Jo Glahé

Jo Glahé (born November 3, 1925 in Büren ; † July 23, 2018 in Cologne ; Josef Glahé, also Glahe) was an expressionist German painter, graphic artist and entrepreneur. Thematically, he dealt in particular with the Nazi era and the Second World War.

Life

Glahé was born in 1925 in Büren, Westphalia, where he grew up. On the way to the fulfillment of his childhood dream of becoming an artist, Glahé completed an apprenticeship as a painter after attending school in order to familiarize himself with the basics of painting and to be able to finance his living for his first artistic projects. In his youth, Glahé was shaped and shaken by the crimes of National Socialism. As a 13-year-old he experienced the destruction of the Büren synagogue during the Reichskristallnacht and witnessed the conditions in the nearby Niederhagen concentration camp , where he had a job to do as an apprentice painter. In 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and fought as a soldier on the Eastern Front. From December 1944 to February 1945 his unit was surrounded by the Red Army in the Battle of Budapest . Glahé survived wounded and was taken prisoner by the Soviets, from which he was able to escape. Glahé fell seriously ill afterwards, so that his health was impaired throughout his life by the consequences of the war. Nevertheless, he managed to flee from Hungary to his hometown, which lasted months, where he returned in September 1945 - long believed dead. After the war, Glahé studied architecture, painting and graphics in Paderborn, Dortmund and Düsseldorf, with Kurt Matern and Hans Tombrock , among others . In 1947 Glahé opened his first graphic studio in Büren, where he initially worked as an advertising graphic artist and also worked as a freelance artist. During this time, which was mainly characterized by the artistic engagement with National Socialism and his own war experiences, Glahé's main work, the “Wewelsburg Cycle”, was created. The artist finally turned to business and founded an international advertising and consulting agency in Cologne in 1951, as well as a trade fair company with branches in Chicago, Beirut and Moscow. As an interior designer, he designed exhibition stands, designed advertising graphics and advised companies on advertising issues. Glahé was one of the few West German trade fair organizers who were allowed to enter the Soviet market. His customers included Siemens, AEG and Bayer, among others. He died in Cologne in 2018.

"Wewelsburg cycle"

background

The "Wewelsburg cycle" is considered to be Glahé's main work. This is a picture cycle comprising ten large-format paintings, which deals with the National Socialist crimes and the Second World War at the historical memorial site of the Wewelsburg near Büren. The Wewelsburg is the former seat of the Paderborn Prince Bishop, built in the 17th century. From 1933, the Wewelsburg served the SS as a cult center, which Heinrich Himmler had inmates of the nearby Niederhagen concentration camp expand on a large scale. In 1945 Himmler had parts of the Wewelsburg blown up.

In 1949, at the instigation of the former Büren District Administrator Alois Vogels, a memorial was to be set up. The "Association for the Preservation of the Wewelsburg", founded for this purpose, entrusted the unpaid artistic design to Jo Glahé, who was just 23 years old at the time. Glahé's work was closely followed by the press and the public, even though the establishment of the memorial was controversial so shortly after the end of the Nazi era.

Style and statement

Glahé's picture cycle comprises ten paintings in the format 120x200 cm, which are related to each other in pairs of two pictures. In the original, the pictures were arranged in a circle and were exhibited in the so-called "crypt" of the Wewelsburg, a round cult room of the SS built by concentration camp prisoners. In this way, the National Socialist architecture was to contrast with the one depicted in Glahé's pictures caused by National Socialism To be sorrowed. Glahé's works deal with the Reichskristallnacht and the (bomb) war, the destruction of culture and humanity, flight and displacement and the Holocaust. In his works, however, Glahé also wanted to go beyond the specific reference to the Nazi era and to criticize intolerance, racism and nationalism fundamentally and over time.

