Hans Kies

Hans Kies (in the middle, 1965) with Johanna Grotewohl and Otto Nagel

Hans Kies (born December 4, 1910 in Kolberg , † June 4, 1984 in Berlin ) was a German sculptor and politician ( KPD , SED ).

Life

After attending primary school in Berlin, Hans Kies learned the trade of machinist . As a worker he attended evening school and belonged to a circle of worker draftsmen. In 1926 he became a member of the German Metalworkers' Association . He later joined the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition . He became a member of the KPD in 1929.

From 1931 Hans Kies studied at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts (later the State University for Fine Arts ) in Berlin-Charlottenburg . He finished his studies in 1939. He then went to the military , did his service from 1940 to 1945 and then went to Usedom , where he was mayor of Zinnowitz from 1945 to 1950 . He also worked as a freelance artist, from 1950 freelance . In 1958 he became a city ​​councilor for Berlin .

Hans Kies belonged to the artist collective that created the monuments in the Buchenwald concentration camp from 1955 to 1958 . In 1960 he erected the “Red Sailor” memorial at the cemetery of those who fell in March in Berlin-Friedrichshain , which is intended to commemorate those who fell in the 1918 November Revolution. He also created the Karl Marx Memorial in Alt-Stralau from 1964. In Schwerin in 1965 he created the relief for the “Memorial to Deserved Fighters for Democracy and Socialism”. From 1964 to 1968 he was a circle leader in the house of young talents in Berlin and in the culture house of the automobile manufacturers in Ludwigsfelde . From 1969 he became a lecturer at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art .

Hans Kies belonged to the presidium of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR and was chairman of the Berlin district committee.

Awards

• 1959: National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class, for his work on the beech forest monument
• 1965: Medal of Merit of the GDR
• 1969: Goethe Prize of the City of Berlin
• 1970: Art Prize of the GDR

Hans Kies was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze.

gallery

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  “Red Sailor” (1960) at the cemetery of the March fallen in Berlin

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  Ekhof Memorial (1961) Schwerin, Ekhofplatz

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  Swimmer (1963) Schwerin, in front of the sports and congress hall

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  Javelin thrower (1966) Schwerin, in front of the sports and congress hall

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  "The Fighter's Legacy" (1970) at the Berlin-Adlershof cemetery

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  "Red Sailor" (1985) in Strausberg

literature

• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , pp. 388-389.

Web links

Commons : Hans Kies  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hans Kies in the catalog of the German National Library
• Kies, Hans. In: bildhauerei-in-berlin.de (BiB) , accessed on May 2, 2020.