Klaus Lankheit

Klaus Lankheit, around 1985

Klaus Werner Theodor Lankheit (born May 20, 1913 in Landsberg an der Warthe , † April 7, 1992 in Karlsruhe ) was a German art historian . He was a full professor of art history at the University of Karlsruhe and honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg . He was one of the greatest experts on the work and life of the painter Franz Marc .

Life

Lankheit began studying Protestant theology at the University of Greifswald in 1931 . There he became a member of the Greifswald Burschenschaft Rugia in the summer semester of 1931 (in 1950 also the Dresdensia-Rugia Frankfurt Burschenschaft , of which he was a member until 1952). Later he also studied history in Tübingen and in 1934 in Berlin, but in the same year he started his military career in the Reichswehr . After training with the hunters in Lübben , he became a Fahnenjunker NCO in 1936 in Infantry Regiment No. 8 in Frankfurt / Oder. After stints at the Dresden War School and in Berlin (Olympic Village barracks) he became an officer candidate in the motorized infantry in Magdeburg in December 1937 . In 1938 he took part in the invasion of Czechoslovakia and in October of that year became a lieutenant in the motorized infantry regiment No. 66 in Burg. In September 1939 he was appointed first lieutenant , took part in the campaign against Poland and a year later in the campaign against France . From January 1940 he was employed with the German Army Mission in Romania . As a company commander, he took part in the attack on the Soviet Union . From the winter of 1941/42 he completed the general staff course at the war academy . Later he was from October 1942 to May 1943 Ia of the Afrikabrigade 999 , after which he worked in staff positions in the XIV Panzer Corps in Italy. On January 1, 1944 he was promoted to major i. G. promoted.

After the war, Lankheit studied art history from 1945 at the University of Göttingen . He completed his studies in 1948 with a doctorate to become a Dr. phil. from. In the summer of 1949 Lankheit job was as an assistant at art-historical institute of the University of Heidelberg , where he in 1952 with the working drawings of Palatine court sculptor Paul Egell (1691-1752) habilitation was. In 1955 he became a lecturer and in 1958 associate professor for art history at the University of Karlsruhe. In 1962 he was appointed full professor. For his scientific achievements he received the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany , the Diploma di 1a classe ai Benemeriti della Scuola dalla Cultura e dell'Arte, Medaglia d'Oro, and the rank of Commendatore dell ' ordine al Merito of the Republic of Italy and the Schiller plaque of the city of Mannheim . In 1981 he retired.

Franz Marc

At the end of 1948 Lankheit came into contact with Maria Marc , Franz Marc's widow. In the following years he helped her with the systematic processing of the estate of Franz Marc and thereby became a passionate expert on the life and work of the painter. His essay Early Romanticism and the Basics of Non-Objective Painting (1951) placed modern painting in the tradition of European painting. He thereby helped to overcome the ideologically motivated exclusion of abstract art by the National Socialist ideology. Lankheit supported the gallery owner and estate administrator Maria Marcs, Otto Stangl , with the conceptual development of the planned Franz Marc Museum in Kochel am See , which opened in 1986. His wife, Marie-Luise Lankheit, commented on this: “The two friends, who had made the care of the Marc legacy their life's work, put all their energies into making it a reality with the help of leading institutions and numerous private individuals to achieve this project. "

Publications (selection)

• Franz Marc , edited by Maria Marc, Berlin, 1950.
• The friendship picture of romanticism , Heidelberg, 1952 (= dissertation).
• Sketchbook from the field , Berlin, 1956.
• From around 1900 , Baden-Baden, 1958.
• The triptych as a pathos formula , Heidelberg, 1959.
• Franz Marc in the judgment of his time. Introduction and explanatory texts , Cologne, 1960.
• Franz Marc, The Tower of the Blue Horses , Stuttgart, 1961.
• Florentine baroque sculpture. Art at the court of the last Medici, 1670–1743 , Munich, 1962.
• Jacques-Louis David, The Death of the Marat , Stuttgart, 1962.
• Revolution and Restoration , Baden-Baden, 1965.
• Der Blaue Reiter / Wassily Kandinsky , Munich, 1965 (2nd edition: 1967, 3rd edition: 1979, 8th edition 1980).
• The Temple of Reason: unpublished drawings by Etienne-Louis Boullée , Basel, 1968.
• Franz Marc: Catalog of the works , Cologne, 1970.
• Friedrich Weinbrenner. Contributions to his work , 1976.
• Franz Marc. His life and his art , Cologne, 1976.
• Writings / Franz Marc , Cologne, 1978.
• Friedrich Weinbrenner and the monument cult around 1800 , Basel, 1979.
• The model collection of the porcelain manufactory Doccia. A document in Italian Baroque sculpture , Munich, 1982.
• The sculptor Michael Sandle or Monuments in Our Time , Mannheim, 1983.
• Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Correspondence , Munich, Zurich, 1983.
• From the Napoleonic era to the Risorgimento. Studies on Italian Art of the 19th Century , Munich, 1988.
• Guide to the Franz Marc Museum Kochel am See , Munich, 1989.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 438-439.

Web links

Commons : Klaus Lankheit  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Klaus Lankheit in the catalog of the German National Library
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology : Short biography of Klaus Lankheit

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rugia album and regular role of the Greifswalder Burschenschaft Rugia , Greifswald, 2006.
2. ^ History of the Franz Marc Museum , www.franz-marc-museum.de, accessed on June 10, 2011.