Stylistically, the Wewelsburg cycle is based on the German pre-war realism of Karl Hofer , Otto Pankok or Hans Purmann , but in an expressionistically alienated way. In Glahé's paintings, cubist forms and sometimes strong colors dominate. In choosing his painting style, the artist consciously resorted to an art movement that the National Socialists had considered “degenerate”.

In terms of iconography, the artist experiments on the one hand with classical religious forms and motifs (cf. the painting “Refugees” and the reference to the “ Schutzmantelmadonna ”). On the other hand, the painter breaks through precisely this iconography in some of the pictures, for example in the painting "Die" , where abstraction and destroyed spatiality predominate.

reception

The cycle of images was presented to the public in June 1950 at the ceremonial opening of the youth hostel set up in the Wewelsburg and the local history museum housed there. The relationship between artist and public was fraught with conflict from the start. While Glahé's works were positively received by the critics, the local population saw the paintings as a provocation because of both their form and their content. At the opening event, the reference to the concentration camp and the Nazi era was deliberately given little space, not even the artist was invited or mentioned by name. Just three days after the ceremony, one of Glahé's paintings, the picture “Hunger” , was taken down again, as it hurt the “feeling of shame” of the visitors due to the nakedness of the figures depicted. The sponsoring association of the Wewelsburg demanded a moral theological opinion from the Catholic Church, including from Father Heinrich Bacht SJ, on the question of the objectionability of the picture. In addition, there was a conflict between Glahé and the association about the labeling of his paintings, as the naming applied by the association limited the image statements too much for Glahé's feelings and reduced them to an abstract reminder of National Socialism instead of the fundamental dangers of abuse of power, racism and to point out violence and the constant possibility of its repetition.

Under these conditions, Glahé's picture cycle had a difficult time. Not only was it too great a challenge for the viewing habits of the local population in terms of the way it was represented, but the very early and innovative form of the memorial also led to the post-war society, which was characterized by the “line-up mentality” Rejection. The memorial was perceived as a "foreign body" in the Wewelsburg, which was used as a youth hostel and local history museum. Büren dignitaries even advised against visiting the memorial, access to the memorial was only possible on request every six months in summer, and there were no guided tours. In the following years, Glahé's paintings were increasingly forgotten, poorly stored in terms of conservation and improperly repaired, so that the pictures were badly damaged. In 1977, a television team from the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation rediscovered the images in a storage room while filming a documentary about the Wewelsburg. It was not until 1982 that the paintings were stored in the warehouse of the district museum in an unrestored condition. Up to this point in time they were the only memorial about the SS rule in the Wewelsburg. It was not until 1999, 50 years after the memorial was opened, that the partially restored cycle was exhibited again in the Büren District Museum. This was followed in 2000 by an exhibition in the Detmold State Archives. In the meantime, the paintings have been extensively restored and can be viewed again in public in the Wewelsburg.

literature

• Wulff E. Brebeck, Creation and removal of warning signs in Wewelsburg since 1945. On the conflictual history of public commemoration of the concentration camp victims, in: Schulte, Jan Erik (ed.), Die SS, Himmler and die Wewelsburg, Paderborn 2009, p 470-487.

• Wulff E. Brebeck, Frank Huismann, Kirsten John-Stucke, Jörg Piron (eds.), End-time fighters: Ideology and Terror of the SS. Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition "Ideology and Terror of the SS" in the "Wewelsburg Memorial and Memorial 1933 - 1945 "of the Wewelsburg District Museum, Munich 2011.

• Derek Dalton, Encountering Nazi Tourism Sites, New York 2020.

• Angelika Gausmann, Iris Schäferjohann-Bursian, The forgotten memorial of Josef Glahe. Art as a means of dealing with National Socialism in the Bürener Land (1949-1974), in: Westphalia. Hefte für Geschichte, Kunst und Volkskunde 71 (1993), pp. 121-138.
• Glahé International GmbH (Ed.): 20 years of Glahé International, Cologne 1967.
• Wolfgang Hoffmann, a Cologne resident in Moscow. How a German entrepreneur manages trade fairs for the Russians , in: Die Zeit 26 (1974).

