Heinrich Wilhelm Storck

Heinrich Wilhelm Storck (born September 13, 1808 in Kreuznach , † January 10, 1850 in Leipzig ) was a German cartoonist of the Vormärz . In the relatively liberal climate of Leipzig, he criticized the political grievances particularly in the Kingdom of Saxony and Prussia .

biography

Heinrich Wilhelm Storck came from a humble background: he was born on September 13, 1808 into an Evangelical Lutheran family of bakers. In 1810 his father advanced to become a prop master of the court theater in Kassel, the capital of the Kingdom of Westphalia . As such, he was responsible for the administration and procurement of stage items. When his father died in 1817, Georg Heinrich Storck, who was a grammar school teacher, supported his younger brother financially. Heinrich Wilhelm Storck began studying painting in Kassel. In 1832 Storck moved to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . In 1837 he followed his sister Amalie to Leipzig, a center of German book printing . In the middle of the 19th century the city had "great economic power and [was] the home of a critical-liberal bourgeoisie" (according to Karl-Heinz Mader). In Leipzig, Storck received drawing orders from various publishers and printing companies, for example from BG Teubner Verlag . Unlike the British cartoonist James Gillray , Storck could not specialize exclusively in caricatures. In this respect he remained heavily dependent on the wishes of the publishers. Most popular were images of landscapes, monuments and cities, but also portraits of important personalities. In 1846/1847 he was finally employed by the "Wochenblatt für Humor und Satyre" . Storck's most famous and provocative caricatures come from this phase. In April 1848, Storck hardly made any caricatures for health reasons. He died on January 10, 1850 at the age of only 41.

Works

How someone always misses

The caricature How someone always goes wrong is considered to be one of his earliest works in this area. For fear of state persecution, it appeared without a signature from Storck and triggered an increase in censorship in Prussia. For this reason Storck was only allowed to print his "caricature on the failure to grant the Constitution promised to Prussia" outside of Prussia. The background was that the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Federal act recognized in 1815 contained the following resolution: "A representation of the people should be formed". But even in 1845, when the caricature was created, the Prussian monarchy had still not granted a parliament. The mockery therefore shows a crowd waiting in front of a mountain to see whether the constitution will come. Some look expectantly into telescopes while others turn their backs on the mountain. In fact, a mouse is born on the mountain, symbolic of the hope for a constitution. At the same moment, however, the Prussian eagle targets the mouse in order to devour it. Storck commented on the caricature with the quote from Horace : “The mountains became pregnant and lo and behold they gave birth to a little mouse!” Two years later, Ludwig Uhland suggested a mocking poem about the failure of the First United State Parliament :

“A mountain gave birth.

It fermented in him for a long time,

The weeks have been bitter.

What is he bringing out?

He brings us a mouse

Plus three hundred knights! "

Caricature of Lola Montez

In 1847 Storck also ridiculed the affair of the Bavarian king with the Irish dancer Lola Montez . On the occasion of her elevation to countess, Storck showed King Ludwig I as a "lustful faunus " (according to Gisold Lammel), who is wearing a "crown circlet" after his mistress. In her left hand, Montez carries a coat of arms that is adorned with the arrows of the love god Cupid . She holds a whip in her right hand. "At her feet" are several gold bags. The caricature was intended to express that the mistress had made the deceived king so docile that she could plunder the treasury at will.

The caricature "How the German Michel throws away his night cap and plans to go outside"

In the same year he published another well-known cartoon with the subtitle "How the German Michel throws away his nightcap and resolves to go outside" . This chalk lithograph shows how the citizen incapacitated by the German monarchies is supposed to wake up from his sleep or from his political impotence. The spiked hat that Michel put on instead of his sleeping cap and the club leaning against the bed are supposed to symbolize the expected revolutionary struggle. The rooster standing on the bed pillow is supposed to “announce” the “new morning” (according to Harald Siebenmorgen) or a new political order.

When the French July monarchy was finally overthrown in February 1848 , Storck welcomed the spread of the revolution to the German states: In a drawing that was reproduced by the Leipzig printer and publisher JG Fritzsche, he showed two trees of freedom ; one on the Seine and one not yet fully grown on the Rhine . The German revolutionary follows the “model” (according to Ruttmann) of the French revolutionary who removes the caterpillars of royalty in the crown of his tree. The German revolutionary shakes his tree, so that in the form of “rotten fruit” “censorship”, “conscience compulsion” and “police paternalism” go to the ground.

literature

• Gisold Lammel: German caricatures from the Middle Ages to today. Metzler, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 978-3-476-01311-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karl-Heinz Mader. Almost forgotten: Heinrich Wilhelm Storck and Sir John Falstaff In: Satire: Messages of the Wilhelm Busch Society . Pp. 19-24.
2. ↑ Gisold Lammel: German caricatures from the Middle Ages to the present. Slaughterer. Stuttgart 1995, p. 166.
3. ↑ Gisold Lammel: German caricatures from the Middle Ages to the present. Slaughterer. Stuttgart 1995, p. 166.
4. ↑ Gisold Lammel: German caricatures from the Middle Ages to the present. Slaughterer. Stuttgart 1995. p. 172.
5. ↑ Harald Siebenmorgen: Biedermeier and German Michel In: 1848/49. Revolution of the German Democrats in Baden. Nomos. Baden-Baden 1998. pp. 142–147, here pp. 146–147.
6. ↑ Ulrike Ruttmann: ideal - horror - illusion. Reception and instrumentalization of France in the German Revolution of 1848/49 . Steiner. Stuttgart 2001. p. 320