Hermann Kaspar

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Hermann Kaspar (born April 19, 1904 in Regensburg ; † August 2, 1986 in Lindau (Bodensee) ) was a respected German designer, painter , university professor and friend of Albert Speer during the Nazi era and also in the Federal Republic of Germany .

Arcade on the rear facade of the House of Art , Munich
Detail of the ceiling mosaic in the colonnade with swastika motif by Hermann Kaspar

Career and the time of National Socialism

Hermann Kaspar was a student of Edmund Steppes and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich as a master student with Becker-Gundahl . Thanks to the special support from Academy President German Bestelmeyer , Kaspar won first prize in the competition for the monumental mosaic frieze on the gallery walls in the congress hall of the Deutsches Museum in Munich in 1935 and was thus awarded his first major order. Commissions for the design of the window cycle in 1937 in the Protestant Church of St. Markus and the dome painting in the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich followed.

In accordance with the taste of the Nazi leadership, Kaspar was soon one of the cultural celebrities of the Third Reich and was jointly responsible (together with the sculptor Richard Knecht ) for the overall design of the marches and pageants for the “ Day of German Art ” in Munich in 1937 and 1938. During the parade of his grotesque kitsch floats, Kaspar was allowed to sit right next to Hitler . In the circle of Hitler and Speer, he was particularly responsible for mosaics, especially for swastika meanders, such as on the ceiling of the colonnade at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst , and on the monumental Speer grandstand on the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds and in the hall of honor of this building.

In 1938 he received the professorship for monumental painting at the Munich Art Academy as the successor to Julius Diez instead of Karl Caspar, who was stamped as “ degenerate ” and forced to retire . In the same year he was commissioned by Albert Speer to design the mosaics, frescoes, floors, friezes and wood inlays for the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, and was busy with this work until 1941. Kaspar used an abundance of symbols of life, strength and swastika, including in the floor mosaic of the round hall, whose dome structure he also designed. For the oversized “Führer’s study” (14 by 27 meters), Kaspar provided inlay designs for the monumental furniture designed by Speer, which Hitler liked. Speer mentioned in his "Memories" from 1969 that Hitler was particularly pleased with the inlay of the central section of his gigantic desk facing the visitor side, because behind the mask of Mars, the god of war, the sword crossed with a lance had been pulled out of its sheath: " Good, good ... When the diplomats sitting in front of me at this table see that, they will learn to be afraid ". Works by Kaspar were also shown in the 1944 art exhibition organized by Heinrich Himmler and the main office of the SS , German artists and the SS in Breslau. Kaspar was on the God-favored list in 1944 .

After 1945

Vertical sundial on the clock tower of the Deutsches Museum , designed by Hermann Kaspar in 1951

Although Kaspar was dismissed from the Academy by the Americans, along with Adolf Ziegler , Josef Thorak and other Nazi artists, immediately after the end of the war, despite protests on the part of Karl Caspar , he was reinstated as a professor of painting from 1957 on , while he was still on his deathbed . Kaspar also received numerous state commissions again, for example for the design of the national coat of arms tapestry in the Senate Hall of the Bavarian State Parliament, for a sundial at the Deutsches Museum and the decoration of churches. However, his person remained controversial. The transfer of the tapestry from Munich to the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg in 1963 led to some protests in newspapers and publications, such as “The Hermann Kaspar Case” by Reinhard Müller-Mehlis, which reported relentlessly about Kaspar's activities in the Third Reich. During the student revolt in 1968, the General Student Committee (ASTA) also showed an exhibition at the Munich Academy under the same title , with Kaspar as a prime example of the motto "The ruling aesthetics is the aesthetics of the rulers" as part of the criticism of the post-war dealings with National Socialism at the time. and the neglected denazification of society was true. Hermann Kaspar nonetheless remained an academy professor until 1972, three years past the age limit. Later works include u. a. the design of the town hall of Aschaffenburg and the ceilings of the pilgrimage church in Beratzhausen . Numerous well-known artists studied with him, including Helmut Ackermann , Dieter Barth , Andreas Bleeker , Bettina Heinen-Ayech , Horst Böhm, Elisabeth Dering , Hans-Jürgen Diehl Günter Dollhopf , Klaus Eberlein , Hans-Heinrich Fußer , Ernst Graupner , Annemarie Graupner-Baumgartner , Anton Greiner, Willibrord Haas , Reinhart Heinsdorff , Bert Heller , Winfried Herbst, Karl Holzner, Helmut Kissel, Franz Krautgasser , Kreil, Johannes Krejci , Ernst W. Kunz , Wolfgang Lenz , Peter Loew , Siegfried Lunau, the father of Siegfried W. Lunau , Wolf Münzner , Toni Oberniedermayr, Horst Sauerbruch , Jürgen Ferdinand Schlamp , Ingeborg Sedlmayr, Karl Schleinkofer, Günter Voglsamer or Hermann Winter.

Senate Hall of the Bavarian State Parliament: tapestry of the old plenary hall

Works (selection)

  • Aschaffenburg: Mother of God Parish Church : ceiling fresco (1965–1967).
  • Berlin: "New Reich Chancellery" (inauguration 1939), hall, mosaic ornaments, small sculptures.
  • Freiburg im Breisgau: Basler Hof , drafts for window frames, Renaissance jewelry, facade to the city library on Münsterplatz.
  • Munich:
    • St. Luke's Church: part of the choir window
    • St. Mark's Church: choir window (1937)
    • Altarpiece in the Gustav Adolf Church
    • Ceiling mosaic in the portico Haus der Kunst (1937)
    • Vertical sundial on the Zenneck Bridge on the clock tower of the Deutsches Museum (1951)
    • Maximilianeum (Senate Hall) tapestry with the great Bavarian state coat of arms and the coats of arms of the government cities of Bavaria ( made available to the House of Bavarian History in Regensburg since 2017 )
    • Facade painting at Burgstrasse 4, seat of the cultural department (1953).
  • Worms: Municipal play and festival house, Nibelung carpet (draft).

literature

  • Reinhard Müller-Mehlis: The Hermann Kaspar case. Chris-Verlag, Munich (Christoph Dürr) in the mid-1960s
  • Moše Sûqerman: History and Fine Arts. Wallstein Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0009-1 , p. 220 ff. (Volume 34, Tel Aviver Yearbook for German History)
  • Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 269.
  2. ↑ St. Markus Munich. In: st-markus-m.de. Retrieved June 25, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Ute Huebner: Franz Dewald. LIT Verlag Münster, 1999, ISBN 978-3-8258-4557-5 , p. 8. Limited preview in Google book search
  4. ↑ a b COMPETITORS AND PARTNERS KUNSTVEREIN AND KUNSTAKADEMIE IN MÜNCHEN ( Memento from January 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: kunstverein-muenchen.de
  5. ↑ [1] AdBKM
  6. ↑ Albert Speer Neue Reichskanzlei (1938–1939) ( Memento from 23 August 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: gymszbad.de
  7. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 298.
  8. ↑ Mosheh Tsuḳerman : History and Fine Arts. Wallstein Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-8353-0009-5 , p. 221. Restricted preview in the Google book search
  9. ^ Hans Karl Pesch and Ali Elhadj-Tahar: Bettina. Klaus Wiens Collection . Ed .: Klaus Wiens. U-Form Verlag, Solingen 2000, ISBN 3-88234-106-8 , p. 16 .
  10. ^ Lions Club Kronach. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ eART.de Winfried Herbst. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  12. ↑ More topical than ever. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  13. ↑ ROOM_FREI. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Toni Oberniedermayr. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Ingeborg Sedlmayr, biography. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Karl Schleinkofer at ARTE GIANI - Gallery - Art Consulting - Frankfurt. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Cultural working group Dorfen. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  18. ^ Art in Perlach. In: peraloh.de. Retrieved December 30, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Kaspar, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH regensburg
DATE OF DEATH 2nd August 1986
Place of death Lindau (Lake Constance)