• Kirsten John-Stucke , The cycle of paintings by Josef Glahé in the Wewelsburg: To save an early memorial against the forgetting of Nazi crimes, in: Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (ed.), Preservation of substance. The Fine Arts Restoration Program of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf 2010, pp. 63-65.

• Kirsten John-Stucke, disputes about monuments and memorials in Westphalia, in: Matthias Frese, Marcus Weidner (ed.), Negotiated memories. Dealing with honors, monuments and memorial sites after 1945, Paderborn 2017, pp. 19-38.

• Kirsten John-Stucke, the Wewelsburg myth? Legends and myths about a castle in East Westphalia, in: Cantauw, Christiane, Kamp, Michael, Timm, Elisabeth (eds.), Figurations of the layman between research, passion and political mobilization. Museums, archives and culture of remembrance in case studies and reports, Münster 2017, pp. 95-104.

• Sarah Kleinmann, National Socialist perpetrators in exhibitions: an analysis in Germany and Austria, Tübingen 2017.

• Rita Martens, Matthias Lorenz , memorial debate Wewelsburg, in: Fischer, Torben, Lorenz, Matthias (eds.), Lexicon of "coping with the past" in Germany. Debate and discourse history of National Socialism after 1945, Bielefeld 2015, pp. 289-291.

• Marcus Rolle, The Niederhagen concentration camp and the Wewelsburg, in: Krull, Lena (Hrsg.), Westphalian places of memory. Contributions to the collective memory of a region, Paderborn 2016, pp. 565-575.

• Jan Erik Schulte, educational work with soldiers at the scene of the perpetrators: the key military terms “loyalty” and “comradeship” in the self-image of the SS, in: Wrochem, Oliver von , Koch, Peter (ed.), Memorials of Nazi injustice and the armed forces. Inventory and Perspectives, Paderborn 2010, pp. 233-248.

Web links

https://europeanmemories.net/magazine/ideology-and-terror-of-the-ss-an-exhibition-about-the-perpetrators-victims-and-bystanders-in-the-memorial-museum-of-wewelsburg/

