Fritz von Graevenitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fritz von Graevenitz (1956)
Fritz von Graevenitz: Horse sculpture in front of the Federal Statistical Office , Wiesbaden
Angel of judgment in the Stuttgart collegiate church

Fritz von Graevenitz (born May 16, 1892 in Stuttgart ; † June 6, 1959 in Gerlingen ) was a German painter , sculptor and teacher .

Life

Graevenitz was the son of the late Wuerttemberg general of infantry and military plenipotentiary in Berlin, Friedrich von Graevenitz (1861-1922) and his wife Marianne, nee Klotz. From 1903 to 1910 he received a military education in the cadet schools in Potsdam and Berlin-Lichterfelde . In 1911 he came to the Grenadier Regiment "Queen Olga" in Stuttgart, which he left in 1918 as captain . During the First World War he was used in various combat zones in France, Serbia, Russia and Poland. Shortly after the start of the war in 1914, he suffered a serious head injury that almost completely destroyed the vision of his right eye. Both brothers, Richard and Karl, died in the war.

In 1919 von Graevenitz began, despite his father's resistance to the artist profession, to study fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart with professors Ludwig Habich and Alfred Lörcher , which he gave up again in 1920 to study at Gustav-Britsch- Institute for Fine Arts in Starnberg to continue studying. In 1921 he began his work as a freelance artist on the Solitude . A short time later his father died in 1922 and his younger sister Elisabeth in 1923. He often tried to depict her face and character in his sculptures.

In 1926 he married the doctor and psychotherapist Jutta Baronesse Notthracht von Weißenstein , who came from Munich. Four daughters were born from this marriage: Irmgard (* 1927), who with Robert Bosch jun. was married to Ulla (* 1930), Dorothea (* 1933), who is married to Erik Hornung , and Mechthild (* 1935). By marrying his sister Marianne, he was Ernst von Weizsäcker's brother-in-law .

In 1935 von Graevenitz portrayed Adolf Hitler . The bronze bust figured a year later in the Stuttgart Nazi show "Swabian Cultural Creation of the Present" accompanied by a major event with Joseph Goebbels . In 1937 von Graevenitz was appointed as a teacher of sculpture at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts and one year later he was appointed director. In this function, he announced at the time, in accordance with the system:

“It is the task of art education in schools and universities to set standards again, to awaken a new artistic attitude that is gradually able to overcome the chaos that has arisen in generations of lack of style. The academy of bild. Künste Stuttgart made the task of serving the truth of form and thus doing their part in the renewal and rejuvenation of the artistic spirit. Because in the past, the individual artist was isolated and only too often inclined to get lost in experiments that remained meaningless for the people as a whole, the cultural tasks of the Third Reich demanded the incorporation of all artistic forces into the national community. The academy wants to work in this sense ”.

Graevenitz was promoted as an artist by the National Socialists and was represented several times at the Great German Art Exhibitions in the Munich House of Art , such as in 1940 with a bronze youth and in 1943 with a "maiden" made of zinc. The Vienna exhibition Young Art in the German Reich in 1943 showed five of his works, including a portrait bust of Christian Mergenthaler . In 1940 Graevenitz had to go to the Höchenschwander eye clinic for several months because of the deterioration in his eyes . There he began to paint because he was forbidden to work on the stone. In the final phase of the Second World War, Hitler included him in the God-gifted list of the most important visual artists in August 1944 , which saved him from military service. "At the end of the month of December" 1945, von Graevenitz, knowing full well, that he would not be re-used in the upcoming reconstitution of the institute, which had been closed since 1944 due to the effects of the war, (and that, by the way, affected all professors of the academy, with the exception of four full-time teachers of the former arts and crafts school) , Retired "at his request". However, he continued to work artistically as a sculptor and painter on the Solitude.

Graevenitz has published several books about his work in the context of the time, beginning in 1933 with his notes, originally made only for himself and his family, Sculpture in Sun and Wind - Experiences and Sensations in the execution of the four evangelist symbols on the tower of the Tübingen collegiate church . His book Art and Soldierhood , published after the beginning of the Second World War , was placed on the list of literature to be segregated in the Soviet zone of occupation in 1946 .

Fritz von Graevenitz died on June 6, 1959 in Gerlingen and was buried in the Solitude military cemetery. After his death in 1971 his wife founded the Fritz von Graevenitz Museum . The Fritz von Graevenitz Foundation was established on April 29, 2002 by the artist's heirs.

