlag . Many of his works also appeared in the Ullstein magazines Funny Leaves and Die Woche . In the years before the First World War, Koch became Germany's most popular draftsman and caricaturist. In 1908 and 1909 he went on study trips to Russia, Paris and Turkey, whose impressions he recorded in numerous sketches.

In order to stand out from the numerous Berlin artists of the same name, he added the suffix -Gotha to his last name at this time - in memory of the city in which he had spent most of his childhood and youth. He himself justified this step with the witty sentence: “There are many cooks, but only one Koch-Gotha!” Several of his drawings and caricatures showing small town scenes are clearly inspired by motifs from Gotha and can sometimes be assigned very precisely to location. In 1917 he also designed some war emergency money for his hometown .

In 1914 Ullstein-Verlag published the Koch-Gotha-Album , which is of contemporary historical value due to its humorous descriptions of the milieu of the Wilhelmine era. Koch-Gotha's best-known work, however, is still The Bunny School , a story by Albert Sixtus , with whom his career as a children's book author and illustrator began in 1924. The indescribable success of this picture book, of which one year later an edition was marked 60. – 62. Edition - 243th thousand bears, may be in the parody of the school operations at that time and its pedagogy:

“Fritz Koch-Gotha knew how to give the trivial subject of school, the conventionally frozen presentation schemes of the primers ... an unexpected twist beyond the scenes to be expected in painting, sport, music and botany. This consists in the surprising otherness of depicting rabbits in a child-like rabbit milieu instead of children ... In the same year the illustrator ... tries to use the unexpectedly high success through ... more rabbit stories ... before other illustrators take up the topic. "

- Ulrich Hann

In 1933 he ended his press work after the National Socialists wanted to use the famous illustrator for their propaganda purposes. At the time he asked a representative of Goebbels: "Can you imagine an SA man signed by Koch-Gotha?"

In 1940 the artist published the picture book With Saber and Gun :

“With a saber and rifle” by Fritz Koch-Gotha (Stuttgart 1940) belongs to the militaristic upbringing under the swastika flag. I mention it because, for once, it was drawn by a skilled hand, full of life and atmosphere, witty observed and obviously the work of a sympathizer who knows how to arouse enthusiasm for the thing he is describing. But it's a picture book of the soldier game . It leads into the boys' world and not into the military of men or the war of soldiers ... But showing the military is not yet propagating National Socialist ideology. It happened and happens outside of National Socialism. "

- Hans Ries

After the destruction of his Berlin apartment in 1944, in which almost all of his drawings were lost, Koch-Gotha and his wife Dora finally moved to Althagen (now part of Ahrenshoop ), where the couple had owned a house as a summer residence since 1927. After the war he drew, among other things, for the satirical newspaper Frischer Wind , which later became Eulenspiegel .

Honors

  • In 1910 Koch-Gotha received the Menzel Prize for his artistic achievements.
  • In 1937, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, a personal exhibition of his works was shown in the Gothaer Kunsthalle (today the exhibition hall in the park ).
  • On the occasion of his 70th birthday on January 5, 1947, Koch-Gotha was made an honorary citizen of the Hanseatic City of Rostock and a street was named after him as Koch-Gotha-Straße.
  • There is a Koch-Gotha-Platz each in Ribnitz-Damgarten and Karlsruhe .
  • In Gotha, a memorial plaque on his former home at Uelleber Straße 4 reminds of the draftsman.
  • Koch-Gotha is also one of the 36 Honored Citizens of the City of Gotha.
  • Since 2016 there has been a bronze sculpture in front of the house at Koch-Gotha-Straße 10 in Rostock, designed by the Rostock sculptor Joachim Friedrich, based on the motifs of the “Bunny School”: A rabbit teacher teaches a rabbit pupil standing in front of the blackboard.

reception

“The cook is a funny number: he can draw like Anton von Werner , smooth, correct, photographically correct. But he doesn't stick with it like the boot painter: he saw the middle class in Berlin quite correctly and laughs. Actually more with him than about him, he doesn't have a hard heart, he's just happy because it's all so funny [...] and then he saw and showed where these Berliners from 1912 stand, who still like to be from Want to be 1875. He saw the cliché sharply. Here the Berliner is in its purest form [...] It doesn't go too deep with Koch. Maybe it shouldn't work because a cautious editorial team dampened the good-natured man even more. "

- Kurt Tucholsky

The educational message of the bunny school is used many times today, such as B. also the Struwwelpeter , viewed very critically:

“And the lesson content used to be easier to understand, just as the rabbits were well served with painting eggs and harvesting cabbage vegetables… the dream of the“ bunny school ”is fatal… because the beautiful colorful pictures don't help either… We take it as what it is: Trash ! Just forget about the "bunny school"! "

- Wolfram Hänel

family

Koch-Gotha had been married to the painter Dora Koch-Stetter (1881–1968), who belonged to the painters 'circle of the Ahrenshoop artists' colony , since 1917 . Their only daughter Barbara was born in 1919. She worked as a painter and ceramist and from 1943 married the painter, graphic artist and ceramist Arnold Klünder .

