Harry Schmidt (wood carver)

Harry Schmidt (born September 1, 1927 in Bermsgrün ; † July 12, 2003 ) was a German wood carver.

Life

The son of a farmer and forest worker attended elementary school in Bermsgrün from 1934 to 1944 and was introduced to the handling of wood by his grandfather. From 1942 to 1946 he trained as a model maker in the Voigtmann iron foundry in Schwarzenberg , but did not complete his apprenticeship due to the effects of the Second World War. He initially worked as a journeyman and was disabled from 1948 to 1955 due to pulmonary tuberculosis. After attending several master carving courses in Schneeberg, he was head of the Bermsgrüner Schnitzer community from 1953 to 1960 , an independent carver from 1955 to 1959 and, from 1960, a part-time teacher at the Bermsgrüner carving school founded that year. In 1987 he set up a permanent exhibition of his carvings and watercolors called the Erzgebirge Folk Art Room on his property in Bermsgrün . Schmidt had been married to his wife Christa since 1952, with whom he had two sons. He died in 2003 after a serious illness. His works have been on permanent display in the Perla Castrum Museum in the town of Schwarzenberg in the Ore Mountains since 2014.

Awards and honors

• State Prize for National Artistic Creation (1963)
• Honorary Citizen of the City of Schwarzenberg (2001)

literature

• Short biography of the Schwarzenberg honorary citizen Harry Schmidt. In: Anita Tonar: Little Schwarzenberg Chronicle from the 12th to the 21st Century. Schwarzenberg: Regionalverlag Anita Tonar, 2006, p. 156. DNB 982193556
• Harry Schmidt and Claus Leichsenring : Harry Schmidt: Carving - my world. Schneeberg (et al.), 2003.
• Claus Leichsenring: Harry Schmidt. An Erzgebirge carver with his stories in wood. In: Sächsische Heimatblätter 59 (2013) 3, pp. 211–215. ISSN  0486-8234

Web links

• Honorary citizen of the city of Schwarzenberg - Erzgebirge folk artist Harry Schmidt
• Harry Schmidt in the Museum Perla Castrum Schwarzenberg