Hans Oldenburger

Hans Ludwig Gerhard Wilhelm Oldenburger (born October 26, 1913 in Kiel ; † July 3, 1991 in Hanover ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Hans Oldenburger was born the son of a civil engineer. After graduating from high school in Graz , he studied art history and philosophy in Graz and Düsseldorf between 1932 and 1933 . For financial reasons he had to finish his studies and pursued a senior civil servant career.

During the Second World War he served as a soldier in France, where he met the author Ernst Jünger , with whom he had a close friendship. In the further course of the war he was transferred to the Eastern Front, where he suffered severe wounds and frostbite and was eventually taken prisoner of war.

From 1947 Oldenburger worked as a freelance artist in Aurich . Two years later he moved to Schönebeck-Salzelmen , the home of his wife Magda Oldenburger. In Magdeburg he worked as a painter and graphic artist and from 1953 gave art lessons at Schönebeck schools. A close friendship connected him with Katharina Heise , of whose Schönebeck circle he belonged together with other artists such as Werner Tübke . In 1968 Oldenburger was awarded the City of Schönebeck Art Prize.

A critical political and artistic stance led to serious tensions, to surveillance by the Ministry for State Security and in 1970 to a year and a half remand with a subsequent high prison sentence for alleged agitation against the state. In 1972 Oldenburger was deported from the GDR as part of the release of prisoners . He settled in Hanover, where he worked as an art teacher at a grammar school.

Artistic work

Hans Oldenburger's artistic work, mainly as woodcuts or tempera painting , is based on the traditions of German Expressionism. He particularly focuses on people and the city. The majority of his artistic estate is in the Salzland Museum Schönebeck and in a private Magdeburg collection.

Web links

• Hans Oldenburger in the Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon