Karl Hans Janke

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Karl Hans Joachim Janke (born August 21, 1909 in Kolberg , Pomerania , † February 15, 1988 in Wermsdorf ) was a German artist and pathological inventor . He made numerous models and drawings mainly for aerospace engineering. His works are now recognized as important works of art of Art brut .

life and work

Karl Hans Janke was the only child of Otto Karl Richard Janke and Hedwig geb. Steffen. After 1929 Otto Janke sold his tenement house with ten apartments in Kolberg and bought the remaining property in nearby Dryhn in the Kolberg-Körlin district . The family moved there and managed the 132 hectare estate. According to his own statements, Karl Hans Janke attended the Kolberg cathedral high school and the preparatory school for secondary schools in Stettin . In February 1932 he graduated from the Hindenburg secondary school in Berlin-Lichterfelde .

He himself claimed to have taken evening courses at the Technical University of Berlin after graduating from high school and to have studied dentistry for three semesters at the University of Greifswald . It is documented that Janke enrolled in Greifswald at Easter 1932. There he probably studied dentistry for a semester. The time of the end of the study is no longer verifiable, presumably he could not continue the study because he was already ill. Likewise, it seems out of the question that he began studying engineering . He was among the residents of Dryhn for 1937 as “Janke, Hans; Student ”, but was probably already working on his parents' estate and was involved in the development of aircraft types in a small workshop. In 1936 he submitted a patent for an “airplane with a swinging wing” ( swinging aircraft ) and in 1939 a patent for a “ location indicator, especially for aircraft”. Both were granted by the Reich Patent Office in 1943. This shows that Janke saw himself as an engineer, inventor and original genius and not as an artist.

During the Second World War , the German Reich acquired Dryhn and an artillery firing range was built on the parental estate . In May 1940 Janke was drafted into the Wehrmacht . There he came to the reserve war hospital for the first time in May 1941 for the treatment of mental illnesses. With suspected schizophrenia, he was later transferred to the Haldensleben reserve hospital . Because of his state of mind, he was finally released from the Wehrmacht in January 1943. After his father's death in 1945 and on the run through the chaos of war, he and his mother came to Großenhain in 1947 , where he ran a small workshop. The death of his 79-year-old mother on August 6, 1948 caused him such psychological problems that he could no longer take care of himself, and he was becoming increasingly neglected. According to his own statement, in the spring of 1949 he could not get any cardboard or paper without a voucher, so he put the following note in his showcase: “As of today, no more toys for the children can be made because we need the 'material' for cannons . A. Hitler. They should have three things, 1.) a big snout to show off. 2.) a football to let off steam, 3.) a rifle to wage war. ” Whereupon he was arrested. At the request of the social welfare office and the medical officer, Janke was temporarily admitted to the Arnsdorf mental hospital on June 4, 1949 . With the diagnosis of chronic paranoid schizophrenia , which was marked by an inventor's craze, he was transferred to the Hubertusburg hospitals in Wermsdorf on November 8, 1950 , where he spent the rest of his life.

Until his death he created a comprehensive oeuvre of captivating drawings, sketches and models. He himself stated that he had invented 300 to 400 technical innovations. To this end, he made over 3000 drawings, of which around 2000 still exist today. He also built models of mobile aircraft, futuristic spaceships and electromechanical devices, designed a “human record book”, wrote political and military strategies and left behind an extremely extensive correspondence. In addition, he wrote concepts for the peaceful use of nuclear energy and drafts of novel drives based on the use of the earth's magnetic field .

For almost twenty years, Janke's models and albums were stored undetected in a storeroom at the Hubertusburg mental hospital. In 2000 they were rediscovered in an attic of the clinic by the chief physician Peter Grampp. The large-format drawings were in several fruit trays and had been folded up to postcard size by Janke to save space. They are signed in idiosyncratic spelling with "Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke."

Janke estate was founded in the 1998 by Hannah Green's book "I've never you a rose garden promised" named Rosengarten e. V. handed over. The association is dedicated to coming to terms with the work created by Jankes in almost 40 years of hospitalization. Since then, this work has resulted in numerous exhibitions and media reports. Janke's work is usually assigned to the Art brut, but this is probably the result of a misunderstanding of his intentions. Jan Hoet compares the drawings with those of Leonardo da Vinci and said: “The sheet is perfect from left to right, from top to bottom. It's perfect. You can't add anything. You can't take anything away either. "

In his legacy, Janke wrote “Please, the pictures m. Parents to keep with the many drawings u. Models that I created for you people. ” A selection of his estate has been shown in a small exhibition at Hubertusburg Castle since June 2007.

