Hans Grohs

Hans Friederich Grohs (formerly / also: Hans Groß ; * December 12, 1892 in Pahlen ; † November 28, 1981 in Heide (Holstein) ) was a German painter ( expressionist ) and deputy director at the Nordic Art Academy in Bremen .

biography

Grohs was the son of a boatman and grew up with three siblings in simple circumstances. He attended the village school and then learned the painting trade. He worked as a journeyman in Hildesheim and attended evening classes at the local arts and crafts school. In 1913 he studied in Königsberg at the Art Academy in Königsberg .

In the First World War he was a soldier until 1915 and studied in after being wounded in 1915 in Weimar at the Art Academy in Weimar . He was a student of Fritz Mackensen . In 1920 he exhibited at the Kunsthalle Kiel and then in Düsseldorf, Elberfeld , Hamburg and Berlin. From 1926 he was, together with his wife Elma Grohs-Hansen, a member of the artist group De Warft .

Grohs was appointed to Bremen as a university professor by the founding director of the NKH Fritz Mackensen. He was a member of the NSDAP from April 1930 and has been a member of the NKH's faculty since it was founded in 1934. For many years he was deputy director and for a short time provisional director (at the transition from Horn to Hengstenberg).

In his résumé for the application to the Nordic Art Academy he wrote in 1934: “After my release (from the hospital) I go to the University of Fine Arts in Weimar as a master class student of Mackensen. The revolution turns the venerable university into the Bauhaus . Disgusted by the insincerity and the anti-German nature of his company, I leave the Bauhaus in protest and flee to the solitude of my Dithmarian homeland. […] In the Adolf Hitler movement, I am active as Dithmarschen's district culture warden in addition to my artistic work . In the difficult times of the struggle - 1930, 1931 and 1932 - I spoke in large gatherings in all cities of Schleswig-Holstein for the cultural mission of the NSDAP. ”In Bremen he also held the post of district chief for culture in the propaganda office of the district leadership of the NSDAP. After 1945 he was interned for a month in the Riespott internment camp.

From 1935 he was district culture warden in Bremen, but could not assert his influence in the exhibition Bremen - Keys to the World , because "the hall of the party [...] was designed by a Berlin artist". The consequence of this conflict was that he was banned from exhibiting by the President of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts and his pictures, which were bought by the Kunsthalle Kiel, were removed on the grounds that "they [...] were [considered] degenerate ." He was allowed to after a discussion with Gauleiter Carl Röver to continue teaching. These statements Groß 'after 1945 in his denazification process stand in contrast to contemporary newspaper articles. Under the title “Expressive values of figurative painting. Bremer Künstler am Werk ”reported the Bremer Nachrichten in 1938 about Groß, who left Weimar because the“ Bauhaus ”art college no longer corresponded to his German feelings”. His main field of work is figural wall painting , as he "recently demonstrated in the State Hall at the exhibition 'Bremen - Key to the World'" ". "Large-scale frescoes" are in Kiel , in the Flensburg district office and in the Meldorf Museum . The reporter exuberantly emphasizes that Groß can "survey a multifaceted work [...] that has its compelling center in the indissoluble connection with home". "Seriously and responsibly, Hans Groß leans towards the German broadcast, which is revealed in his works in the most unique way."

After 1945

After 1945 he tried to weaken his early commitment to the National Socialists in order to then portray himself as a “degenerate” artist in the next step . In his "Application for the rehabilitation of the painter Hans Groß" he justified his attitude during the Nazi era with his life path. To declare Nazi membership, he wrote: “I believed that the emerging movement of the National Socialist German Workers' Party was a way out of the hardship and unemployment of the masses and a revival of the Gothic spirit in the art of our time. As an artist and idealist, I believed I was doing the right thing when I joined the NSDAP in 1930 and took over the cultural supervision of Dithmarschen . ”What is remarkable, however, is the change he made. While in his résumé there was still the “disgust” and the “anti-German […] essence” of contemporary art, after 1945 it became the “revival of the Gothic spirit in the art of our time”. During the denazification in 1948, Groß was classified as a follower .

Forgotten Nazi past

This Nazi past is largely forgotten. In the USA you can even see a “degenerate” artist in Groß . Groß was exculpated in 1978 by the director of the Birmingham Museum of Art (USA), John David Farmer , with the words: “With Hitler's ascendance, Grohs [American spelling] suffered as did all other progressive artist in Germany. His works were confiscated and destroyed and he was forbidden to paint as before. " And the Dithmarscher Landeszeitung wrote in an article in 1984: "According to his daughter, he was also a member of the NSDAP, but all claims that he was committed to the goals of the party are defamatory."

Sources, notes

State Archive Bremen inventory 4,114

literature

Hans Hesse: "The Nordic University of Fine Arts should, drawing from the foundations of German-Nordic folklore, work to develop a species-specific culture in the spirit of Adolf Hitler." - Sketches on the history of the Nordic Art College (NKH). In: Labor Movement and Social History. No. 23/24, 2009, pp. 85-104.
Jutta Müller: Hans Groß. 1892-1981. Aspects of a Controversial Artist. September 27 - December 6, 1992, Dithmarscher Landesmuseum Meldorf. Meldorf 1992.

