Fritz Witte

Fritz Witte (born February 18, 1876 in Dorsten , † March 2, 1937 in Cologne ) was a German Catholic clergyman and art historian .

Life

After graduating from high school, WItte studied theology in Münster and Rome . In 1900 he was ordained a priest in Münster and was subsequently spiritual teacher at the Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck until 1904 . During this time, he studied art history in Münster with a doctorate on the St. Patrokli Cathedral in Soest in 1906.

After the Alexander Schnütgen Collection was donated to the City of Cologne in 1906, Witte became the first custodian of the new Schnütgen Museum after the extension to the Kunstgewerbemuseum Cologne was completed . In 1912 and 1913 he published the first scientific inventory catalogs of the textiles, wooden sculptures and metalwork in the collection. In 1915 he was temporarily acting director of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, but volunteered as a division pastor on the French front, from where he returned in November 1917 and resumed work at the museums. Shortly before Schnütgen's death in January 1918, Witte became the first director of the Schnütgen Collection and in the same year had to accompany the plans for the war relocation of the cathedral and the museums, which were no longer carried out due to the end of the war. Witte's work at the Cologne Institute for Religious Art , which began at the beginning of the 1920s - (incorporated as a faculty into the Cologne School of Art and Crafts in 1926 ) - has so far been researched and appreciated in the context of the artistic expressions of the liturgical movement , as have the résumés and works of the various artists who worked there until 1933.

Grave site (Südfriedhof)

In 1921 Witte acquired the crucifix from St. Georg in Cologne for the Schnütgen Museum . In the following year Fritz Witte became honorary professor at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Cologne . In 1926 Witte acquired the Altenberg vestments and anonymously donated his own art collection to the Schnütgen Museum. After the Schnütgen collection was removed from the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Witte moved the collection to the Heribert monastery in Deutz from 1931 to 1932 .

After his death, Adolf Feulner succeeded Witte as general director of the arts and crafts collections. Hermann Schnitzler became the first curator and in the same year provisional director until he was appointed director in 1953.

Witte's grave is located in Cologne's Südfriedhof (hall 42 no. 129). Part of his scientific legacy is in the historical archive of the City of Cologne . A consolidation and inspection of received documents etc. was not systematically carried out after 1937. The Schnütgen Museum owns rather private legacies. The art collection that was left behind and acquired after 1926 went into the possession of the Schnütgen Museum at the time of death, as did the remains of his library.

literature

• Heinrich Lützeler : Fritz Witte in memory . In: Vestische Zeitschrift , Volume 44, 59–62

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Witte in the catalog of the German National Library