Hanspeter Bethke

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Hanspeter Bethke (born October 10, 1935 in Magdeburg ; † February 7, 2018 in Saxdorf ) was a German painter , graphic artist , restorer and horticultural artist . In addition to his work as a painter, he was best known for the layout and design of the Saxdorf parish garden in today's Elbe-Elster district , which is now one of the most beautiful gardens in the state of Brandenburg and attracts several thousand visitors every year.

Life

Early years

Saxdorf Church Detail.jpg
The Saxdorf Church (2014)
Saxdorf Church 5.jpg
View from the east with apse (2011)


Bethke was born in Magdeburg as the son of a seamstress. Due to the effects of the Second World War , the family, to which two other siblings belonged, moved from the city in 1942 to the municipality of Langenstein in the Harz region, which is now part of Halberstadt . The father had been drafted into the military and did not return until 1947. After returning home from the Second World War , he found work in Halle (Saale) , which caused the family to move there. Bethke visited the Francke Foundations here .

Having discovered his love for painting, he was accepted to study art at the Institute for Artistic Design in Halle-Burg Giebichenstein in 1954 and studied with personalities such as Lothar Zitzmann , Kurt Bunge and Willi Sitte until 1959 . After that, Bethke initially worked as a building restorer, freelance painter and graphic artist. In 1967 he was accepted into the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR .

Saxdorf

In the mid-1960s, Bethke met pastor Karl-Heinrich Zahn , who in 1967 accepted a pastor's position in the village of Saxdorf in the Elbe-Elster region . In addition to his painterly work, Bethke began to work as a horticultural artist here. Because between the medieval church of the village and the parsonage, Bethke and Zahn began redesigning the parish garden, which until then had primarily been a kitchen garden. For the first few years, Bethke commuted between Halle and Saxdorf. And it was not until 1985 that he finally moved his permanent residence to Saxdorf.

In the early 1970s, however, he had already begun to restore the venerable church, which was also in need of renovation. The work uncovered , among other things, mediaeval frescoes on the north wall and remains of ornamental paintings in the apse . The pointed arched windows of the apse were also reconstructed. Since then, the building has been the focus of many cultural events, such as the "Saxdorf Summer Concerts" that have been taking place regularly since 1974. Bethke's partner Karl-Heinrich Zahn, whom he married in late summer 2005, was finally awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 1999 for his cultural work in Saxdorf .

Saxdorf's parish garden

The Saxdorf parish garden in autumn 2014

The parish garden grew, flourished and over time became a work of art. Already in the GDR era it was such a popular attraction that tour groups from socialist countries came to the small village via Intourist . The approximately 4000 square meter garden is now one of the most beautiful in the state of Brandenburg . The ensemble of parish garden, church and parsonage has several thousand visitors a year up to the present day. Here numerous partly exotic flower species (growing tulips , snowdrops , crocuses , ...), trees ( magnolias , Baumpäonien , Nashi trees , leather sleeve trees , redwoods , ...), shrubs and bamboo . Over three hundred types of roses can be found in the parish garden. Varieties bred by Hanspeter Bethke include the shrub and climbing rose “Kloster Altzella” (2006), the ground cover rose “Lenné Rose (LennBo1)” (2009), the rose “Maria Josepha vom Elsterschloß” (2011) and the “Proschwitzer Schlossrose” “(2008), which are now available in stores.

Bethke died in Saxdorf in February 2018 at the age of 82 after a long illness.

For years there had been unsuccessful attempts to find a successor for the maintenance and operation of the garden. Since January 1, 2019 there has been a full-time gardener on site and efforts are made to extend the monument protection of the neighboring church to the rectory and garden in order to preserve this historical ensemble with its over 3000 different plant species (as of January 2019) for posterity. The diploma thesis of the landscape architect Jörn Löffler, which was carried out in 2000 , on gardening studies in a private garden in the state of Brandenburg, listed over 800 of them. Löffler wrote:

“Saxdorf's garden is the work of a painter who painted garden pictures in his studio in winter and later repeatedly created new colors and structures in the garden. He took out plants, combined them differently and created new garden images over and over again. "

  • June 2003

  • June 2003

  • May 2014

Honors (selection)

On the occasion of his 75th birthday, several exhibitions of his works took place in 2010. The artist Paul Böckelmann also initiated the “Magic Garden” photo exhibition in Altenau in his honor . In 2012 Hanspeter Bethke finally received the culture award of the Elbe-Elster district . On March 11, 2017, he was awarded the "Peter Joseph Lenné Medal" by the "Lenné Academy for Horticulture and Garden Culture".