Individual evidence

↑ Grohs: "I gladly accepted the call and took my teaching post seriously and responsibly until I was dismissed by the military government."
↑ The information on this is contradictory. In an article in the Bremer Nachrichten v. July 5, 1938 (cf. Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne, Künstlerdossier Groß, Hans) it is reported that he was dismissed from army service after being wounded in 1915 and went straight to the art college in Weimar. After being drafted again to Belgium, he later returned to Weimar. According to another, more likely version, volunteered with the 84th Infantry Regiment in 1914. Due to an accident during his training and “not least because of his generally weak constitution” he was dismissed as “unfit for service” (cf. Jutta Müller: Hans Groß. 1892-1981. Aspects of a controversial artist. September 27th - December 6th, 1992 , Dithmarscher Landesmuseum Meldorf, Meldorf 1992, p. 10).
↑ Bremen State Archives, 4,111 persons - 1890 (Groß, Hans Friedrich), p. 29.
↑ On the Riespott internment camp, cf. Hesse, Hans, Constructions of Innocence. Denazification using the example of Bremen and Bremerhaven 1945–1953, Bremen 2005, p. 194ff. From the denazification, Groß emerged as a “fellow traveler” (State Archives Bremen 4, 66 - I. - 3760 internment from February 23, 1948 to March 3, 1948. Atonement from April 19, 1948).
↑ Groß: "My suggestions were rejected - it was because my name was not allowed to appear at Gauleiter Röver, who had brutally spoken out against me at an exhibition by the professors at the Nordic Art College and ordered my dismissal from teaching because my work is Christian filth. "
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d State Archive Bremen 4, 66 - I. - 3760, letter "Application for rehabilitation of the painter Prof. Hans Groß".
↑ Grohs: The Gestapo also kept a file on him, “which dealt with my work and myself, many photos of my earlier religious compositions were collected here. So I couldn't take part in any of the major exhibitions in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst - Munich. "But:" After a personal discussion with the Gauleiter, it was possible to remain in my teaching post. "
↑ Groß: “My father was a boatman - he fed his wife and four children as a day laborer. I attended the village school and, despite my exceptional school performance, was not admitted to the Heider Oberrealschule because my parents could not afford the school fees. I learned the painting trade. As a journeyman I first worked in Hildesheim and attended evening classes at the arts and crafts school. In 1913 I wandered to Königsberg as a restless seeker and studied at the academy there. I worked with the toughest diligence under almost intolerable hardship. "
↑ Grohs: "In 1917 I received the university's highest award for an altar - the gold medal," he proudly notes.
^ Exhibition “Hans Grohs: Dithmarschen Expressionist” August 8 - August 26, 1978 in the Galeria Pergola, Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in: Deutsches Kunstarchiv Nürnberg, Nachlass Hans Grohs / Groß.
^ Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne, artist dossier Groß, Hans, therein: Dithmarscher Landzeitung from August 6, 1984.

personal data
SURNAME	Grohs, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Grohs, Hans Friederich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German expressionist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 12, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pahlen
DATE OF DEATH	November 28, 1981
Place of death	Heath (Holstein)

[1] Grohs: "I gladly accepted the call and took my teaching post seriously and responsibly until I was dismissed by the military government."

[2] The information on this is contradictory. In an article in the Bremer Nachrichten v. July 5, 1938 (cf. Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne, Künstlerdossier Groß, Hans) it is reported that he was dismissed from army service after being wounded in 1915 and went straight to the art college in Weimar. After being drafted again to Belgium, he later returned to Weimar. According to another, more likely version, volunteered with the 84th Infantry Regiment in 1914. Due to an accident during his training and “not least because of his generally weak constitution” he was dismissed as “unfit for service” (cf. Jutta Müller: Hans Groß. 1892-1981. Aspects of a controversial artist. September 27th - December 6th, 1992 , Dithmarscher Landesmuseum Meldorf, Meldorf 1992, p. 10).

[3] Bremen State Archives, 4,111 persons - 1890 (Groß, Hans Friedrich), p. 29.

[4] On the Riespott internment camp, cf. Hesse, Hans, Constructions of Innocence. Denazification using the example of Bremen and Bremerhaven 1945–1953, Bremen 2005, p. 194ff. From the denazification, Groß emerged as a “fellow traveler” (State Archives Bremen 4, 66 - I. - 3760 internment from February 23, 1948 to March 3, 1948. Atonement from April 19, 1948).

[5] Groß: "My suggestions were rejected - it was because my name was not allowed to appear at Gauleiter Röver, who had brutally spoken out against me at an exhibition by the professors at the Nordic Art College and ordered my dismissal from teaching because my work is Christian filth. "

[Staatsarchiv_Bremen-6] State Archive Bremen 4, 66 - I. - 3760, letter "Application for rehabilitation of the painter Prof. Hans Groß".

[7] Grohs: The Gestapo also kept a file on him, “which dealt with my work and myself, many photos of my earlier religious compositions were collected here. So I couldn't take part in any of the major exhibitions in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst - Munich. "But:" After a personal discussion with the Gauleiter, it was possible to remain in my teaching post. "

[8] Groß: “My father was a boatman - he fed his wife and four children as a day laborer. I attended the village school and, despite my exceptional school performance, was not admitted to the Heider Oberrealschule because my parents could not afford the school fees. I learned the painting trade. As a journeyman I first worked in Hildesheim and attended evening classes at the arts and crafts school. In 1913 I wandered to Königsberg as a restless seeker and studied at the academy there. I worked with the toughest diligence under almost intolerable hardship. "

[9] Grohs: "In 1917 I received the university's highest award for an altar - the gold medal," he proudly notes.

[10] Exhibition “Hans Grohs: Dithmarschen Expressionist” August 8 - August 26, 1978 in the Galeria Pergola, Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in: Deutsches Kunstarchiv Nürnberg, Nachlass Hans Grohs / Groß.

[11] Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne, artist dossier Groß, Hans, therein: Dithmarscher Landzeitung from August 6, 1984.