Works (selection)

Von Graevenitz mainly created monuments, cenotaphs, fountains, portraits and animal figures, most of which are in public space:

  • Inscription and municipal coat of arms (1923, Gerlingen, Jahnhalle)
  • Lion , Muschelkalk (1923, Stuttgart, attachments)
  • Monument to the fallen (Malmsheim)
  • Obelisk with eagle , shell limestone (1927, Stuttgart, Rotebühlbau)
  • Dolphins , bronze (1929, Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, Inselbad)
  • Kneeling , Muschelkalk (1928, Stuttgart, Waldfriedhof)
  • "Brezelbüble" , travertine (1928, Oberesslingen, now Index-Werke)
  • "Erbsenbüble" , travertine (1929, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt)
  • Hirsch , cement cast relief (1929, Hirschlanden , school building, later town hall)
  • Four evangelist symbols , shell limestone (1932/33, Tübingen, collegiate church)
  • Mother home , Muschelkalk (1932–1954, Stuttgart, Waldfriedhof)
  • Standing horse , travertine (1934, Stuttgart, now Robert Bosch Hospital)
  • Adolf Hitler , bronze (1935)
  • Rising Horse , Muschelkalk (1936, Stuttgart, Killesberg Park)
  • Schneckenburger Memorial (1937, Tuttlingen, Stadtgarten)
  • Redesign of the Speyrer Church in Ditzingen as a memorial for the fallen of the First World War (1937)
  • Eisenbarth fountain , shell limestone / bronze (1937/38, Magdeburg)
  • Imperial Eagle [6 meter span], bronze (1938, Königsberg i. Pr., Erich-Koch-Platz)
  • Daimler monument , bronze (1950, Schorndorf, town hall)
  • Eugen Bolz , bronze bust (1951, Stuttgart, Landtag)
  • Gerlinger Löwe , bronze (1953, Gerlingen, Schillerhöhe)
  • Horse , shell limestone (1956, Wiesbaden, Federal Statistical Office)
  • Gazelle , bronze (1957, Gerlingen)
  • Rössle fountain (1957, Gerlingen)
  • Angel of Judgment , Muschelkalk (1957/58, Stuttgart, collegiate church)

In 1940 von Graevenitz published the book Art and Soldierhood , which Glorified War.

literature

  • Werner Fleischhauer : The sculptor Fritz von Graevenitz. In: Württemberg. Monthly in the service of people and homeland, 1932, pp. 483–485.
  • The sculptor Fritz von Graevenitz. In: Württemberg. Monthly in the service of people and homeland, 1936, pp. 422–425.
  • Helmuth Seible: Fritz von Graevenitz: Becoming and Work . Stuttgart: Verlag Silberburg, 1939.
  • Hermann Missenharter: The sculptor Fritz von Graevenitz. In: Swabia. Monthly books for people and culture, vol. 11, 1939, pp. 585–606.
  • Wolfgang Hesse: Fritz von Graevenitz '"Mother of Home". Sculptural spirit. In: Karlheinz Fuchs (editor): Exhibition series Stuttgart in the Third Reich. [3]. The seizure of power. From the republican to the brown city. Stuttgart 1983, pages 47-49.
  • Julia Müller: The sculptor Fritz von Graevenitz and the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart between 1933 and 1945: Fine arts as a symptom and symbol of their time. Steiner, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-515-10254-4 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmuth Seible: Fritz von Graevenitz: Will and work . Stuttgart: Verlag Silberburg, 1939, Fig. 1.
  2. ↑ Swabian culture of the present . Stuttgart, March 4 to April 14, 1936, exhibition cat., P. 39, no. 2. The sculpture was displayed in the Stuttgart art building .
  3. ^ Fritz von Graevenitz: Who wants to be an artist ... In: Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, City of Germans Abroad. Stuttgart: G. Göltz [print], [1939], p. 8.
  4. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 195.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Kermer : Data and images on the history of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart . Stuttgart: Edition Cantz, 1988 (= improved reprint from: The State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart: a self-presentation . Stuttgart: Edition Cantz, 1988) o. P. [10]
  6. ↑ list of literature to be sorted out from polunbi
  7. ↑ Adolf Schahl: The world of form . In: Konrad Theiss, Hermann Baumhauer (ed.): The district of Leonberg . Aalen / Stuttgart [1964], p. 70.
personal data
SURNAME Graevenitz, Fritz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graevenitz, Friedrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, sculptor and teacher
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH June 6, 1959
Place of death Gerlingen