Hans Wagner (sculptor)

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Hans Wagner (born January 25, 1905 in Alzey , † July 15, 1982 in Bad Soden am Taunus ) was a German sculptor and painter.

Life

Childhood and family

Hans Wagner was born on January 25, 1905, the oldest of four sons in Alzey. His parents were Johann Lorenz Wagner and Caroline Wagner (née Hüller) from Dieburg . In 1906 his father took over the management of the newly founded trade school in Colmar on behalf of the Hessian Ministry . Hans Wagner spent his childhood in Colmar. In April 1917, due to the turmoil of the war, he had to leave the school in Colmar and switched to a school in Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl .

After the war was lost, the Versailles Treaty came into force in June 1919 , in which Alsace fell back to France . The Germans residing there had to either take French citizenship or leave the country. The Wagner family then left Alsace and moved to Urberach . There his father continued to work as a teacher, but also as an architect and auditor for the crafts and commercial training school. There, 15-year-old Hans worked with modeling and drawing under the guidance of his father.

Study and first work

From April 1921 to July 1923 Hans Wagner studied at the Städtische Kunstgewerbeschule (today the State University of Fine Arts - Städelschule ) in Frankfurt am Main . There he was taught in the master classes for large-scale sculpture by Friedrich Christoph Hausmann and in decorative painting by Johann Vincenz Cissarz . After graduating, he was unemployed and lived with his parents again. First, he was supposed to help his father in the office and with housework, which he did reluctantly. From June 1924 Hans Wagner worked as a sculptor for the sculptor and stone mason company Heinrich Dieter in Eberstadt. Here he learned further skills in wood and stone carving.

At the end of 1924, Hans Wagner moved to Northern Germany and worked there in Hamburg at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus , where he began training as a theater painter. Here he also met his first wife, the actress Inge Schmidt. Marriage with her lasted two years. After he finished his training, he went on a one-year study trip to Rome and Paris . In Italy he learned various new techniques, including several painting and stucco work, as well as scratch plaster and fresco painting. When he returned to Germany he worked as a freelance artist and was active in Hamburg, Lübeck and Leipzig .

He then met his second wife, Inge Vock, who was an actress at the Thalia Theater. In addition to theatrical paintings, he continued to work as a freelance sculptor, specializing in the areas of architectural sculpture and wall painting. Through his acquaintance with the architect Fritz Höger , he was able to move into a studio in the Klostertorhof, where Höger had his office. He became Höger's closest artistic advisor. He created four large sandstone sculptures for his Sprinkenhof in Hamburg . Two of them were destroyed by a bomb strike in 1943, two have survived: a man -Reeper- with his tools over his shoulder and a woman who set foot on a fish.

Other works at this time were two brick lions for the town hall in Wilhelmshaven , some shell limestone reliefs for the Busse memorial in Bremerhaven and several wall paintings for the district office in Meppen . His father died in February 1935. In May 1937 a large exhibition of his works took place together with Fritz Höger and Arthur Illies in the Association of Berlin Artists . In 1941 he stayed in Bremen for a long time , where he carried out several private assignments.

Wehrmacht and the post-war period

In 1941, Hans Wagner was drafted into the Wehrmacht and initially stationed as an infantryman in the 2nd Company Infantry Replacement Battalion 377 Verden / Aller. He was later transferred to the Landesschützen Battalion in Bad Zwischenahn . Due to illness, but "garrison usable" he was transferred to Lüneburg to the Landesschützen-Ersatz-Battalion. During his time in the Wehrmacht, he created a large number of wall paintings in the officers' mess. In 1942 Hans Wagner and Inge Vock married. In the same year, Urberach's mother moved to Bad Soden am Taunus , where she bought a plot of land on Burgberg. In 1943 the studio and the shared apartment in Hamburg were destroyed by explosive devices and incendiary bombs. Numerous works by Hans Wagner were lost in the process. In April 1944 their daughter Andrea was born in Lindschied , while Hans Wagner was creating one of his last murals in the officers' mess there.

