Hermann Brommer

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Hermann Brommer in the Merdinger St. Remigius Church (July 2012)

Hermann Brommer (born March 18, 1926 in Bühl , Baden ; † October 26, 2012 in Waldkirch ) was a school teacher and, as an art historian , dealt with the landscape of the Upper Rhine , especially for the Baroque period .

Life

His parents were the bank clerk Alois Brommer and his wife Emma nee. Hodapp. Hermann attended the missions high school of the White Fathers in Haigerloch and the high school Hohenbaden in Baden-Baden , both humanistic high schools . In Baden-Baden he passed the Abitur examination after the Reichsarbeitsdienst and military service . He had grateful memories of the director of the grammar school, Leo Wohleb . Because the post-war situation did not allow him to study history and Latin at the university, he studied at the Pedagogical Academy in Gengenbach and passed the first teaching examinations for elementary schools in 1948 and the second in 1950 . In Gengenbach he met his wife Elisabeth geb. Lehmann (1927-2006) know, with whom he had a daughter and a son. After various teaching positions, he became head teacher of the elementary school in Merdingen in 1956 , then rector of this school and in 1980 rector of the primary and secondary school in Ihringen . In Merdingen he led the church choir, while his wife was the organist. In 1985 he retired. The funeral mass after his death took place on November 3, 2012 in the Merdinger Remigius Church. According to his wish, the sermon was held above him, important verses from the Gospel of John ( John 13 : 34-35  EU ) calling for love . He was then buried next to his wife in the Merdinger cemetery.

The son, Wolfgang Brommer, is one of the managing directors of the company Waldkircher Orgelbau Jäger & Brommer , which among other things built the new organ of the Merdingen parish church of St. Remigius .

Art historical work

General

In addition to Brommer's teaching profession, his art historical work grew. In the beginning, in addition to personal inclination, there was the desire of the Merdingen community for a local chronicle, the will to teach the children precise things about their homeland, and the love for the Merdingen parish church of St. Remigius . The sculptor Johann Baptist Sellinger (1714–1779) came from Merdingen ; Works by him were to be assumed in Merdingen, but he had remained practically unexplored. Sellinger was Brommer's first scientific publication, which appeared in two parts in 1962/63. What is remarkable is the critical distance that Brommer maintains from his research subject. Sellinger did not have the rank of Johann Christian Wentzinger , “whose masterpieces… are still today a benchmark for the art of the 18th century in Breisgau. If, with my treatise on the sculptor Sellinger, I had only intended to mark the limits of his capabilities, I might be able to conclude. I would not have done justice to the importance of our master in his home history. He, who found his own, unmistakable style, was denied high artistic fame, although his works are part of the lovable cultural assets of numerous communities in the Breisgau. Reason enough to conclude my contribution to the local art history with the wish that I have succeeded in honoring the sculptor Johann Baptist Sellinger, which will save him from being forgotten. ”About seventeen years later, Brommer significantly expanded his first Sellinger studies.

Critical sympathy also shaped what followed. Brommer once wrote about the beginning around 1960: “This research, which I had actually already begun in the big autumn break in 1959 ... triggered an avalanche of further developments in art history. ... I worked my way into unexpected ramifications that were characterized by an almost criminalistic search for clues. Research had attacked me as a contagious disease. I couldn't get away from it. "

Brommer was autodidact in art history , but the director of the Freiburg Augustinian Museum Werner Noack (1888–1969) and other members of the Breisgau History Association gave suggestions. He was particularly encouraged by the chairman of the Church History Association for the Archdiocese of Freiburg and from 1964 full professor for ecclesiastical geography Wolfgang Müller (1905–1983). Brommer thanked him in 1980 in the Festschrift for Wolfgang Müller with an essay "Was Hans Loy der Meister HL ?"

Through genealogy and style comparisons, Brommer researched the biographies and catalog raisonnés of artists on the one hand, and the creation of individual works of art, especially church buildings and their furnishings, on the other. When analyzing works of art, he was concerned with their interpretation - with religious works of art, their theological interpretation. He wrote about the Merdingen parish church: “For the inhabitants of the Merdingen parish who lived in simple personal circumstances during the 18th century, their new parish church must have been a piece of heaven on earth. At great personal sacrifices, it emerged from the genuine religiosity of that time, which was otherwise the most fertile source for baroque art. To forget that when looking at and appreciating the Merdinger church would mean bypassing the essentials. This is the only way to explain why those responsible brought in outstanding masters from Upper Swabia and the Lake Constance area to create a baroque building in the vineyard on the Tuniberg that is unique among the rural churches in Breisgau. "

Brommer described the identification of the artists on the altar of the Sebastian Chapel in Dambach-la-Ville as his most important discovery . It was known that it had been created between 1691 and 1693 by two sculptors Philipp and Clemens, Dutch, they said in the village. “In pursuit of the traces and driven by the thought that the long stay of the sculptors Philipp and Clemens could have led to personal relationships in Dambach-la-Ville, I systematically examined the registry books of the Dambach-la-Ville parish kept in Strasbourg. Two discovered baptismal entries clarified the authorship in an impeccable manner. ”One of the entries read (Latin and translated by Brommer):“ Patrinus fuit Dnus Clemens Winterhalder Adlsns quoque Brisgoius et artificiosus Sculptor pt hic Novi Altaris pro Sacello S. Martyr. Sebastiani in eius monte hic. - The godfather was Mr. Clemens Winterhalder, the young man from Breisgau and currently residing here, artful sculptor of the new altar for the chapel of the holy martyr Sebastian on his local mountain. "Clemens and Philipp Winterhalder, brothers from Kirchzarten , have" the most beautiful carved altarpiece from the 17th century preserved in Alsace ”. Apart from the individual case, Brommer discovered a bridge between art in Breisgau and Alsace .

While his main focus was on the baroque, he also examined earlier things such as the Konstanz Minster or later things such as the uniformly historicist furnishings of St. Hilarius Church in Bollschweil from 1880–1902 or the St. Michaels Church in Rheinfelden, built in 1991–1992 -Carsau . Merdingen belonged to the Freiburg Commander of the Teutonic Order at the time of the construction of St. Remigius . In 1986 Brommer traveled to Vienna to work in the Order's central archive. There he was asked to plan the 800th anniversary of the Teutonic Order in Freiburg. The permanent product of the celebration in autumn 1989 is the collection of lectures,

Artist monographs

Another example of Brommer's artist monographs is the two-part treatise on the Hauser family of sculptors (1611–1842) , partly written together with his friend Manfred Hermann . Numerous articles in the Nouveau dictionnaire de biographie alsacienne come from him, as well as the following articles in the general artist lexicon :

Art guide

Art guide Merdingen , 5th edition 1999

Many work Brommers primarily important to art historians, he is in the series of small art guide and Great art guide of publishing Fast and Steiner and in 1996 the art publisher Josef Fink in Lindenberg im Allgäu achieved an uncommon widespread impact. His art guides are listed here chronologically according to the year of the first edition:

The list - almost 70 items - is limited to the German-language first editions. The guide to the Hohkönigsburg near Orschwiller in Alsace also exists, for example, in French, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese versions. The 43rd edition of the guide to the Birnau pilgrimage church was published in 2010. Brommer and his guides have made the art landscape of the Upper Rhine accessible to the general public on the German and French sides, and at a high level: “Hermann Brommer's art guides always present a small monograph of the respective building, which is based on intensive archive studies and makes the building accessible from an art and theological perspective . "

Certificate of the Teutonic Order

Honors

Brommer received the Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1978 and the papal Order of Honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 1980 . In 1985 the Baden-Württemberg state government awarded him the title of "Professor". The municipality of Merdingen made him an honorary citizen in 1986. In 1991 the city of Gengenbach honored him with the Otto Ernst Sutter Medal. In 1995 Pope John Paul II named him Knight of the New Year's Eve . In the same year he became honorary conductor of the Merdinger church choir and his wife became honorary organist. In 1996, on his 70th birthday, a commemorative publication entitled “Art and Culture on the Upper Rhine” was published by Bernd Mathias Kremer, the building and art consultant of the Archdiocese of Freiburg . The Republic of France accepted him in 1997 as a knight in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques . In 2003, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order awarded him Crux pro meritis . In 2006 the state of Baden-Württemberg awarded him the Medal of Merit and the Archdiocese of Freiburg the Konrad plaque. On his 85th birthday in 2011, he was honored with the European Regional Culture Prize for art historical research . In 2014, the Merdinger elementary school was renamed the Hermann Brommer School in his honor .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Josef Moosmann: The baroque jewel on Tuniberg receives a new organ. ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Hermann Brommer: Johann Baptist Sellinger. A Baroque sculptor from Breisgau (1714–1779). Life history and family relationships. In: Schau-ins-Land 80, 1962, pp. 51–69; Hermann Brommer: Johann Baptist Sellinger. A Baroque sculptor from Breisgau (1714–1779). Works and importance in art history. In: Schau-ins-Land 81, 1963, pp. 66–98.
  3. ^ Hermann Brommer: Johann Baptist Sellinger (1714–1779). News about the life and work of the Breisgau Baroque sculptor . In: Schau-ins-Land 98, 1979, pp. 59–80.
  4. ^ Hermann Brommer: Was Hans Loy the master HL? in: Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv 100, 1980, pp. 161–202.
  5. ^ Hermann Brommer: Parish Church of St. Remigius Merdingen. Munich and Zurich, Schnell & Steiner 1974.
  6. ^ Hermann Brommer: Philipp and Clemens Winterhalder. The sculptors of the Sebastian altar in Dambach in Alsace. In: Das Münster 24, 1971, pp. 234–239.
  7. ^ René Haberer, Lucien Gall and Pierre Siegel: St Sébastien / Dambach-la-Ville. 4th edition. Munich and Zurich, Schnell & Steiner 1982.
  8. ^ Hermann Brommer (ed.): The German Order and the Ballei Alsace-Burgundy. (= Publications of the Alemannic Institute Freiburg i.Br. No. 63. Bühl / Baden, Konkordia-Verlag 1996, ISBN 3-7826-1263-9 , in it Brommer's essay “Die Deutschordenskommende Freiburg”).
  9. ^ Hermann Brommer: The sculptors Hauser in Kirchzarten, Schlettstadt and Freiburg i. Br. (1611-1842) Part I, in: Schau-ins-Land 89, 1971, pp. 47-93; Manfred Hermann and Hermann Brommer: The sculptors Hauser in Kirchzarten, Schlettstadt and Freiburg i. Br. (1611-1842) Part II, in: Schau-ins-Land 94/95, 1976/77, pp. 165-200.
  10. ↑ Kremer 1996, p. 14.
  11. ↑ Internet site of the Merdingen community: Professor Hermann Brommer . Retrieved November 1, 2012.
  12. ↑ Mario Schöneberg: Merdinger School gets a new name. In: Badische Zeitung. December 16, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Brommer, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Bühl (Baden)
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 2012
Place of death Waldkirch