Herbert Kühn (sculptor)
Herbert Kühn (born May 5, 1910 in Arfrade , † 1976 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ) was a German sculptor . During the National Socialist era , he was awarded for designs for the artistic design of the German district administration in the German-occupied Radom . After the Second World War he made commissioned art, including for the DGB .
life and work
Kühn graduated from the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin as a master student of Hugo Lederer . He experienced his artistic breakthrough in 1939, when his bust of the Bavarian Prime Minister Ludwig Siebert was exhibited at the Great German Art Exhibition in the Munich House of German Art .
After a traffic accident in the early 1930s, Kühn was severely handicapped and therefore not fit for war. In 1941 he received the order for the artistic design of the themes of war and peace for the main entrance of the newly built German district administration in the Polish Radom , which at that time was part of the so-called General Government . At the end of 1941 he moved into a studio there. In 1942, Governor General Hans Frank gave him the first ever Veit Stoss Prize for Sculpture for his sketches . According to Lars Jockheck, the portraits of his reliefs corresponded to the constructs of popular racial theories of National Socialism : They depicted racist portraits of heroic figures and enemies from the East, represented imperial power as useful art and propagated the new order of National Socialism. Kühn worked on the models until the end of 1943. In view of the approaching front, construction of the administration building had already been stopped.
In the course of the German withdrawal, Kühn became a Soviet prisoner of war and was interned for four years. After his repatriation, he settled in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Here he mainly carried out commissioned art. He received his commissions from Hans Böckler , whom he portrayed several times and whose death mask he removed, and the DGB . In 1970, on behalf of the DGB, he developed the plastic tree of pain , which was given to the State of Israel as a token of reparation and was set up on October 26, 1970 on the premises of the University of Haifa to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Holocaust .
literature
- Lars Jockheck: "War" and "Peace" in Radom. Architectural allegories from the program of the National Socialist expulsion and extermination war in the east. In: Working group on historical image research (ed.): The war in images - images of war. P. Lang, Frankfurt / M. 2003, pp. 21-43.
- Hans-Joachim Wolter: The sculptor Herbert Kühn. In: Mülheimer Jahrbuch 1976, pp. 232–247.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bold, Herbert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 5, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Arfrade |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1976 |
| Place of death | Mülheim an der Ruhr |