Heinz Kroh

Heinrich ("Heinz") Kroh (born September 12, 1881 in Cologne-Deutz , † July 1, 1972 in Dortmund ) was a German draftsman, etcher and painter of genre scenes from popular life in the big cities, especially Cologne and Paris.

Live and act

Heinz Kroh was born on September 12, 1881 as the fourth child of the railway secretary Friedrich Kroh (* 1850) and his wife Louise, née. Tailor born. The parents both came from Berleburg and moved to Cologne for professional reasons.

After finishing school, Kroh completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith at the Cologne-Deutz gas engine factory (GFD) and was then trained as a technical draftsman. He studied drawing and painting self-taught. In 1904 the director of the GFD, Carl Stein, granted him a scholarship for the Düsseldorf Art Academy . He studied with Eduard von Gebhardt and Peter Janssen and Adolf Maennchen , who taught him the "chalk wiping technique". The “three-minute sketch” became Heinz Kroh's specialty. From 1909 to 1912 he studied and worked in Munich. Long stays in the Wittgensteiner Land , in the Baden Black Forest and with the Zander family in Strasbourg followed. From an artistic point of view, the years after Munich up to the 1930s are his most important. In 1914 he was used as a war volunteer as a medic in Belgium. In 1916 he suffered a nervous breakdown. After a rest stay in Rheine, he worked as a radio operator at the Stolp military airfield until 1920. There he stayed - interrupted by trips to Berlin - until 1920. From then on, Heinz Kroh lived again in his parents' household in Cologne, and later with his sister Elly. From 1924 he had a studio in the Gereonshaus, where he was in close contact with his fellow artists.

Until 1929 he was chairman of the Cologne group of the Reich Association of Visual Artists. From 1924 to 1926 study trips took him to Holland, Hallig Hooge and Paris. As a draftsman and etcher, Heinz Kroh took part regularly in exhibitions of the Cologne Art Association and in the "Great Düsseldorf Art Exhibition" until 1933 . In 1943, the studio in Cologne-Buchforst was destroyed in several air raids. Kroh was a member of the Volkish DNVP until 1933, which he left in order to subsequently join the NSDAP (No. 2.120.284). He became a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture (1934–1945) and the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (1934–1945). During National Socialism he lived for a long time in Berleburg (Wittgenstein), the home of his family of origin.

Heinz Kroh sometimes gave lessons as a drawing teacher at the Hansaring high school in Cologne. In 1953 colleagues from Cologne helped him to find a studio apartment in Cologne-Buchforst, but he could no longer find a connection to the modern art scene. Hertha Kroh made her living. Despite economic difficulties, his artistic creative energy was unbroken: He drew and sketched again in the Cologne milieu.

family

Heinz Kroh married Hertha Schimmelpfennig from Dortmund, then 19, when he was almost fifty in 1929. The couple moved to Dortmund in 1966. He died there on July 1, 1972 at the age of 90.

His daughter, Hella Rafflenbeul-Kroh (1930–2015), who was often his model, made his life's work public in several books.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

literature

• Heinz Kroh, pictures of life . Exhibition in the Cologne City Museum from March 10 to May 13, 2007.
• Heinz Kroh, drawings taken from life in Cologne . The small exhibition / Stadtsparkasse Cologne 1977
• Heinz Kroh, sketches from the Cologne milieu . With an introduction ed. by Hella Rafflenbeul-Kroh. Bachem, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-7616-0469-6 .
• Heinz Kroh, In Cologne, drawn from life: in Cologne taverns, coffee houses and taverns, in the bar, in the vaudeville theater and in the circus . With an introduction ed. by Hella Rafflenbeul-Kroh. Bachem, Cologne 1980, ISBN 3-7616-0558-7 .
• Heinz Kroh. In: Ulrich S. Soénius (Hrsg.), Jürgen Wilhelm (Hrsg.): Kölner Personen-Lexikon. Greven, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 .
• Irene Franken, Heinz Kroh, in: Women in Cologne. A city guide - not just for women , Bachem, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7616-2029-8 .
• Heinz Kroh, Kölner Leben, From the heart and soul of a city , ed. v. Werner Schäfke , Emons Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-89705-593-3 .
• Heinz Kroh, Cologne 1914 Metropolis in the West , Cologne City Museum, November 22, 2014 - April 19, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Heinz Kroh  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Heinz Kroh in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marriage of Friedrich Kroh and his wife Louise geb. Schneider on November 9, 1873. Evg. Berleburg marriage register No. 23/1873.
2. ↑ Regionales Personenlexikon, article Heinrich Kroh .
3. ↑ The full life in Cologne. Retrieved on May 18, 2020 (German).