Work (selection)

painting

  • "Still Life", 1969, Magdeburg Cultural History Museum
  • "Elbe bei Belgern", 1976, gallery at the castle (Senftenberg)
  • "Landscape with a river near Weißenfels", 1978, Kulturhistorisches Museum Magdeburg

literature

  • “Zaubergarten” (2010), photos: Paul Böckelmann, text: Hanspeter Bethke

Exhibitions (selection)

Larger solo exhibitions of Bethke's works were held in Berlin , Bernburg , Dessau , Dresden , Erfurt , Greifswald , Halle (Saale), Leipzig , Lübbecke , Magdeburg, Merseburg , Middelhagen , Senftenberg , Suhl and Wittenberg , among others .

Literature about Hanspeter Bethke

  • Saxdorfer Gartenbuch 2008 - The parish garden of Hanspeter Bethke photographed by Paul Böckelmann (2008)

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Volker Frank: Entry by Hanspeter Bethke In: General Artist Lexicon - International Artist Database - Online . De Gruyter. (accessed via De Gruyter Online, January 23, 2019).
  2. ↑ List of Brandenburg personalities at www.brandenburg-sehenswert.de, accessed on January 23, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d Andreas Pöschel: Laudation - “Flower pictures and other works on paper” on the occasion of the exhibition opening on October 14, 2010 in the Finsterwalde District Museum, accessed on January 23, 2019
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The Saxdorfer Church ( Memento of the original from August 19, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the private website saxdorf.de, accessed on January 23, 2019. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.saxdorf.de
  5. ↑ a b c d Simone Schmollack: “The Stasi lived downstairs ” in taz on the weekend of May 17, 2014
  6. ^ Georg Dehio: Handbook of German Art Monuments - Brandenburg . 2nd Edition. 2012, ISBN 978-3-422-03123-4 , pp. 1008-1009 .
  7. ^ Frank Claus: "Where a garden has become a work of art" in Lausitzer Rundschau , April 17, 2014.
  8. ↑ Ida Kretzschmar: "Spontaneous healing at the place of longing Saxdorf - What the painter Hanspeter Bethke and pastor Karl-Heinrich Zahn are hoping for in the anniversary year of the parish garden" in Lausitzer Rundschau , July 21, 2014.
  9. ↑ A selection of some of the plants in the Saxdorf parish garden at www.saxdorf.de, accessed on January 24, 2019
  10. ↑ Internet presence of Zeischaer Baumschule Graeff , accessed on January 24, 2019
  11. ↑ a b Frank Claus: “Spring is already in Saxdorf” in Lausitzer Rundschau , December 30th, 2018
  12. ↑ "Everything already colorful in the magic garden", Flyer, 2015
  13. ↑ "The Lenné Academy mourns the horticultural artist Hanspeter Bethke, Saxdorf" in Newsletter 35 of the Lenné Academy for Horticulture and Horticulture, March 2018 ( online as PDF file )
  14. ^ Entry of the work Elbe bei Belgern In: Paintings in museums - Germany, Austria, Switzerland online . De Gruyter. (accessed via De Gruyter Online, January 23, 2019).
  15. ^ Entry of the work Still Life In: Paintings in Museums - Germany, Austria, Switzerland Online . De Gruyter. (accessed via De Gruyter Online, January 23, 2019).
  16. ↑ Entry of the work Landscape with River near Weissenfels In: Paintings in museums - Germany, Austria, Switzerland Online . De Gruyter. (accessed via De Gruyter Online, January 23, 2019).
personal data
SURNAME Bethke, Hanspeter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist, restorer and garden artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 2018
Place of death Saxdorf