Herbert Kunze (art historian)

Herbert Kunze (born December 6, 1895 in Staßfurt , † February 12, 1975 in Erfurt ) was a German art historian and director of the Angermuseum .

Life

Herbert Kunze completed a law degree at the University of Munich and studied art history in Munich , Leipzig and Berlin . He received his doctorate in Halle in 1923 . From 1923 to 1924 he worked as an assistant at the State Museum in Oldenburg . From 1924 to 1925 he dealt with the inventory of the art monuments of the province of Saxony . His area of ​​expertise included medieval art, especially medieval sculpture. In 1925 his dissertation was published under the title The Sculpture of the 14th Century in Saxony and Thuringia by the Bruno Cassirer publishing house in Berlin.

On December 1, 1925, Kunze took over the position of director of the Städtisches Museum in Erfurt, today's Angermuseum, as the successor to Walter Kaesbach . Kunze was also secretary of the Erfurt Art Association and continued the exhibition of contemporary avant-garde art founded by Kaesbach. In 1935 Kunze managed to acquire 300 faiences from the estate of the collector Paul Heiland (1870–1933) from Potsdam. He was able to expand the collection of the municipal museum with a further focus on handicrafts.

Under the direction of Kunze, there were personal exhibitions of artists whose works were already under severe criticism during the time of the rising National Socialism and were publicly banned a little later: Gerhard Marcks in 1927 and 1930 , 1927, 1928, 1931, 1934 Erich Heckel , 1925, 1926 , 1929/30, 1935 Christian Rohlfs or 1929 Otto Dix . Amazingly, Herbert Kunze was able to hold an exhibition a. a. with works by Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Emil Nolde and Christian Rohlfs from Erich's private collection.

On September 3, 1937, 765 works from the art museum's modern collection were confiscated as part of the “ Degenerate Art ” campaign. Herbert Kunze lost his position as museum director and was banned from the house. In January 1939, Kunze sued the city of Erfurt because, according to his legal opinion, his termination could not be reconciled with the civil servant status he was contractually guaranteed. The legal dispute was decided in favor of the plaintiff in the first instance. The city of Erfurt appealed, so that a settlement was only reached in July 1940.

From 1938 to 1945 Magdalene Rudolph , who later became the wife of Herbert Kunze, headed the Angermuseum. She prevented Erich Heckel's mural stages of life from being destroyed by the National Socialists by closing it with a temporary wall. In 1942 Magdalene Rudolph and Herbert Kunze married.

In 1945 Herbert Kunze was rehabilitated . He took over the directorate of the Angermuseum again. In 1946 he organized the first post-war exhibition in Erfurt and under his direction the war damage to the Angermuseum was repaired and the museum reopened. For Kunze, contemporary art was to be the theme again after 1945 in the Angermuseum. At the same time, it was necessary to deal with the loss of a collection of expressionist art that was known beyond the city . In 1963 the employment relationship with Herbert Kunze was terminated due to discrepancies in the cultural policy of the GDR . In the same year Kunze was appointed professor and honorary member of the Erfurt studio community of artists and friends .

literature

• Cornelia Nowak: Herbert Kunze . In: Ernst Herrbach (Ed.): Der Erfurter Kunstverein: between avant-garde and adaptation; a documentation from 1886 to 1945 . Angermuseum, Erfurt 2009, ISBN 978-3-930013-14-2 , p. 224 .
• Beate Klostermann: The special exhibitions of the Angermuseum from 1945 to 1962. An aesthetic reception analysis. Dissertation . University of Erfurt, 2007 ( digitized version ).
• Kunze, Herbert , in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical manual of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism . Munich: Saur, 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , p. 393

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beate Klostermann: The special exhibitions of the Angermuseum from 1945 to 1962. An analysis of the aesthetic reception. Dissertation . University of Erfurt, 2007, p. 22 ( digitized version - the information varies in various sources from 591 to around 800 confiscated works).