Hans Lehmkuhl
Johannes (Hans) Ludwig Lehmkuhl (born March 19, 1883 in Bremen , † February 24, 1969 in Bremen) was a German painter and restorer .
biography
1883 to 1918
Lehmkuhl grew up in Bremen and after graduating from school initially worked in a commercial business for nine years. He received painting lessons for the first time from the Bremen painter Karl Windels. In 1908 he moved to Munich and studied for two months in Walther Thor's private school. He then received private painting lessons from Julius Exter . At the same time he was hired as a tenor in the choir of the Munich Court Opera and toured Spain and Portugal.
From 1910 to 1914 Lehmkuhl completed a painting course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Carl Johann Becker-Gundahl , Hermann Groeber , Hugo von Habermann , Ludwig von Herterich , Angelo Jank and Max Doerner . He traveled with Julius Exter to Feldwies , Chiemsee, to paint open-air nudes and landscapes.
During the First World War he served as a lieutenant in the 9th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment Landsberg and was stationed in France in 1914. In 1916 he was awarded the Iron Cross I as first lieutenant in charge of the battery of Kaiser Wilhelm II .
1919 to 1938
Serious war injuries Lehmkuhl resulted in a year and a half hospital stay in Munich. In 1920 he resumed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. There he became second chairman of the Academic Committee. Until 1922 he painted numerous pictures of officers in Munich, including Lieutenant Philipp Bouhler , who later became Reichsleiter .
In 1923 he moved back to Bremen and joined the Künstlerbund Bremen, where he became second chairman. Lehmkuhl exhibited there and directed artist festivals.
In 1927 Lehmkuhl moved to Nassauische Strasse 53 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf , because Berlin was "the cheaper art center". From 1930 to 1940 he was the second chairman of the Wilmersdorf Artists Association. In 1930 he painted Ludwig Quidde , the 1927 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, whose picture hangs in the Focke Museum in Bremen today . In 1932, Lehmkuhl was the last painter to receive permission to portray the then Reich President Paul von Hindenburg . In 1933 he painted all of Wilmersdorf's city councils.
In 1935, Captain Wolfgang Fürstner , in command of the Olympic Village , was the only painter to receive permission to paint pictures and views in the Olympic Village in Elstal near Berlin. From April to July he painted about 30 pictures there that were later to be sold to the athletes.
In 1935 Lehmkuhl joined the exhibition group "Front Fighters Association of Fine Artists". In 1936 he was commissioned by the Army Administration through Oberbaurat Dölle to paint a four-meter-tall picture of Adolf Hitler , as well as a Werner von Blomberg picture for the small hall of the General Command Building in Berlin. In December, Lehmkuhl received the order from Military District Command 3 to paint a Hindenburg portrait for the representative rooms of General Wilhelm Adam . In the same year he was approved as a restorer by the Reich Chamber of Art.
Because of the disadvantages for "non-party artists", Lehmkuhl was again active in business from 1936, but without any pecuniary success, which is why the employment was only short-lived. Many portraits, landscapes and still lifes were created during this time . In addition, he received orders for restoration work.
1939 to 1945
In 1939 and 1940 some of his pictures were accepted for the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich. After more than three weeks of negotiations with the Propaganda Ministry and the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), Lehmkuhl painted 50 large and small studies in the Luckenwalde POW camp in the winter of 1940/1941 . In addition, five large views of military buildings in and around Berlin were created for the Todt organization , which were shown in a closed exhibition in the Berlin Kunsthalle. This was followed by the appointment as adjunct professor, "for very good performance in portrait painting".
In 1942, Lehmkuhl was the only artist to receive permission to paint pictures of prisoners in the Dreilinden and Großbeeren prison camps, 25 of which were exhibited in the Berlin Zeughaus . At the beginning of 1943 he painted a portrait of Rear Admiral a. D. Herrmann Lorey, the then director of the Berlin armory .
