Heinz Tobolla

Heinz Tobolla (born September 19, 1925 in Hindenburg OS ; † March 18, 2013 in Aachen ) was a German sculptor and former lecturer at the FH Aachen .

Live and act

The son of a city administrator was born in the city of Hindenburg / East Silesia, which was called Zabrze until 1915 and then again from 1945 , but due to a relocation of the family, he completed his school days in Frankenstein, today's Ząbkowice Śląskie , where he graduated from high school in 1943 duration. He was then committed to military service, which he completed with the Air Force. A year later he was taken prisoner by the United States, from which he was released in 1946.

After his dismissal, Tobolla immediately strived to realize his youthful dream and registered at the then master craftsman school, the later Werkkunstschule, in Münster, which was then transferred to the design department of the Münster University of Applied Sciences from 1971 . By 1953 he learned the craft of sculpture from Franz Guntermann and Kurt Schwippert and the basics of painting technique from Vincenz Pieper . In addition, he acquired the knowledge of human anatomy necessary for his work at the anatomical institute of the University of Münster and already created his first larger works as a sculptor, painter, draftsman and taxidermist.

People in conversation

After graduating, Tobolla moved to Aachen in 1953, where he set up as a freelance artist. With his award-winning design for the sculpture People in Conversation , for which he received a gold medal at the Premier Prix International de Sculpture à Monte Carlo and the Prix ​​Special Jury à Monte Carlo in 1962 , Tobolla was able to increase his level of awareness considerably. This sculpture alone was made anew over and over again in the following years and in different sizes. Just one year later, in 1963, he received a teaching position for plastic design, freehand drawing and modern art from the State Engineering School for Building, which in 1971 was finally absorbed into the Aachen University of Applied Sciences , which he held until 1983. At the same time, he was now receiving more and more commissions from cities outside Aachen to create sculptures and fountains for street and square designs, to which works in sacred art were added later. Tobolla was able to present his previous works to an interested audience in a first major exhibition in 1965 in the Suermondt Ludwig Museum in Aachen , which was followed by further exhibitions every ten years .

After the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the opening of the Berlin Wall, Tobolla made more contact with his hometown of Zabrze and visited it in 1991 for the first time since his childhood. This resulted in an intensive artistic dialogue and also the idea of ​​planning several Polish cities in addition to a few selected German cities for a major touring exhibition, which then took place for the first time in 1993/94 and in 2006/07 with a retrospective of most of his works from 1945 onwards was repeated on a larger scale. In the meantime, Tobolla created the 3.50 m high bronze sculpture Confrontation with Self in 1997 as a token of gratitude and friendship for his native city , donated by an Aachen entrepreneurial couple and an Aachen insurance company.

After Tobolla had already received the special prize for international understanding, reconciliation and peace of the Silesian Culture Prize of the State of Lower Saxony in 1990 , he received the honorary citizenship certificate of his hometown Zabrze in 2007 at the last stop of his second major traveling exhibition in Aachen Cathedral .

Tobolla, who worked in the materials wood, stone, ceramic, bronze, plaster, steel, copper, brass, lead, concrete, glass and plastic, has created an astonishingly extensive oeuvre in his life, which consists of more than 500 individual works by them 100 are shown in larger than life size. In the course of his creative years, Tobolla took part in a total of 44 competitions with selected specimens, which brought him 16 first prizes and several second and third prizes.

In addition to his practical work in the studio and his teaching position at the FH Aachen, Tobolla volunteered in various committees for art and artists. Starting in 1972, he was the first chairman of the interest group of visual artists in Aachen for more than ten years . In 1974 he was also elected to the board of the Association of Friends of the New Gallery of the City of Aachen , which initially had its seat as "New Gallery - Ludwig Collection" in the rooms of the Old Kurhaus Aachen and from 1991 the Ludwig Forum for International Art based in the former Aachen umbrella factory Brauer . Furthermore, Tobolla had been a member of the board of directors of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen since 1987 and was meanwhile also a member of the building committee of the Aachen city council for ten years as a citizen representative.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1965: sculptures. Suermondt Ludwig Museum, Aachen
• 1975: People and Architecture. Sculptures, designs and models 1962–1975. Suermondt Ludwig Museum, Aachen
• 1986: Works from 1980–86. Suermondt Ludwig Museum, Aachen
• 1986: Four decades of plastic, sculpture and objects. Human - Time - Space 1953-1993. Traveling exhibition in Zabrze, Ratingen, Aachen, among others
• 1993–1994: Traveling exhibition in Zabrze, Kattowitz , Neisse , Breslau and Ratingen, among others
• 2006–2007: Heinz Tobolla. The factory - Dzieło. The sculptural work 1946–2005. Traveling exhibition in Katowice, Breslau, Stettin , Krakow , Ratingen, Münster , Jawor , Aachen
• 2007: Heinz Tobolla - sculptures and photographs by an Upper Silesian artist . Foyer of the CDU parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf

Works (selection)

Kristallnachtdenkmal Aachen

The breakthrough, Aachen

• People in conversation , several cities, 1962
• People live together , foyer of the Jülich nuclear research facility , 1965
• People walk past each other , inner courtyard of the Jülich nuclear research facility, 1966
• Röhrenbrunnen , Aachen, 1971
• Kehrmännchen , Aachen, 1973
• Umbrella women , Aachen, 1974
• Kristallnachtdenkmal in the form of a Star of David , Synagogenplatz Aachen, 1984
  • The memorial bears the inscription: “And the Lord said it is not enough for you Israel to be my servant just to restore the tribes of Jacob. I make you a light for the peoples, so that my salvation reaches to the end of the earth. Isaiah 49.6 "
  • A memorial stone at the foot of the memorial bears the inscription: “This memorial was erected by the Evangelical and Catholic Churches of the city of Aachen as a warning against all hatred and hostility. November 8, 1984 "
  • A steel plaque behind the memorial is inscribed: “The memorial depicts: The history of Israel as a star from David. In spite of many blows, its essence protrudes indestructibly into the future. - The citizens of Aachen remember the synagogue at this place, which was given its sacred purpose on September 19, 1862, desecrated and destroyed by the Nazis on November 8, 1938. "
• The breakthrough , Aachen, 1984/85
• Altar cross , ev.Paul Gerhardt Church, Aachen, 1985
• The package , Green Belt Cologne , 1986
• Cross symbol , church forecourt ev. Peace Church, Aachen, 1986
• Waterfall , fountain, Neukirchen-Vluyn , 1987
• The other , Odenkirchen- Geistenbeck, 1986
• Water and Life , Aachen- Burtscheid fountain, 1989
• Encounter with two own selves , Zabrze, 1997
• You I. Old - Young , Gangelt , 1999
• Job , Lumen Gentium Catholic University, Colombia , 2002
• Sigrid-Pless-Brunnen , Bad Soden am Taunus , 2005

Literature and Sources

• Ernst Günther Grimme : The sculptor Heinz Tobolla . In: Aachener Kunstblätter No. 27, 1963, pp. 209–214.
• Museum Association Aachen (Ed.): Heinz Tobolla. Sculptures. June 13 - August 1, 1965 . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Suermondt Museum, Aachen 1965.
• Museumsverein Aachen (ed.): Heinz Tobolla: Mensch und Architektur. Sculptures, drafts and models (1962–1975) . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Aachen 1975.
• Museumsverein Aachen (Hrsg.): Heinz Tobolla: Works from the years 1980–86 - an exhibition of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum from May 11th to June 22nd, 1986 . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Aachen 1986.
• Peter Ludwig : Heinz Tobolla: four decades of plastic, sculpture and objects. Human - Time - Space 1953-1993. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Haus Oberschlesien Foundation , Ratingen 1986.
• Heinz Tobolla: The work. An exhibition of the Oberschlesisches Landesmuseum in Ratingen-Hösel and the Silesian Museum in Katowice . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Ratingen 2005, ISBN 83-918246-5-9 .

Web links

Commons : Heinz Tobolla  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Waldemar Zylla: Tobolla, Heinz . In: East German Biography (Kulturportal West-Ost)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Left a lot of traces: sculptor Heinz Tobolla . Aachener Zeitung, March 22, 2013.
2. ↑ Shaping the future through a living culture of remembrance ( Memento from July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). Report on the exhibition on the website of the CDU parliamentary group.
3. ↑ Job for Colombia: Tobolla sculpture presented . Aachener Zeitung, October 27, 2002.
4. ↑ Sigrid-Pless-Brunnen ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). Report on the city's website.