Fritz Schwerdt

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Fritz Schwerdt (born June 2, 1901 in Pforzheim ; † May 19, 1970 in Aachen ) was a German church goldsmith .

Life

Folded chalice, 1956

Fritz Schwerdt completed his training as an enameller in the years 1917–1918 . This was followed by several years of employment as an employed enamel painter . In the early 1920s Schwerdt attended the Badische Kunstgewerbeschule Pforzheim and the Goldschmiedeschule Pforzheim . After two years as an enameller and draftsman in the workshop of the Aachen goldsmith Bernhard Witte , he decided on the art of church goldsmithing .

From 1929 to 1933 Fritz Schwerdt attended the Aachen School of Applied Arts , directed by Rudolf Schwarz . As a member of the “Werkgemeinschaft” propagated by Schwarz, Schwerdt designed and produced numerous groundbreaking works; outstanding are the two ever-light candlesticks , the small crucifix, the altar candlesticks and the chalice with the rock crystal mode for the Corpus Christi church in Aachen .

In 1933 Schwerdt worked as an employee of Professors Rudolf Schwarz , Hans Schwippert (both architecture), Anton Wendling (glass painting) and Anton Schickel (goldsmith's art). From this creative period come u. a. the sacred furnishings of the St. Albertus Magnus chapel in Leversbach and the eternal light for the chapel of Rothenfels Castle .

After the National Socialists' dissolution of the School of Applied Arts in 1934, Fritz Schwerdt devoted himself as an independent master goldsmith exclusively to the design of liturgical implements. Together with former teachers and students from the Aachen School of Applied Arts, he continued Schwarz's “Werkhütten thought” in Aachen. The outstanding result of this collaboration was “The German St. Michael Altar” (in the “Pavillon Catholique Pontifical”) at the 1937 Paris World Exhibition .

(Life) Tree Monstrance, 1947

After the war, Fritz Schwerdt manufactured liturgy devices for numerous churches in Germany. The overriding principle of the designs was "geometric simplification" and "visualization of the assembly". Significant works from this period were the “tree monstrance” of the St. Marien Hospital in Ratingen, the “angel monstrance” of St. Martin in Aachen, the “goblet of folds” or the tabernacle of St. Laurentius in Munich .

In 1958, Fritz Schwerdt and his colleague, Hubertus Förster (* 1929), founded the goldsmith's workshop “Schwerdt - Förster”, which existed until 1969. During this time, the furnishings of the Tholeyer Benedictine Abbey of St. Mauritius , the tabernacle and the lecture cross in the St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin and important, fundamentally new works such as the "Disc Monstrances" and the "Stele Tabernacles" were created.

Fritz Schwerdt died on May 19, 1970 in Aachen.

Works (selection)

For the 40 years of his activity, liturgical devices are documented in more than 120 churches in Germany alone (from 1958 from the Schwerdt - Förster workshop community):

Exhibitions (selection)

  • CULT AND FORM - New Protestant, Catholic and Jewish Applied Art, Berlin 1930.
  • CULT AND FORM - New Protestant, Catholic and Jewish cult work, Hamburg 1931.
  • Religious art of the present, Folkwang-Museum, Essen 1932.
  • Catholique Pontifical Pavilion, World's Fair, Paris 1937.
  • International exhibition “Contemporary Christian Art”, Cologne 1948.
  • ARS SACRA - Young Christian Art, Aachen 1951.
  • Arte Liturgica in Germania, Rome 1956.
  • the new church, Cologne-Deutz 1956.
  • Ars Sacra, Leuven 1958.
  • Biennale for contemporary Christian art, Salzburg 1958 and 1960.
  • International enamel exhibition Hilversum, 1960.
  • Religious art of our time, Hamburg 1965.
  • Liturgy vessels. Church and Design, Trier 1997.
  • Fritz Schwerdt - pioneer of modern sacred art, Aachen 2010.

Literature (selection)

  • P. Gregor Hexges (Hrsg.): Anno sancto 1933/34 - Furnishing art in the house of God. Bauwelt-Verlag, Berlin 1934.
  • Georg Lill et al. August Hoff: Yearbook for Christian Art 1940. Publisher of the German Society for Christian Art, Munich 1940.
  • Georg Lill et al. August Hoff: Yearbook for Christian Art 1946/1947. Publishing house of the German Society for Christian Art, Munich 1946.
  • Karlheinz Goerres: On 4 monstrances by Fritz Schwerdt - From the old salvation in a new shell. In: Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung. No. 12/1955. Rühle-Diebener-Verlag, Stuttgart 1955.
  • Karlheinz Goerres: On the tabernacles by Fritz Schwerdt - God's dwelling in our time. In: Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung. No. 12/1956. Rühle-Diebener-Verlag, Stuttgart 1956.
  • Karlheinz Goerres: To five goblets from Fritz Schwerdt - measuring devices by a qualified hand. In: Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung. No. 12/1957. Rühle-Diebener-Verlag, Stuttgart 1957.
  • Hans Dennhöfer: Church utensils - yearbook for Christian art 1957/58. Publishing house of the German Society for Christian Art, Munich 1958.
  • Cathrin Menne-Thomé: The gold and silversmith's workshop Schwerdt - Förster. In: THE MÜNSTER. Issue 1–2 / 1966. Schnell + Steiner GmbH publishing house, Regensburg 1966.
  • Adam C. Oellers : 50 years of church art in the diocese of Aachen. In: Habitat Diocese of Aachen. Einhard-Verlag, Aachen 1982. ISBN 3-920284-09-7 .
  • Adam C. Oellers and Sylvia Böhmer: Being moderate means organizing sensibly. Rudolf Schwarz and Albert Renger-Patzsch. Museums of the City of Aachen, Aachen 1997. ISBN 3-929203-17-0 .
  • Cathedral chapter Aachen (ed.): Fritz Schwerdt - pioneer of modern sacred art. Exhibition catalog. Aachen 2010.
  • Raphael Schwerdt: Fritz Schwerdt - Modern sacred art from four decades. Tübingen 2017. ISBN 978-3-00-056210-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kunstgewerbeschule Aachen (ed.): New cult device. Work classes Wilhelm Giesbert and Anton Schickel . Aachen undated [1932].
  2. ↑ August Brecher: A young parish in Aachen's east quarter - the parish of St. Corpus Christi 1930–1996. , P. 33ff. einhard verlag, Aachen 1997. ISBN 3-930701-26-X .
  3. ↑ Art Service Berlin: The German St. Michael Altar. Wilhelm Limpert, Berlin 1937.
  4. ↑ Adam C. Oellers: Sacred Art - Sacred Goldsmith's Art of the 1930s from the Aachen School of Applied Arts. In: Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung. No. 12/1980, p. 29. Rühle-Diebener-Verlag, Stuttgart 1980.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schwerdt, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German church goldsmith
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Pforzheim
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1970
Place of death Aachen