Karl Hans Janke's urn was buried in a communal grave in the cemetery in Döbeln in 1988 .

reception

Exhibitions

The first solo exhibition with works by Karl Hans Janke was opened with the opening of the Sächsisches Psychiatriemuseum collection on May 12, 2001 under the title Hans Janke - Inventor, Artist, Psychiatric Patient, Contemplation of a Human Life in an exhibition from Durchblick e. V. in cooperation with the Rosengarten e. V. opened as part of the Leipzig Museum Night.

Another presentation of Janke's works took place at the suggestion of Jan Hoet , the former director of Documenta IX and son of a psychiatrist. In cooperation with the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst Gent , the art exhibition YELLOW Tentoonstelling over Actuele Kunst en Psychiatrie took place from May 20 to July 15, 2001 in Geel, Belgium, in Hoet's parents' house and in the Van Disselhuis, a former Protestant church .

In the summer of 2001, the Panitzsch art association organized the exhibition Hans Janke - A Genius in Madness .

In the summer of 2003, the curator and Janke researcher Peter Lang presented the first extensive solo exhibition on Janke's work in the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin and then in the Dresden Festspielhaus Hellerau .

In 2007 the Peenemünde Historical-Technical Information Center illustrated the smooth transitions between scientific genius, art and madness in its exhibition.

Another Janke exhibition under the title The world's greatest invention followed in the Berblinger year 2011 in the town hall of Ulm .

The Saxon State Library - Dresden State and University Library , which stores around 3500 digital copies of Janke's drawings in the Deutsche Fotothek , showed the student exhibition Delusional Invention developed in 2014/2015 as part of a practical seminar at the Institute for History of the Technical University of Dresden .

theatre

In 2008 Adriana Altaras wrote and staged her play “Der Fall Janke” at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam. Here the two biographies of Wernher von Braun as a successful visionary and the failed Janke, who does not penetrate into practice, are juxtaposed. Special emphasis was placed on the issue of East German psychiatry and reality.

Karl Hans Janke's life also forms the basis of a theater adaptation by Florian Caspar Seibel from 2009. In “Der Phantast” the author contrasts the personal story of Karl Hans Janke (called Julius Tiberius Ferne in the play) with the rise of rocket engineer Hermann Oberth .

Radio and television

On December 3, 2007, the 45-minute documentary "Genie und Wahnsinn - Der Fall Janke" (production: Michael Erler) was broadcast by MDR television , which has since been repeated several times (also on 3sat and Phoenix). The Germany radio broadcast on April 25, 2008, the feature Jules Verne from the hospital .

