Kurt Schumacher (sculptor)
_Kurt_Schumacher.jpg)
Kurt Schumacher (born May 6, 1905 in Stuttgart , † December 22, 1942 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a sculptor , medalist and communist resistance fighter . He was born with the painter and graphic artist Elisabeth. Hohenemser married and both belonged to the Red Orchestra .
Life
Kurt Schumacher moved to Berlin at the age of 14 and began an apprenticeship with a wood carver. During this time, he trained as a wood sculptor with Alfred Böttcher in Berlin until 1922 . He then worked and studied with Ludwig Gies, initially at the teaching establishment of the Kunstgewerbemuseum , then until 1935 at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts (VSS) in Berlin, most recently as a master class student.
Since 1932 he was in contact with Harro Schulze-Boysen , with whom he worked on the magazine Gegner . The above-mentioned studio served the VSS as a conspiratorial "mailbox". People from the resistance work came under the guise of "modeling" there. B. the dancer and sculptor Oda Schottmüller .
He resigned his privileged position as a master student (that is, with his own studio, which he shared with Fritz Cremer ) in protest against attacks by the National Socialists on his teacher Ludwig Gies.
He was a member of the Communist Party of Germany and worked under the code name Tenor for the Soviet intelligence service NKGB .
In August 1939, he helped Rudolf Bergtel, who had escaped from the Aschendorfermoor prison camp, to escape to Switzerland. In June 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht, where he distributed the leaflet "Open Letters to the Eastern Front" in 1942, with great danger.
When he was arrested on September 12, 1942, the Gestapo destroyed his studio in Berlin-Tempelhof with many of his works. Two medallions he designed on the Schleusenbrücke in Berlin, a basalt head and the printing block for the graphic "Dance of Death", kept in the German Historical Museum, have been preserved. A painting by Carl Baumann survived war and terror in a studio of the Akademie der Künste, where his resistance groups had often met: Rote Kapelle Berlin (1941), tempera on nettle, 79 × 99 cm.
On December 19, 1942, Kurt Schumacher was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial and hanged three days later in Plötzensee . His wife, Elisabeth Schumacher, was also executed on the same day, three quarters of an hour after him.
On September 25, 2015 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former residence, Berlin-Tempelhof , Hansakorso 2, today Werner-Voss-Damm 42 .
Awards
- 1932 Award of the Great State Prize of the Academy of Arts (Berlin) for a figurative sculpture.
- October 6, 1969 Posthumous Order of the Patriotic War First stage of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR .
literature
- Christine Fischer-Defoy : Art makes politics. The Nazification of the art and music colleges in Berlin. Elefanten Press, Berlin 1988.
- Gert Rosiejka: The Red Chapel. "Treason" as an anti-fascist resistance. With an introduction by Heinrich Scheel . results-Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-925622-16-0 .
- Luise Kraushaar et al .: German resistance fighters 1933 to 1945. Berlin 1970 Volume 2, p. 230.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Coppi, Jürgen Danyel, Johannes Tuchel: The Red Orchestra in the Resistance to National Socialism , Berlin 1994, p. 133.
- ^ Westfälisches Landesmuseum: Artwork of the month. July 1991 . (PDF; 3.6 MB). Retrieved February 2, 2014.
- ^ Peter Koblank: Harro Schulze-Boysen. Rote Kapelle: Resistance against Hitler and espionage for Stalin , online edition Mythos Elser 2014. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schumacher, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sculptor and communist resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 6, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stuttgart |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 22, 1942 |
| Place of death | Berlin-Plötzensee |