Fritz Witschetzky

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Fritz Witschetzky (born June 21, 1887 in Dresden , † September 12, 1941 in Flensburg ) was a German naval officer and painter.

life and work

The son of a wholesale merchant began his marine career in 1906 at the Mürwik Naval School . From 1916 to 1918 he was an artillery officer on board the auxiliary cruiser SMS Wolf . The chief seaman Theodor Plivier was also on board . Both recorded this longest patrol that a warship had ever undertaken without outside support from different perspectives: Plivier in his novel Des Kaisers Kulis , Witschetzky in the report The Black Ship , which he provided with his own illustrations. This work was not only published in several editions, but was also translated into other languages ​​and in some cases also edited several times there. In addition, Witschetzky has dealt with other episodes in German naval history in other publications.

In 1919 Witschetzky joined the Ehrhardt Marine Brigade . After its dissolution, he was taken over by the Reichsmarine and was from 1923 to 1926 teacher of artillery and naval war history at the naval school Mürwik. From 1926 to 1933 he was director of the artillery and navigation department at the Wilhelmshaven naval shipyard. Since 1930 Witzschetzky frequented the artist village Fischerhude, especially with the sisters Olga Bontjes van Beek and Amelie Breling. In September 1932 he met the painter Franz Radziwill , whose friend and student he became. In gratitude, he introduced Radziwill to the highest naval circles. Under the influence of Radziwill, Witschetzky began his double existence as a naval officer and painter, both exhibited together and in 1933 went on a trip to Berlin and the Netherlands, in 1936 they both painted together on the Flensburg Fjord. After Witschetzky was transferred to the Naval School Mürwik in 1933 as a teacher of naval tactics and naval history, he tried in vain to acquire Radziwill's war images of the western front and eastern front for the assembly hall of the naval school. In Flensburg, Witzschetzky made contact with the local art scene around Käte Lassen , Hans Holtorf and museum director Fritz Fuglsang . In 1935 he became a member of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts . After participating in exhibitions in Flensburg and Kiel, the Hamburger Kunstverein showed a solo exhibition of Witschetzky's works in May 1938, which was taken over by the Overbeck Society in Lübeck and the Kunstverein Flensburg.

His artistic estate, which includes around 60 paintings, is located on the Museumsberg Flensburg .

Works

  • The black ship: war and pirate trips of the auxiliary cruiser "Wolf" . Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, 7th edition 1930
    • Le navire noir: le croiseur auxiliare Wolf 1916-1918 . Paris: Payot, 1929 (translation by René Jouan)
    • El navío negro: las hazañas del crucero auxiliar "Wolf" durante la Gran Guerra 1916-1918 . Barcelona: Joaquín Gil, 1930 (version española de JGG)
  • The Navy. Images from German naval history . Wilhelmshaven: F. Eissing, 1929.
  • The cormorant: stories from the other end d. World . Stuttgart: Union 1927.
  • The fishery protection voyage and Norway voyage of the small cruiser "Arcona": A diary . Carlottenburg: Verlag "Open Words", 1922.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Painting in Schleswig-Holstein . Catalog of the municipal painting collection. Museums Flensburg, Heide 1989, pp. 328-340.
personal data
SURNAME Witschetzky, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and naval officer
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1941
Place of death Flensburg