Herbert Marxen

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Herbert Marxen around 1930, self-photograph

Herbert Johannes Marxen (born January 27, 1900 in Flensburg ; † July 28, 1954 there ) was a German draftsman, caricaturist and painter. In the last years of the Weimar Republic he was the busiest draftsman for the satirical magazine Jugend .

Life

Herbert Marxen was born in Flensburg in 1900. Between 1917 and 1921, interrupted by military service, he received training as a commercial artist at the Flensburg and Hamburg Schools of Applied Arts. In the following years he made study trips to Italy and worked as a freelance commercial artist, but developed an increasing tendency to approach the caricature. In 1922 the young Marxen designed a poster for the Flensburg North Market Days in the style of the new objectivity, which is so modern and bold that it provokes a storm of indignation in the local press: "Ackerscholle gegen Futurismus".

In 1929/30 Marxen made numerous graphic contributions as a freelancer for the satirical magazine Simplicissimus . From 1930 to 1932 he was a permanent employee of the magazine “Jugend”, with almost 200 articles, making him the busiest caricaturist for this paper, until it was threatened with closure due to the rise of National Socialism . Marxen continues to produce anti-National Socialist caricatures privately. After betrayal by his brother-in-law, around 200 caricatures with explosive content were confiscated by the Gestapo in Marx's studio in 1938, and the draftsman was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts with immediate effect. Efforts to return the drawings are in vain; they remain lost.

After renewed military service, after the Second World War, Herbert Marxen shifted more and more to the oil painting genre in addition to graphics. In 1946 an exhibition takes place in Kampen on Sylt with the express support of the British military government. This is followed by several exhibitions in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark and publications in “Der Deutsche Michel”. At the same time, Marxen tried to get compensation for the confiscated drawings. He died of a heart attack in 1954 shortly before the confrontation with one of the Nazi henchmen; compensation was granted to his widow and two daughters shortly afterwards.

aftermath

Around 1955 there were exhibitions in Flensburg, Odense and Aalborg (Denmark). In 1982 an extensive commemorative exhibition for the artist was organized in the Flensburg Municipal Museum . In 2019 the Herbert-Marxen-Weg in Flensburg was named after him.

Fund in the municipal museum in Flensburg

Numerous works from Herbert Marxen's graphic and painterly oeuvre can be found in the Flensburg Museum , including published caricatures from the Weimar period, drawings from the cycle “My thanks to the Third Reich” from around 1946, woodcuts and oil paintings. Stylistically, Marx's early works, especially his woodcuts, can be attributed to the New Objectivity. Of the three great cartoonists of his day - Heine, Gulbransson and Arnold - Marxen was closest to the latter; his figures are formed from a clear, fine contour line. The oil paintings cannot be clearly assigned to a style, mostly muted in color and often reveal the caricaturist. In the summer of 2014 another extensive exhibition took place in the Städtisches Museum Flensburg under the title "Politically incorrect" with oil paintings, woodcuts and caricatures by Herbert Marxen.

Works (selection)

  • Do you want total war?
    1945

  • The nouveau riche
    around 1930

literature

  • Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Herbert Marxen - A Flensburg cartoonist in the last years of the Weimar Republic. Ed .: Städt. Museum Flensburg, 1982, DNB 830131280 .
  • Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: The Flensburg caricaturist Herbert Marxen. In: Erich Hoffmann, Peter Wulf (ed.): We are building the empire. Rise and first years of rule of National Socialism in Schleswig-Holstein. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1983, ISBN 3-529-02181-4 , pp. 235-252.
  • Field clod against futurism. The disputes about the poster of the Flensburg North Market by Herbert Marxen in 1922. In: Kunstsplitter. Contributions to Northern European art history. Husum 1984, ISBN 3-88042-241-9 , pp. 192-201.
  • General artist lexicon . AKLONLINE, Doc-ID: _40446679.

Web links

Commons : Herbert Marxen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marxen, Herbert. as an author in the Simplicissimus.
  2. ↑ Marxen, Herbert. as an author in the magazine Jugend.
  3. ↑ PDF file Two artists on Sylt - Magnus Weidemann and Siegward Sprotte - 1946–1967 by Manfred Wedemeyer , in Nordfriisk Instituut , No. 157, March 2007, p. 24
  4. ↑ Herbert Marxen on vimu.info
  5. ↑ museumsberg-flensburg ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.museumsberg-flensburg.de
personal data
SURNAME Marxen, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marxen, Herbert Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German draftsman, caricaturist and painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Flensburg
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1954
Place of death Flensburg