literature

  • Uwe Fraunholz, Hagen Schönrich: Delusional Invention . The technical visions of Karl Hans Janke. (Catalog for the student exhibition in the SLUB Dresden from November 2014 to October 2015), Technische Universität Dresden, Chair for the History of Technology and Technology, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-86780-409-7 , urn : nbn: de: bsz: 14-qucosa-156131 .
  • Maja Lauschke: Karl Hans (J.) Janke. An inventor, artist and psychiatric patient between creativity and illness. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2011 (also Cologne, Univ., Diploma thesis, 2006), ISBN 978-3-639-34469-1 (offered by the publisher as a printed work on demand ).
  • Peter Lang; Moritz Götze (Ed.): Janke vs. Wernher von Braun. The ideas of a space fantasist. (Catalog for the exhibition in the Historical-Technical Information Center Peenemünde from June 23 to November 4, 2007), Hasenverlag, Halle (Saale) 2007, ISBN 978-3-939468-11-0 ; PDF; 5.35 MB ( memento from February 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ).
  • Peter Lang (Ed.): Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke. A breviary. (On the occasion of the exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien from June 14 to July 6, 2003), Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-932754-38-7 ; PDF; 2.7 MB ( memento from January 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ).
  • Jan Hoet, Kris Cuypers, Robert Baron Stouthuysen, Dieter De Vlieghere: YELLOW Tentoonstelling over Actuele Kunst en Psychiatrie. (On the occasion of the exhibition in Geel from May 20 to July 15, 2001), Openbaar Psychiatrisch Ziekenhuis / Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V., Geel / Beerse 2001, ISBN 90-805595-3-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Manfred Vollack : The Kolberger Land. Its cities and villages. A Pomeranian homeland book. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 1999, ISBN 3-88042-784-4 , p. 487.
  2. ↑ a b c Who was Karl Hans Janke? In: Karl Hans Janke, wall calendar 2009. Rosengarten e. V. Wermsdorf, accessed on December 16, 2011 .
  3. ^ Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke. Biography. In: Peter Lang; Moritz Götze (Ed.): Karl Hans Janke vs. Wernher von Braun. The ideas of a space fantasist. P. 138.
  4. ↑ Patent DE734303 : Airplane with a swinging wing. Registered on May 24, 1936 , published on April 12, 1943 , applicant: Hans Joachim Janke, inventor: Hans Joachim Janke. ‌
  5. ↑ Patent DE743758 : location indicator , especially for aircraft. Registered on May 11, 1939 , published on December 31, 1943 , applicant: Hans Joachim Janke, inventor: Hans Joachim Janke. ‌
  6. ↑ Quoted in: Karl Hans Janke medical record, Arnsdorf, June 4, 1949.
  7. ↑ a b Peter Grampp: Between delusion and reality. Karl Hans Janke and his work in the mirror of his time. In: Peter Lang; Moritz Götze (Ed.): Karl Hans Janke vs. Wernher von Braun. The ideas of a space fantasist. Pp. 28-31 (28).
  8. ↑ a b Peter Lang: On to the stars. In: Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke. A breviary. Pp. 6-8 (8).
  9. ^ Andreas Höll: Schizophrenia and genius, art and science fiction. The cosmos of the KH (J.) Janke. In: Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke. A breviary. Pp. 10-12 (10).
  10. ↑ Hannah Green: I never promised you a rose garden. Report of a cure. (Original English title: I never promised you a rose garden. Translated from the American by Jürgen and Elisabeth Hilke), Radius-Verlag, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-87173-505-1 .
  11. ^ Website of the Rosengarten e. V. in the FKH Hubertusburg, Department of Psychiatry.
  12. ↑ a b Andreas Höll: Universal obsession and "total truthfulness". The exhibition organizer Jan Hoet on the work of Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke. In: Karl Hans (Joachim) Janke. A breviary. Pp. 18-22.
  13. ↑ Jankes' note on the back of a portrait photo of his father; in: Uwe Fraunholz, Hagen Schönrich: Delusional invention. The technical visions of Karl Hans Janke. P. 5.
  14. ↑ The program for the museum night. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , May 11, 2001, p. 20.
  15. ↑ Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst: YELLOW - 20.05 to 15.07.2001. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  16. ↑ The fantastic world of Hans Janke. In: Kunstverein Panitzsch e. V. (Ed.): 10 years of the Panitzsch Art Association. Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2007, ISBN 978-3-86729-015-9 , p. 54 f.
  17. ^ Karl Hans Jankes Wahnhaftes Inventen exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien from June 14th to July 6th, 2003.
  18. ↑ The silence of flight. Karl Hans Janke meets Panamarenko and Ziolkowski. ( Memento from July 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), exhibition in the Festspielhaus Hellerau from December 16, 2003 to January 25, 2004.
  19. ↑ Janke vs. Wernher von Braun. The ideas of a space fantasist. ( Memento from July 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), exhibition in the historical-technical information center Peenemünde from June 23 to November 4, 2007.
  20. ↑ The world's greatest invention. Karl Hans Janke - Ideas of a space fanatic. ( Memento from January 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), exhibition in the Ulm City Hall from December 17, 2010 to April 17, 2011.
  21. ↑ 'Delusional Invention'. The technical visions of Karl Hans Janke. Student exhibition in the SLUB, DrePunct library, November 2014 - October 2015. SLUB Dresden Blog, November 7, 2014.
  22. ^ Hans Otto Theater Potsdam: The Janke case by Adriana Altaras and Dirk Olaf Hanke (premiere). ( Memento of December 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  23. ↑ Hartmut Krug: If I were a spaceship. The Janke case - Adriana Altaras dreams of flying. Nachtkritik.de , October 17, 2008, accessed on July 1, 2011 (review).
  24. ↑ Florian Caspar Seibel: Der Phantast (edition Smidt Theaterverlag, Pullach). In: Theater texts. Association of German Stage and Media Publishers V., accessed on September 10, 2014 .
  25. ↑ Christina Onnasch: Genius and madness. The MDR shows the tragic story of Karl-Hans Janke in a documentary. ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Sächsische Zeitung from December 3, 2007.
  26. ↑ Genius and madness - The Janke case. 3sat TV program, April 21, 2010.
  27. ↑ Rosemarie Mieder, Gislinde Schwarz: Jules Verne from the sanatorium. From the life of a crazy inventor. Deutschlandfunk , April 25, 2008, accessed on September 10, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Janke, Karl Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Janke, Karl Hans Joachim (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and pathological inventor
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolberg , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1988
Place of death Wermsdorf