http://www.glahe-atelier.de/glaheart.htm

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friedrich Bredenkamp: "The soul is shaken ..." - Visit to a painter from Büren . In: Free Press . 1949.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Angelika Gausmann, Iris Schäferjohann-Bursian: The forgotten memorial of Josef Glahe. Art as a means of dealing with National Socialism in the Bürener Land (1949-1974) . In: Westphalia. History, art and folklore books . tape 71 , 1993, p. 121-138, 125 .
3. ^ Josef Glahé: Biography Josef Glahé. Accessed June 1, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Gausmann / Schäferjohann-Bursian, The forgotten memorial, p. 131.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Wolfgang Hoffmann: A Cologne in Moscow. How a German entrepreneur manages trade fairs for the Russians. In: Die Zeit 26 (1974). Accessed June 1, 2020 . 
6. ^ Glahé International GmbH (ed.): 20 years of Glahé International . Cologne 1967, p. 1 .
7. ↑ Glahé International, p. 4 ff.
8. ^ Wulff E. Brebeck: Creation and removal of warning signs in Wewelsburg since 1945. On the conflict-ridden history of public commemoration of the concentration camp victims . In: Jan Erik Schulte (ed.): The SS, Himmler and the Wewelsburg . Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, p. 470-487, 473 .
9. ^ Josef Neuroth: Art - Document of Time . In: Westfälisches Volksblatt . December 29, 1949.
10. ↑ Friedrich Bredenkamp: "The soul is shaken ..." - Visit to a painter from Büren . In: Free Press . 1949.
11. ↑ Friedrich Bredenkamp: The living to the memorial . In: Free Press . October 17, 1949.
12. ↑ Friedrich Bredenkamp: A memorial becomes reality . In: Free Press . 1949.
13. ↑ The picture cycle can be found on the following page: http://www.glahe-atelier.de/galerie1_mahnmal.htm Status: 01.06.2020.
14. ^ Sarah Kleinmann: National Socialist Perpetrators in Exhibitions: An Analysis in Germany and Austria . TVV, Tübingen 2017, p. 237 .
15. ↑ See the paintings "Persecution" and "Kulturvernichtung" (http://www.glahe-atelier.de/imgA_1_2.htm), as well as "Städtetrümmer" and "Kirchentrümmer", as well as the pair of images "Dead" and "Die"; http://www.glahe-atelier.de/imgA_3_4.htm; Status: 01.06.2020.
16. ↑ See paintings “Kulturvernichtung” and “Kirchentrümmer”, see: http://www.glahe-atelier.de/imgA_7_8.htm; Status: 01.06.2020.
17. ↑ See "Refugees" and "Cripples"; http://www.glahe-atelier.de/imgA_5_6.htm; Status: 01.06.2020.
18. ↑ See "Gefesselt" and "Hunger", http://www.glahe-atelier.de/imgA_9_10.htm Status: 01.06.2020.
19. ↑ Gausmann / Schäferjohann-Bursian, The forgotten memorial, p. 138.
20. ↑ Kirsten John-Stucke: The cycle of paintings by Josef Glahé in the Wewelsburg: To save an early memorial against forgetting the Nazi crimes . In: Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (Ed.): Preservation of substance. The fine arts restoration program of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . Düsseldorf 2010, p. 63-65, 63 .
21. ↑ Gausmann / Schäferjohann-Bursian, The forgotten memorial, p. 129.
22. ↑ Ibid., P. 128.
23. ↑ Ibid., P. 128.
24. ^ The Wewelsburg memorial, in: Der Patriot, supplement: Bürener Zeitung, July 6th, 1950.
25. ↑ Jan Erik Schulte: Educational work with soldiers at the scene of the perpetrators: The key military terms “loyalty” and “comradeship” in the self-image of the SS . In: Oliver von Wrochem, Peter Koch (ed.): Memorials of Nazi injustice and the Bundeswehr. Inventory and perspectives . Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, p. 233-248, 237 .
26. ^ Rita Martens, Matthias Lorenz: memorial debate Wewelsburg . In: Torben Fischer, Matthias Lorenz (Hrsg.): Lexicon of "coping with the past" in Germany. The history of debates and discourse under National Socialism after 1945 . Transcript, Bielefeld 2015, p. 289-291, 289 .
27. ^ Brebeck, emergence, p. 474.
28. ^ Marcus Rolle: The Niederhagen concentration camp and the Wewelsburg . In: Lena Krull (Hrsg.): Westphalian places of memory. Contributions to the collective memory of a region . Schöningh, Paderborn 2016, p. 565-575, 567 .
29. ↑ Gausmann / Schäferjohann-Bursian, The forgotten memorial, p. 130.
30. ^ Rolle, Wewelsburg, p. 567.
31. ^ Gausmann / Schäferjohann-Bursian, The forgotten memorial, p. 135.
32. ↑ bid., P. 133.
33. ↑ Andrea Pistorius: "Memorial" against forgetting . In: Westfälisches Volksblatt . March 31, 1999.
34. ↑ Wullf E. Brebeck: "My pictures should shake up". The State Archives are showing Josef Glahé's cycle “The Living to the Memorial” . In: Lippisches Kulturjournal . January 14, 2000.
35. ↑ John-Stucke, cycle of paintings, p. 64.
36. ↑ Kirsten John-Stucke: The Wewelsburg Myth? Legends and myths about a castle in East Westphalia . In: Christine Cantauw, Michael Kamp, Elisabeth Timm (eds.): Figurations of the layman between research, passion and political mobilization. Museums, archives and culture of remembrance in case studies and reports . Waxmann, Münster 2017, p. 95-104, 103 .