Gerhart Bettermann

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Gerhart Bettermann (born February 23, 1910 in Leipzig ; † November 16, 1992 in Winnemark ) was a German painter and graphic artist . He was one of the most influential artists in Schleswig-Holstein's cultural policy after 1945.

Life

The years up to 1932

His artistic ambitions met with rejection from his mother and father, a train driver. In addition to his training as a locksmith, he could only secretly attend the adult education center in Leipzig. Through the painting and drawing course, he got to know Alfred Frank , who encouraged him. At the age of 18, he completed his apprenticeship as the best of his year. Instead of continuing to work in his teaching company, he wandered through Germany, southern Europe and Palestine .

Together with Gregor Gog , Hans Tombrock and Hans Bönnighausen he founded the artist group of the Brotherhood of Vagabonds . It was within this group that the idea of ​​the International Vagabond Congress , which took place in Stuttgart in 1929 , arose . In 1931 the artist group joined the communist ASSO , which Bettermann had already joined in 1929.

He was awarded the Saxon State Prize at the Leipzig Art Exhibition in 1931 for his picture of the unemployed in the attic . Between 1931 and 1933 he traveled to Scandinavia and Egypt .

1933-1945

After the Second World War, Bettermann was seen in Schleswig-Holstein as a prime example of a committed leftist artist who was persecuted as a “degenerate artist” under National Socialism . Politicians such as the then Prime Minister Björn Engholm praised him in greetings to exhibition catalogs as an artist who “deals critically with our present day.” As shown in two publications in 2010 and 2011, this representation was pure fiction and was based on that of Bettermann himself since Self-expression circulated in the 1950s.

According to this version, which he himself also successfully established in art history, Bettermann came to the north in 1933 on the run from the National Socialists and had to make ends meet there as a poor man. In fact, he cooperated with the local National Socialists in the north for years and came from Berlin in an automobile he had bought himself. In Berlin in 1934 he was able to sell a painting to the Prussian Ministry of Culture, which was run by the National Socialists, for the impressive sum of 2000 RM. In 1936 he received a scholarship from this ministry, which he denied in the post-war period. In 1937, while redesigning the town hall hall in Kappeln , he created a wall painting in which two central figures raised their arms in the Hitler salute. In a special supplement to the local newspaper for the inauguration of the town hall hall, a high- ranking NSDAP cultural functionary praised Bettermann's work as "exemplary". On March 9, 1937, Bettermann himself set himself apart in this newspaper from an "empty and pathologically exaggerated malepoch" from the time before 1933 and committed himself to the "community idea", the National Socialist national community .

While some of his older works were removed from the museums in the years up to 1937, Bettermann was able to sell a number of paintings to party officials after 1937 and successfully establish himself as an artist in the National Socialist state.

After 1945

After the end of the war, Bettermann was initially a “doubting and seeker” before he quickly rose to become an important cultural functionary in post-war Schleswig-Holstein. a. 1954 co-founded the state professional association of visual artists Schleswig-Holstein . Until 1970 he was its first chairman. The circumstances of the rapid ascent have not yet been investigated. It is assumed, however, that the fact that in 1954 all but one of the state government ministers were former NSDAP members played a role.

In 1956 he founded, together with other artists such as Hanns wheel and Curt Stoermer the board 56 . Better husband died in 1992 in Winnemark , a village near Kappeln, where he worked in a converted the former home and studio Kate lived.

literature

  • Matthias Schartl: "My top priority is honesty". The painter Gerhart Bettermann and his alleged escape to Schleswig-Holstein . In: Grenzfriedenshefte, Vol. 58, 2011, Issue 1, pp. 15–40 ( online ).
  • Nicolaus Schmidt : The painting of the Kappelner Rathaussaale in 1937 - the other side of Gerhart Bettermann's biography . In: Art History. Open Peer Reviewed Journal, 2011 ( urn : nbn: de: 0009-23-28534 )
  • Gerd Gruber, Marlies Schmidt, Wittenberg (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), Cranach Foundation: Departure into Modernism: Graphics of the early 20th century from the Gerd Gruber Collection, Cranach Foundation, Wittenberg, 2008, p. 256.
  • Gerhard Winkler: Gerhart Bettermann: An old master of the ASSO tradition. In: Fine arts . 1980, ISSN  0006-2391 , pp. 321-323.
  • Painter in Schleswig-Holstein. Gerhard Bettermann. Illustrated book, with an introduction by Wilhelm C. Halbach, Schleswiger Druck- und Verlagshaus, Schleswig 1977, ISBN 3-88242-007-3 .
  • Richard Süd: Decision for reality: the painter Gerhart Bettermann. In: Fine arts . 1960, ISSN  0006-2391 , pp. 303-307.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhart Bettermann, Painting and Graphics, Catalog, Ed. Magistrat der Stadt Kappeln, 1989, no page number
  2. ↑ a b http://www.kunstgeschichte-ejournal.net/253/ Nicolaus Schmidt: The painting of the Kappelner Rathaussaales 1937 - the other side of Gerhart Bettermann's biography, in: Kunstgeschichte, Open Peer Reviewed Journal, article 2011
  3. ↑ Matthias Schartl, "my highest principle is honesty, the painter Gerhart Bettermann and his alleged escape to Schleswig-Holstein - in: Grenzfriedenshefte 1/2011, p. 14 ff
  4. ^ Gerhart Bettermann, Painting and Graphics, Catalog, Ed. Magistrat der Stadt Kappeln, 1989, p. 5
  5. ↑ Matthias Schartl, "my highest principle is honesty, the painter Gerhart Bettermann and his alleged escape to Schleswig-Holstein - in: Grenzfriedenshefte 1/2011, p. 22 ff
  6. ↑ Sven Bohde in Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitung from November 20, 2010: The flaw in the curriculum vitae - The artist Gerhart Bettermann may have worked more closely with the National Socialists than he admitted during his lifetime.
  7. ↑ http://www.kunstgeschichte-ejournal.net/253/ Nicolaus Schmidt: The painting of the Kappelner Rathaussaales 1937 - the other side of the biography of Gerhart Bettermann, para. 6ff, in: Kunstgeschichte, Open Peer Reviewed Journal, article 2011
  8. ↑ http://www.kunstgeschichte-ejournal.net/253/ Nicolaus Schmidt: The painting of the Kappelner Rathaussaales 1937 - the other side of Gerhart Bettermann's biography, para. 12, in: Kunstgeschichte, Open Peer Reviewed Journal, article 2011
personal data
SURNAME Bettermann, Gerhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1992
Place of death Winnemark