Hannes Hegen

Autograph from Hannes Hegen

Hannes Hegen (actually Johannes Eduard Hegenbarth ; born May 16, 1925 in Böhmisch Kamnitz , Czechoslovakia ; † November 8, 2014 in Berlin ) was a German graphic artist and comic artist .

Life

Memorial plaque on the house, Waldowallee 15, in Berlin-Karlshorst

Hegen studied 1943/44 at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and from 1947 to 1950 at the University of Graphic and Book Art in Leipzig . After that he mainly drew for newspapers and magazines, such as for the satirical magazine Frischer Wind and its successor Eulenspiegel . In 1955 he had the idea of ​​a picture magazine for children and presented it to the Junge Welt publishing house . His magazine Mosaik was launched in the same year. The draftsman now called himself Hannes Hegen and created his life's work between 1955 and 1975 with the Digedags comic series (see also Ritter Runkel ). Hegenbarth moved into a property previously used by the Soviet Army at Waldowallee 15 in Berlin-Karlshorst . The collective that drew the mosaic templates also worked there. Hegen lived secluded in this house until March 2012 and then moved into a nursing home.

Only the first mosaic booklets came directly from Hegen. The other booklets were written by Hegen and the mosaic collective, for example Lothar Dräger (text), Horst Boche, Lona Rietschel , Irmtraud Winkler-Wittig (drawing), Jochen Arfert (coloring), Manfred Kiedorf (models and drawing) and many others others more listened to, designed. The title pages of the mosaic booklet read: "Mosaic by Hannes Hegen".

After a dispute between Hegen and the Junge Welt publishing house, the causes of which were apparently differences over the content and financial demands of Hegen, the Digedag mosaic was discontinued. After a creative break of six months, the mosaic collective launched its own mosaic in 1976 with the Abrafaxes as the main heroes. Hegen took legal action against the Abrafaxe mosaic, in which he saw a copy of his Digedags, and also wanted to prohibit the use of the name "mosaic", but failed.

The painter Emanuel Hegenbarth (1868–1923) and graphic artist Josef Hegenbarth (1884–1962) were his great uncles, and he was related to the actress Wolke Hegenbarth (* 1980).

Hannes Hegen was with the former costume designer Edith Hegenbarth geb. Szafranski (born January 19, 1924; † May 7, 2008) married, whom he accepted as an employee in his mosaic collective in March 1957. Edith Hegenbarth created a large number of secondary mosaic figures and figurines . After the death of his wife in 2009, Hannes Hegen donated his extensive archive with several thousand original drawings to the Contemporary History Forum Leipzig . Hannes Hegen died on November 8, 2014 at the age of 89 in Berlin. He was buried on November 18, 2014 in the Karlshorster and Neue Friedrichsfelder Friedhof in Berlin-Karlshorst.

Awards and honors

In 2008, Hegen received the Max and Moritz Prize , the most important German award for comic artists from the Erlangen International Comic Salon .

In 2010 he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his creative work .

Since November 8, 2019, there is a memorial plaque on his former home at Waldowallee 15 in Berlin-Karlshorst.

Exhibitions

• Dig, Dag, Digedag. GDR comic "Mosaic" from February 17 to May 28, 2012 in the Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig , from April 11 to August 3, 2014 in the museum in the Kulturbrauerei in Berlin and from September 27, 2014 to March 1, 2015 in the Dresden Transport Museum .

literature

Books

• Bernd Lindner : The three lives of the draftsman Johannes Hegenbarth . Tessloff Verlag , Nuremberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7302-2015-3 .
• Reiner Grünberg, Michael Hebestreit: MOSAIK-Handbuch. The world of Digedags . Lehmstedt , Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-942473-22-4 .
• Mark Lehmstedt : The secret history of the Digedags. The publication and censorship history of the "Mosaik" by Hannes Hegen (1955–1975) . Lehmstedt, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-937146-99-7 .
• Matthias Friske : The story of the mosaic by Hannes Hegen. A comic legend in the GDR . 3rd revised and supplemented edition. Lukas , Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86732-067-2 .
• Thomas Kramer : Micky, Marx and Manitu. Contemporary and cultural history as reflected in a GDR comic 1955–1990: “Mosaic” as the focus of media experiences in NS and in the GDR . Weidler, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89693-195-4 (Dissertation University of Leipzig 1989, 405 pages).

Contributions

• Jörg Sobiella : How the Thälmann pioneers came to Karl May's wild west , radio feature on the history of MOSAIK, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , December 16, 1995
• Michael F. Scholz : Mosaic. The first years . In: Eckart Sackmann (Ed.): German comic research . tape 2 . Sackmann and Hörndl, Hildesheim 2005, p. 102-111 .
• Andreas Platthaus: The return of Dig, Dag and Digedag. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 14, 2009.
• Matthias Dell: The last adventure of the Digedags. In: Friday. July 8, 2009.
• Thomas Kramer : Off to Lord Groggy in England. In: Friday. December 27, 2002.
• Michael F. Scholz :  Hegenbarth, Johannes . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Hannes Hegen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hannes Hegen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Hannes Hegen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Hannes Hegen in the Mosapedia
• Hannes Hegen in the Comiclopedia (English)
• Stefan Pannor: GDR comic "Mosaic": The three little escape helpers. In: Spiegel Online . 17th February 2012.
• Andreas Platthaus: Comics in the GDR: The goblins and their pioneers. In: FAZ . February 22, 2012.
• Brigitte Hofmann: Three artists, one family. City of Murrhardt shows the Hegenbarths. Haller Tagblatt , April 1, 2015, accessed on December 23, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ A comic entrepreneur in the GDR. In: FAZ . November 14, 2014, p. 12.
2. ↑ Christoph Dieckmann: Farewell to the fairy tale king. In: Die Zeit , November 20, 2014
3. ↑ Doreen Beilke: Moving visit to his heroes. In: image . April 21, 2012, accessed November 14, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Reiner Grünberg, Michael Hebestreit: MOSAIK-Handbuch. The world of Digedags . Lehmstedt Verlag , Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-942473-22-4 , p. 251-253 .
5. ↑ Papa Digedags, why are you hiding from us? In: Berliner Kurier . January 5, 2012, accessed November 14, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Father of Digedags is dead. (No longer available online.) In: MDR . November 13, 2014, archived from the original on November 13, 2014 ; accessed on November 14, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Patrick Ziob: Farewell - Thanks for the many trips, Hannes Hegen. (No longer available online.) In: Superillu . November 15, 2014, archived from the original on November 29, 2014 ; Retrieved November 19, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Norbert Koch-Klaucke: On the funeral of Hannes Hegen - bye, Papa Digedags. In: Berliner Kurier . November 18, 2014, accessed November 19, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Memorial plaque for Hannes Hegen: The father of the Digedags. Press release from the Lichtenberg District Office, October 25, 2019.