Others

Gravestone of Koch-Gotha's father William Koch
Grave in the Wustrow cemetery

The grave of Koch-Gotha's father William Koch (1845–1918), which is adorned by a large, natural stone block, is still in the main cemetery in Gotha . Since the name and dates of his son's life were chiseled under William Koch's name and dates in commemoration, it is often wrongly assumed that the painter is also buried here. In fact, Koch-Gotha found his final resting place in the cemetery of the Baltic resort of Wustrow on the Fischland.

Works (selection)

  • Illustrations to J. Swift  : Gulliver in Liliput. (Text: Otto Ernst), Ullstein, Berlin 1912
  • The bunny school. (Text: Albert Sixtus) Alfred Hahn's Verlag, Leipzig 1924, (New edition: Esslinger-Esslinger, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-480-40008-9 )
  • All my bunnies - A funny picture book for bunnies . Alfred Hahn's Verlag, Leipzig 1928 (new edition: Thienemann-Esslinger, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 978-3872860514 )
  • Oops - we're coming! : A fun teddy book. (Author: Walter Andreas) Alfred Hahn's Verlag, Leipzig 1931 (New edition: Alfred Hahn's Verlag, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 978-3872861399 )
  • "Waldi": A funny dachshund book. (Author: Walter Andreas) Middelhauve, Opladen 1949 (New edition: Thienemann-Esslinger, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-480-40055-3 )
  • The chicken "Sabinchen". (Author: Marianne Speisebecher ) Alfred Hahn's Verlag, Leipzig 1940 (New edition: Thienemann-Esslinger, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-480-40023-2 )
  • Fix and fax: a funny mouse story. (Author: Walter Andreas) Alfred Hahn's Verlag, Leipzig 1935 (New edition: Thienemann-Esslinger, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 978-3872860309 )
  • Koch Gotha album. (Author: Georg Hermann et al.) Ullstein & Eysler, Berlin 1914
  • The Schildbürgerbuch from 1598. (Author: Ruth Kraft ) Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 1954 (New edition: Torgauer Verl.-Ges., Torgau 2004, ISBN 978-3930199105 )
  • The Bremen Town Musicians: An old German fairy tale. (Pictures by Wilhelm M. Busch ) Hahn's Verlag, Hamburg 1950 (New edition: Hahn, Hamburg 1982, ISBN 3-87286-036-4 )
  • Air Force songbook. (Piano edition) Vieweg, Berlin 1940
  • With saber and rifle. (Author: Richard Fietsch) Loewe, Stuttgart 1940
  • The Fischland: A home book. (Author: Käthe Miethe) Hinstorff, Rostock 1949 (New edition: Das Fischland. Hinstorff, Rostock 2015, ISBN 978-3356006353 )
  • Holidays in the bunny school. (Authors: Anne Mühlhaus and Fritz Mühlhaus) Thienemann-Esslinger, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3480401062

literature

  • Eva-Suzanne Bayer-Klötzer:  Koch-Gotha, Fritz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , p. 279 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Ulrich Hann: The history of the development of the German-language picture book in the 20th century. An examination of the constitution of the world in picture books and an attempt to classify it in terms of art and social history . Göttingen 1977 (unpublished dissertation)
  • Hans Ries: Attempt on German picture books , in: Amélie Zech (Hrsg.): Picture book - companion of childhood: Catalog for the exhibition on the development of picture books over three centuries . Museum Villa Stuck, Munich 1986, pp. 10–52
  • Michael F. Scholz :  Koch-Gotha, Fritz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Regine Timm (Ed.): Fritz Koch-Gotha (= classic caricature; Vol. 6). Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin 1971.
  • Bernhard Nowak : Fritz Koch-Gotha Drawn Life , Eulenspiegel-Verlag Berlin, 1956
  • Hermann Hofmann: Fritz Koch-Gotha, the artist and man. In: Mecklenburgische Monatshefte. Volume 7, 1931, pp. 473–478 (PDF; 5.8 MB) ( digital copy )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hann 1977, p. 487 f
  2. ↑ Ries 1986, p. 48 f
  3. ↑ Martin Stolzenau: Talented graphic artist from Fischland: Fritz Koch-Gotha was made an honorary citizen of Rostock in 1947. In: svz.de. Retrieved October 16, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Honored Citizens of the City of Gotha
  5. ↑ Juliane Hinz: Rostocker Koch-Gotha-Straße has been adorned with a bronze sculpture by the sculptor Wolfgang Friedrich since Saturday. In: svz.de. Retrieved October 16, 2016 .
  6. ^ Kurt Tucholsky: The Berlin Bush. In: Vorwärts from November 11, 1913, Berlin 1913
  7. ↑ Don't buy! "The Bunny School" is Trash , taz , March 27, 2013, p. 18. (shortened quote)
  8. ↑ Heidrun Lorenzen (Ed.): Dora Koch-Stetter: ways to Ahrenshoop. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-931836-65-7 , p. 95
  9. ↑ Part four of the legendary "Bunny School" surfaced . Daily newspaper Die Welt , February 9, 2016

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Koch-Gotha, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, Friedrich Robert William (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist, draftsman, caricaturist, illustrator and writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Eberstädt
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1956
Place of death Rostock