After the last major bomb attack in Hamburg, the family fled the city and initially found shelter in the Munster camp. Here Hans Wagner got some portrait commissions and was able to keep his family afloat. In 1947 he moved back to Hamburg with his family. During the Berlin blockade from June 1948 to May 1949, his wife Inge Wagner was the nightly airlift voice of the NWDR. In the meantime, Hans Wagner continued to do small private assignments and taught some students, including Clemens Neuhaus . At the same time he met Hans Waltenberg, who was director of the German Federal Railroad. As a result, Wagner received orders for wall paintings, mosaics, frescoes and other things in German train stations throughout Germany.

Time in Bad Soden

In September 1949 his mother gave him a piece of land in Bad Soden am Burgberg. He then built a small house there from rubble materials. At this time he created the Marien cycle for the Catholic Church in Schneidhain and the mural in the Westbahnhof in Frankfurt am Main .

In January 1951 the family moved into the completed house on what is now Eichendorffweg in Bad Soden am Taunus . Thanks to his brother Ferdinand's construction projects, he received many public and private commissions in the entire Frankfurt area. Among other things, he created several mosaics and bas-reliefs around Frankfurt's Römerberg . In the next few years, Hans Wagner created other works, including a facade painting at the Erbenheim airfield , the bronze lion on the Rüsselsheimer Löwenplatz as well as mosaics, glass paintings, sculptures and frescoes in the Catholic St. Catherine Church in Bad Soden, the Holy Cross -Kirche in Bad Homburg-Gonzenheim and in the St. Gallus Church in Urberach .

In the 1970s he created other sculptures and frescoes in Bad Soden, including a gold-plated ceramic relief in the thermal bath, the four-season thermal bath , and a bronze relief in the Hasselgrundhalle. In the last few years before his death he was only concerned with drawings, paintings, small sculptures and reliefs, most of which are family-owned. On July 15, 1982, Hans Wagner died after suffering from cancer in Bad Soden am Taunus.

Works (selection)

Lion sculpture at the town hall of Wilhelmshaven
The world wheel on the banks of the Main in Frankfurt
  • Two lions at the main portal of the Wilhelmshaven town hall; created 1929
  • Bear sculpture in the Berlin Zoo ; created in 1930
  • Two large sculptures made of yellow sandstone on the east portal of the Sprinkenhof in Hamburg (originally there were 4 sculptures; 2 were destroyed by a bomb in 1943); created 1932
  • Five reliefs made of shell limestone on the Busse monument in Bremerhaven; created in 1936
  • The cycle of Mary in the Catholic Church in Schneidhain , oil painting on plywood coffers in the gallery parapet; created in 1949
  • Karlssage on the southern Römerberg, bas-relief; 1925-1955
  • World wheel , bas-relief in the inner courtyard and sgraffiti with handcraft marks on the street facades of the gatehouse; created 1952–1955
  • Storch , high relief made of artificial stone on the Zum Storchen house ; created 1952–1955
  • Heavenly liturgy and secret revelation in the Holy Cross Church in Gonzenheim , 4 large windows stained glass; created 1954
  • Christ Enthroned , high altar painting in St. Gallus Church in Urberach ; created 1955
  • Several works in the St. Katharina Church in Bad Soden am Taunus: Christ crucified (glass mosaic mandorla), Christ's baptism and Christ's resurrection (glass mosaics), Pietà (ceramic mosaic), Archangel Gabriel and Archangel Michael (wall painting with scratch-plaster technique) , I am the door (wall fresco); created 1956
  • Mermaid with healing water bowl and mermaid with Soden coat of arms , bas-reliefs in the arched fields of the doors in the Soden bathhouse ; created in 1961
  • Four-season thermal bath in the thermal bath in Bad Soden am Taunus
  • Theater - Sport - Music Copper relief at the Hasselgrundhalle in Bad Soden am Taunus; created 1974
  • Lion , large bronze sculpture on Löwenplatz in Rüsselsheim am Main; created 1974

gallery

literature

  • B. Kramer: A diverse work. In: Höchst Kreisblatt, October 20, 2012; P. 16.
  • Helga. K. Wagner: Catalog of works and catalog of works. January 2013.

Web links

Commons : Hans Wagner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wagner, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Alzey
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1982
Place of death Bad Soden am Taunus