In 1943 he and his wife moved to Millstatt am See , Austria. During this time Lehmkuhl was able to secure his livelihood through restoration work, watercolors and portrait commissions - mostly from English officers.
1946 to 1951
In 1946 he returned to Bremen; Since the Berlin apartment and the studio were bombed out, he moved into a small studio building at Mendestrasse 13a and got a heated studio in the Haus des Reichs , where he portrayed many Americans and politicians.
In 1947, Sergeant Wouralis commissioned Lehmkuhl to decorate the American exhibition hall in the Haus des Reich with American landscapes. Ten 4 × 2 m pictures were created. Lehmkuhl later portrayed General Lucius D. Clay , General Karting and Mr. Murphy during a lecture. From 9 to 31 July of the same year he worked in St. Hülfe (today Diepholz), where he painted portraits and landscapes.
Friedrich Hilken, curator of the Kunsthalle Bremen , placed Lehmkuhl in 1948 with several orders for restorations, including a Pictures of the councilor von Aschen (Tilemann-Schenck, 1645), and the mayor Dr. Alfred Dominicus Pauli (Konrad von Kardorff) for the guild chamber in the Bremen town hall . In winter more pictures were taken for the exhibition rooms in the Haus des Reich.
From 1949 Lehmkuhl documented views of the bombed north aisle in the St. Petri Cathedral in Bremen and also took pictures in the lead cellar in the course of this . In the cathedral, Lehmkuhl discovered two paintings by Lucas Cranach : one by Luther and one by Philipp Melanchthon, which he restored. The restoration work in Bremen's town hall continued until 1950. A total of around 25 paintings were restored, the large painting of "Old Bremen" and the fragmented painting of the "Hanseatic House in Antwerp" being the most labor-intensive. Both pictures are still hanging in the Upper Town Hall to this day. In the same year Lehmkuhl portrayed Pastor Adzomada from Togo / West Africa during his stay in Bremen.
On March 9, 1950, Federal President Theodor Heuss traveled to Bremen. Lehmkuhl received the consent of Mayor Wilhelm Kaisen to sketch at the receptions and, after exchanging letters with Heuss about the sent sketches, made several portraits. In the same year he portrayed Rear Admiral Charles Richardson Jeffs , the military governor and state commissioner of the USA in Bremen , in the house of the Reich . In 1951 he took several portraits of well-known Bremen personalities. The opening of Lehmkuhl's exhibition at the Wilhelmshavener Kunstverein took place on October 21.
1952 to 1969
From May to July 1952 the exhibition portrait art in Bremen followed in the Bremen art gallery . In 1953 the restoration work on the picture Hansehaus in Antwerp was continued. In August the painting was completely reassembled and hung in the Bremen town hall. In 1954 a portrait of the actor Werner Krauss was created , which was exhibited in the Theater am Goetheplatz .
In 1955 Lehmkuhl painted a portrait of the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and sent it to Addis Ababa as a gift . In the same year work began on the pictures “Bremen 1937” - before they were destroyed in the Second World War. Hans Lehmkuhl continued to work in Bremen until his death.
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Holl: To the Quidde portrait of the Bremen painter Hans Lehmkuhl . In: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Volume 70, Bremer Staatsarchiv (Ed.) 1991, ISSN 0341-9622 . Online version
Web links
- Hans Lehmkuhl's estate in the Bremen State Archives
- Hans Lehmkuhl at Artnet
- Homepage about Hans Lehmkuhl
- Reich Chamber of Fine Arts, Berlin State Management, in 06. Personal files of members: Personal files Hans Lehmkuhl, approx. 1933 to 1945, p. 714
source
- Records and diaries from the estate
- Herbert Black Forest: The great Bremen Lexicon. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lehmkuhl, Hans |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lehmkuhl, Johannes Ludwig (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter, draftsman and restorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bremen |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 24, 1969 |
| Place of death | Bremen |