Julo Levin

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Self-Portrait (1927)

Julo Levin (as Julius Levin born 5. September 1901 in Stettin , died in 1943 in Auschwitz ) was a German-Jewish painter of Expressionism .

Live and act

Stumbling block at the former house, Immermannstrasse 66 (today Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1), in Düsseldorf
Stumbling block at the house, Seydelstrasse 7, in Berlin-Mitte

Julo Levin, Emma and Leo Levin's third and youngest child, grew up in Szczecin. Julo was interested in art from an early age. In 1926 he graduated from art school and from 1931 secured a job in Düsseldorf.

Since 1919 he belonged to the Rhenish art scene. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Essen under Jan Thorn Prikker , followed him to the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich in 1921 , and in March 1923 to the Düsseldorf Art Academy . Heinrich Campendonk and Heinrich Nauen , whose master class he became , now also belonged to his teachers . With the completion of his studies in 1926 Levin received his first big order, a mural for the GeSoLei . With the fee he was able to afford a stay of several weeks in Paris. Another trip to France took him to Marseille for six months in the summer of 1931, where he created numerous powerful, colored watercolors, oil paintings and drawings.

From 1925 to 1932 he was a member of the Rheinische Sezession and the Junge Rheinland , with lively exhibition activity in Düsseldorf, followed by exhibitions in Berlin and Nuremberg.

In the city ​​center of Düsseldorf at Immermannstrasse 66, he shared the premises from 1930 to 1939 with the painter Karl Schwesig (until 1934) and other artists. In 1930 Schwesig founded the Düsseldorf branch of the Asso together with Levin and his painters colleagues Peter Ludwigs , Hanns Kralik , Carl Lauterbach and the director and actor Wolfgang Langhoff . Levin also belonged to the artist group Das Neue Pommern, which existed from 1930 to 1933 . After the painting ban, the artist worked as a drawing teacher at Jewish schools in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Every year he visited his native Szczecin for a few weeks. Detached from professional requirements, he devoted himself artistically to the hustle and bustle in the large seaport. Levin's penchant for port scenes culminated in images depicting a trip to southern France (1931).

In June 1933 Levin was arrested for political reasons, based on his closeness to and sympathy with politically left-wing members of the opposition and the KPD . Because of his Jewish origins, he was denied membership in the Reich Chamber of Culture and thus further professional activity.

Julo Levin worked as an art teacher at the Jewish elementary school in Düsseldorf , founded in 1935, on Kasernenstrasse and collected the important drawings by his Jewish students. This collection was Mieke Monjau, the wife of the painter Franz Monjau (1903-1945; murdered in Ohrdruf concentration camp of Buchenwald ), during the Nazi era hidden and preserved for posterity. These Jewish children's drawings were exhibited around the world under the title “Chased away, murdered”. The collection is in the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf .

Levin went to Berlin in 1939, where he also gave drawing lessons. From 1942 onwards Levin worked as an unskilled worker for the Jewish community in Berlin, which the SS called in to work. When he was working in the Berlin freight yard , he saw the freight trains carrying Jews continuously going east. He was in charge of cleaning the freight wagons that had returned from the deportations to the extermination camps .

On May 17, 1943 Levin was also deported to Auschwitz and murdered. There are two entries about his name in the Shoah victim name database on the Yad Vashem memorial page, a curriculum vitae and a report about him can be found in the Federal Archives in Koblenz (reference number: DY 55 / V 278/6/1105).

Commemoration

The “Julo-Levin-Ufer” in Düsseldorf's Medienhafen has been commemorating the artist since 2003 , where a memorial and information stele was unveiled on November 27, 2014, initiated by the Düsseldorf-based “Monjau-Levin Foundation”. In the Dusseldorf memorial , the “Julo Levin Room” is a small hall for events or educational projects and a bust is a reminder of the artist. A memorial stone for the painters Julo Levin, Karl Schwesig , Franz Monjau and Peter Ludwigs was erected in the southern part of the Golzheim cemetery in 1962 .

On June 25, 2015, Gunter Demnig laid a stumbling stone in his memory at ul. Śląskiej 51, in Szczecin, the painter's birthplace in Poland today.

On June 1, 2017 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former residence, Berlin-Mitte , Seydelstrasse 7. Another stumbling block was laid in front of the former main post office and future central library in Düsseldorf at Konrad-Adenauer-Platz 1, then Immermannstraße 66.

Works

  • Bull.
  • Emma Levin born Arnfeld, the artist's mother.

literature

  • Annette Baumeister (Ed.): Julo Levin 1901–1943. Monograph and catalog raisonné . Wienand, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-87909-768-2 .
  • Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .
  • Mieke Monjau: ... stick to those who are persecuted . A biographical survey by Bernd H. Stappert. Talheimer Verlag 1993, ISBN 3-89376-019-9 .

Web links

Commons : Julo Levin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Julius (Julo) Levin , United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "The Holocaust." Holocaust Encyclopedia (ushmm.org). Access on [6. November 2013].
  2. ^ Immermannstrasse 66, 4th floor: Levin, Julo, artist; Schwesig, Karl, painter; Zarenbowicz, Albert, sample draftsman , in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf, 1930, p. 172
  3. ^ Immermannstrasse 66, 4th floor: Levin, Julo, artist; Schwesig, Karl, painter; and others , in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf, 1934, p. 219
  4. ↑ Waldemar Diedrich: Ask me about Pomerania. Verlag Gerhard Rautenberg, Leer 1987, p. 160.
  5. ↑ For an overview of this school see: Jüdische Volksschule Düsseldorf & Childhood and School Time in Düsseldorf: The Jewish Elementary School .
  6. ↑ Bilder vom Abschied - Stadtmuseum shows drawings by Jewish children from the years 1936 to 1938 , Andreas Rehnolt, article from February 23, 2012 in the Jüdischen Allgemeine.
  7. ↑ Julo Levin , in “Der Blog - Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf”, from February 13, 2012
  8. ↑ Julius (Julo) Levin , on Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed July 19, 2017
  9. ↑ Levin, Julius (ID: 3923626) , Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
  10. ↑ Levin, Julius (ID: 4114361) , Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.
  11. ↑ Stier von Levin, Julo, painting / paper  in the German digital library
  12. ↑ Emma Levin b. Arnfeld, mother of the artist von Levin, Julo, oil painting, 1939/1940  in the German Digital Library
personal data
SURNAME Levin, Julo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levin, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German expressionist painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH 1943
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp