Grete Dircks

Grete Dircks, around 1963 on Amrum

Grete Dircks (born March 6, 1904 in Stralsund , † August 1968 in Berlin ) was a German sculptor and ceramicist.

She created fountains and ceramics for public gardens in Berlin and the Green Week . Her specialty was the material Eternit .

Life

education and study

Grete Dircks was born on March 6, 1904 in Stralsund as the daughter of the principal studies director in Hanover , Hans Dircks and Toni Dircks, born. Juch born. After completing primary school, she attended Lyzeum I in Hanover until 1919. In 1922 she began an apprenticeship with master potter Hoffmann in Haynau in Silesia. 1922-1924 she attended the ceramic college in Bunzlau at the same time . From 1928 to 1929 she worked for the Working Group for German Craft Culture and the German Craft Institute in Berlin. She organized exhibitions and worked in the archive. From April 1 to October 1, 1925, she worked as a ceramist in the oven and crockery factory Albrecht Thienel Nachf. In Breslau. In 1925 she took part in the horticultural exhibition in Liegnitz with vases designed by her. From 1925 to 1928 Grete Dircks studied as a student of the German sculptor and medalist Ludwig Gies (1887–1966) at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg and finished her studies with an atelier examination. In 1927 she took part in an exhibition at the educational establishment, for which a catalog was created.

Professional activity as a ceramicist and teacher

From 1929 to 1930 she worked in the faience factory Uffrecht u. Co. in Neuhaldensleben as a ceramist and head of the painting department and was involved in the production of models. In 1931 she moved to the state majolica manufacture in Karlsruhe . Here she made drafts and designed the manufacture's stand at the building exhibition in Berlin in 1931. In 1931/32 she worked in the Berlin studio of the designer and interior architect Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot (1883–1960). From 1933 to 1937 she conducted folklore studies with a special focus on pottery at the State Museum for German Folklore Berlin and wrote the book "Schöpferische Gestaltung der Deutschen Volkskunst."

From 1934 she began working as a teacher. She gave courses for drawing and handicraft teachers for the care of German folk art at the Central Institute for Education and Teaching in Berlin (1934-1937). From 1936 to 1938 she was also a lecturer at the Werklehrerseminar of the city of Berlin. 1936–1939 she edited workbooks for Otto Maier Verlag Ravensburg. From 1939 to 1942 she served in the war for the German women's organization and the Red Cross. She worked in sewing rooms. Then (1942–1945) she studied at the University of Berlin. She pursued art history studies with the aim of doing a doctorate, so she was released from the war. During this time, she also worked as an employee of the art history writer Werner R. Deusch for the magazine Atlantis at Atlantis Verlag Berlin Zurich. Due to the circumstances, she was unable to take the gifted test as a substitute for the Abitur.

After the end of the war she dropped out of studies and resumed teaching. From 1945 to 1949 she was a teacher of ceramics at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. She headed the ceramic workshop. In the years after the war, the workshop faced considerable difficulties as a result of the occupation of the building by the Russian occupying forces. Nevertheless, she designed and designed numerous vessels, e.g. B. a tea service. She had to have the kiln repaired and materials to be brought in. Due to the poor performance of her class, she had to file the resignation and was therefore not promoted to professor.

In the following years she mainly worked as a freelance ceramist. She set up a ceramics workshop in a villa she shared with the expressionist painter Otto Freytag in Berlin-Schlachtensee (Reifträgerweg 11) and made numerous ceramics and fountains for public gardens in Berlin. Her specialty was working with colored Eternit.

1958-1959 she participated in teacher training courses for handicraft education. As part of this activity, she made pottery with students at various schools in Berlin-Zehlendorf.

She lived with Otto Freytag (1888–1980) from around 1934 onwards. Together with him she created various ceramic works. For example in 1960 a Pieta as a ceramic relief with glaze for the newly built Protestant church in Sinzig. Otto Freytag portrayed Grete Dircks several times.

Since 1956 she was a member of the Association of Berlin Women Artists (VdBK).

Grete Dircks died of a heart attack in Berlin in August 1968.

exhibition

Exhibition in the Association of Berlin Women Artists: 1956

Works

She created numerous ceramic objects and arrangements for the Green Week in Berlin.

For the pond at the radio tower she designed a seal sculpture as a gargoyle.

For the 1954 Green Week she created a clay pelican.

She designed a fountain in the Japanese garden of the exhibition halls at the radio tower (1958).

For the war welfare burial sites in the village cemetery in Berlin-Kladow, she designed grave slabs made of Eternit and ceramics.

For the 1957 industrial exhibition she designed a fountain (Eternit with ceramic and glass stone mosaics).

She designed ducks as gargoyles for the Käthe Kollwitz Foundation in 1958

In the Stadtpark Berlin-Reinickendorf, she created a bird bath from shell limestone. The design of the gardens came from the garden architect Schiller-Bütow.

For the garden of the listed Braasch house in Berlin, at Erlenbusch 24, she created floor vases.

She designed numerous large vases for the garden of the Buchthal house, then owned by Kammersänger Fischer-Dieskau, in Berlin-Charlottenburg Lindenallee 22.

On August 14, 1957, she applied for a patent for a container and bowl she had designed.

Fonts

• Creative design of German folk art. Maier, Ravensburg 1935. (With 37 drawings by the author and 73 photographs).
• Dircks, Grete: What is folk art? From "Creative design of German folk art". In: Würtemberg, 18th year 1986 pp. 428–30
• Dircks, Grete: Color brings life. Eternit colored. In: The Garden Department. Journal for all questions of official horticulture. Frankfurt / Main, 7. J. 1958, N. 2, pp. 16-18

literature

• Association of Berlin Women Artists (ed.): Käthe, Paula and the rest . Kupfergraben, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-89181-411-9 .
• Heinz-Joachim Theis (Ed.): Berlin and Brandenburg - Ceramics of the 20s and 30s (= Märkische Ton-Kunst; Vol. 2) (= component ... of the German Historical Museum, Berlin, Vol. 10), Cantz, Stuttgart 1992 , ISBN 3-89322-497-1
• General artist lexicon, artist database, ID 30167747
• International art address book, Volume 3, edited by Walter Kaupert, Publisher: Deutsche Zentraldruckerei. Berlin 1956

swell

• Archive of the UDK Berlin, personnel files
• Grete Dirck's estate (Pastenaci collection)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fuhrmann, Dietmar: Käthe Paula and all the rest. Ceramics from the 20s and 30s. Lexicon of women artists . Kupfergraben, Berlin 1992.
2. ↑ The Berlin daily newspaper "Der Tagesspiegel" often published reports and photos about your work. See Der Tagesspiegel from July 17, 1960, p. 28 Haus Hof Garten, illustration of a decorative jug with a vase by Grete Dircks.
3. ↑ See Otto Freytag. An artist's life in times of upheaval. Ed. Thomas Hengstenberg, Unna district. Haus Opherdicke 2011 exhibition catalog. Here you can find the images of 3 oil paintings: Portrait of Grete Dirks p. 111, Grete D. in Sofaecke p. 118, Grete D. in wicker chair 1954, p. 121
4. ↑ This information comes from a portfolio with factory photos from the estate of Grete Dirks in my possession.
5. ↑ On a postcard from the 1954 Green Week of the pond and fountain systems you can see the pelican on the right and two ceramic ducks on the left. See https://www.zvab.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30090545942&searchurl=hl%3Don%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3Dgruene%2Bwoche%2Bberlin&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp2-_-image3#&gid=1&pid= 1