Hein Minkenberg

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Plate in memory of Hein Minkenberg at St. Marien in Neuss

Hein Minkenberg (born March 12, 1889 in Heinsberg ; † November 12, 1968 in Neuss ) was a German sculptor of Christian art and art professor at the Aachen School of Applied Arts .

Live and act

The son of a roofer attended elementary school, took drawing lessons and completed an apprenticeship as a carver . He then went on a hike looking for work to places such as Kleve , Paderborn and Osnabrück . After he had married Maria Elisabeth Schulte in the meantime in 1916, his brother Gerhard in Rheindahlen (part of the city of Mönchengladbach since 1921 ) gave him the opportunity to work in his stonemasonry and to familiarize himself with stone.

In the meantime, however, Minkenberg showed great interest in the works and techniques of the north German sculptor Ernst Barlach , who now served as a model when he created his first independent artistic works in clay, wood and stone after the First World War, but with one of his own Style provided. As a person with a deeply religious feeling, it was important to him to specialize primarily in religious motifs. Personal contacts with Walter Kaesbach , who later became head of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , also enriched his artistic development. His first major works were created, including the Pietà , which is still in St. Marien in Neuss today .

After his brother had to close the stonemasonry due to few orders, Hein Minkenberg felt compelled to send his family, which now also included two daughters, to live with his in-laws in Westphalia. He himself now went on trips again, among others to Wesel , Lübeck , Bamberg , Rothenburg ob der Tauber , Würzburg and Ulm . In Wesel, he joined a group led by the priest Augustinus Winkelmann , which included Heinrich Campendonk , Jan Thorn-Prikker , and Helmuth Macke and who equipped monastery cells , churches and cemeteries with their studio on the old Marienthal monastery complex near Hamminkeln .

After he drew attention to himself in 1925 at the exhibition Christian works of art by contemporary artists from the Lower Rhine in Mönchengladbach , he was offered a call to the Aachen School of Applied Arts in 1928 , where he took over the sculpture class there until 1934 as an art professor under Rudolf Schwarz . In that year Minkenberg, like all lecturers and students, was dismissed due to the closure of the arts and crafts school, as the now ruling National Socialists assessed their art as degenerate . While his colleagues Hans Schwippert , Anton Wendling , Maria Eulenbruch and others withdrew to the neighboring Raeren in Belgium, Minkenberg took refuge in an empty villa in Büttgen (near Neuss ), where he set up a studio, which was burned down in a bomb attack in 1943 . After a stopover in southern Germany, he came back to Neuss in 1947, where this time the town on Hamtorwall provided him with a studio. Now his most successful years followed and numerous works of art were created during this time. The Collegium Marianum , located in Neuss at the time, received a particularly large number of his works , as did numerous churches in the immediate vicinity and further afield. After his first wife died in 1953, Minkenberg married his former pupil, the sculptor and ceramicist Martha Sträter (1900–1985), a granddaughter of the art collector August Sträter .

Works (selection)

Appreciation

Some cities in Germany keep the artist's memory by naming streets. There is a Hein-Minkenberg-Straße in

literature

Web links

Commons : Hein Minkenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Minkenberg, Hein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor of sacred art and art professor in Aachen
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Heinsberg
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1968
Place of death Neuss