Nidden artists' colony

Hermann Blode Museum

The Nidden artists' colony was an important artist movement in East Prussia . Due to its exposed location on the Curonian Spit between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon, as well as the impressive dune landscape, Nida attracted many foreign painters and writers, mostly students and teachers from the Königsberg Art Academy , who sought peace and inspiration in the seclusion of the place. Until the 1930s, the Academy awarded so-called Blode scholarships, which were combined with a free stay at the Blode inn in Nidden.

history

Initially it was the animal painters Heinrich Krüger , Ernst Bischoff-Culm and Eduard Anderson who visited Nidden. They were mainly followed by teachers of landscape painting at the Königsberg Art Academy . The academy experienced an upswing when Ludwig Dettmann was appointed director in 1900.

The artists returned to Nidden in the inn with Hermann Blode (1862–1934), who had been in existence since 1867 and became the most important patron. His formerly small house became the nucleus of the emerging artist colony ; he converted his small hotel, built in the local style, into a studio in which the artists could work. He had a cozy artists' corner where discussions were held. The pictures offered for sale hung in the long hall. Lovis Corinth , who painted the cemetery of Nidden in 1893, also lived with Blode in 1890 .

The most lasting significance for the Nidden artists' colony had the multiple month-long visits by the important expressionist Max Pechstein in 1909, 1911, 1919 and 1939. Stimulated by Max Pechstein's enthusiasm, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff also decided to spend the summer of 1913 in Nidden. The presence of the two Brücke painters provided stimulating material for discussion among the artists. Ernst Mollenhauer recalled: "On the Blodeschen 'Künstlerveranda', big art problems were discussed with the glow of small petroleum lamps." Artists like Theo von Brockhusen , Ernst Bischoff-Culm , Arthur Degner , Gerhard Eisenblätter , Karl Eulenstein , Waldemar Rösler , Alfred Teichmann and Hermann and Edith Wirth lived temporarily in Nidden. The painters Carl Knauf and Richard Birnstengel as well as the actor Paul Isenfels built their houses in the style of the place with blue roof edging.

Thomas Mann's summer house (today Thomas Mann Cultural Center )

From 1920 onwards, the political boundary conditions changed, because the League of Nations separated the East Prussian area north of the Memel and administered it as Memelland . In 1923 it was annexed by Lithuania . Nevertheless, numerous German artists continued to visit the site.

In the late summer of 1929, Thomas Mann decided to have a summer house built on Mother-in-Law's Hill , from which one had a great view of the lagoon in almost the immediate vicinity of the painter's domicile. The people of Nidden ironically called it " Uncle Tom's Hut ". For three years, from 1930 to 1932, Thomas Mann worked here in the summer on his Joseph novel . Nidden had thus completely become an artist's place. Secluded and located outside the German Reich, for many it was no longer a place of internal, but also of external emigration . In June 1933 Thomas Mann emigrated from Germany. He never returned to Nidden. Today the house is the Thomas Mann Cultural Center .

Shortly before the start of the Second World War, the artists' colony had effectively come to an end. The Memelland returned to the German Empire, most of the sculptures were classified as " degenerate art ". Nevertheless, Blode's son-in-law Ernst Mollenhauer tried to maintain the inn and the spirit of the artists' colony until 1945. In 1945 soldiers of the Red Army destroyed the unique Hermann Blodes collection. Most of the pictures were burned in a sauna. In 1967, a Hermann Blode Museum was set up in the former stable building of the Hermann Blode Hotel, which has since been demolished. The history of the Nidden artists' colony is presented in a small exhibition.

Painter in Nidden

Hella Hirschfelder-Stüve Heinrich Kruger Ernst Bischoff-Culm Eduard Anderson Ludwig Dettmann Lotte Bingmann-Droese

Lovis Corinth Max Pechstein Otto Beyer Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Ernst Mollenhauer Theo von Brockhusen

Arthur Kuhnau Arthur Degner Gerhard Eisenblätter Karl Eulenstein Waldemar Rösler Paula Staschus-Flöß

Alfred Teichmann Hermann Wirth Edith Wirth Gustav Wittschas Carl Knauf Richard Birnstengel

Emmy Brode

• painting
• 

  Hella Hirschfelder-Stüve: Kurenkahn. Nidden, 1941

• 

  Lovis Corinth: Fisherman's Cemetery in Nidden. 1893, Neue Pinakothek , Munich

literature

• Jörn Barfod: Nidden - artist's place on the Curonian Spit . Atelier in the farmhouse, Fischerhude 2005, ISBN 3-88132-254-X .

Web links

Commons : House of Thomas Mann in Nida  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Artists and famous guests (with images of paintings)

References and footnotes

1. ↑ See: Max Pechstein . A passionate expressionist. Retrospective September 19, 2010 to January 9, 2011 in the Kunsthalle zu Kiel ; then in Regensburg (" Ostdeutsche Galerie "), March 6th to June 26th 2011, and then in Ahlen . This exhibition shows u. a. many pictures that give concrete evidence of Pechstein's relationship with the artist colony in Nidden.
2. ↑ Stepanauskas, Leonas, 1925-: Thomas Mann and Nidden. An approach from Lithuania . Versus Aureus, Vilnius 2011, ISBN 978-9955-34-335-6 , pp. 119 .