Lilli Martius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lilli Martius (Photo: 1975)

Elisabeth "Lilli" Martius (born July 27, 1885 in Bad Ems , † December 14, 1976 in Kiel ) was a German art historian . Martius became known for her work as curator of the Kiel art gallery and for her commitment to saving works of art from being destroyed by the National Socialists . Later, the focus of her work was on 19th century painting in Schleswig-Holstein .

education

Her father was Götz Martius (1853-1927), professor of philosophy and psychology and later rector of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , her mother Martha (1864-1945) was a daughter of the entrepreneur Albert Borsig . Martius had three brothers. Her cousin was the gynecologist Heinrich Martius (1885–1965).

After attending a private school in Bonn, she trained at a school for secondary daughters in Kiel. She then attended the private painting academy founded by Georg Burmester and Fritz Stoltenberg , where Ernst Eitner gave courses in lithography , which aroused her general interest in printmaking techniques. In 1907 she went to Berlin to study the technique of etching . For this purpose she visited the workshop for reproduction graphics at the etcher and art writer Hermann Struck .

During the First World War Martius worked as a nurse for the German Red Cross . After the World War and the introduction of women's suffrage , she began to be interested in politics. She got involved in the German People's Party .

In 1923 Lilli Martius returned to Kiel. Through an exhibition she got in touch with the Schleswig-Holstein Art Association , which offered her a job. She looked after the collection of the Kunstverein in the Kunsthalle Kiel and the Kupferstichkabinett . She lived in Kiel at Esmarchstrasse 16 for decades.

Art history

In 1926, at the age of over 40, she began to study art history at the University of Kiel and graduated in 1929 with the dissertation The St. Francis Legend in the Upper Church of San Francesco in Assisi and her position in art history research . In 1933 she was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture to hold courses for students. At first she stayed at the Kieler Kunstverein, in 1939 she got a job at the university. During this time she experienced the confiscation and destruction of art, which was persecuted as Degenerate Art under National Socialism . In 1944, together with the secretary of the Kunsthalle, Friedel Stender, she succeeded in securing many works of art, especially by Emil Nolde, from the bombing raids.

In April 1945 Lilli Martius was offered a professorship at the Kiel University Institute, which had been relocated to Schleswig due to war damage , where she initially represented Richard Sedlmaier . In the prior house of the local Johanniskloster she established the art history institute in her room, in which she also lived at the time. She also took care of the repatriation of the works of art that she had saved in 1944 from the seven storage sites.

She was appointed curator of the Kiel Kunsthalle in 1947. She held this position until 1950. At the university she gave courses on the techniques of the visual and graphic arts until 1953 . In 1951 she was awarded the University Medal of the University of Kiel.

After her retirement in 1965, Lilli Martius wrote her main work on Schleswig-Holstein painting in the 19th century.

Fonts

A bibliography of the scientific publications by Lilli Martius can be found in Nordelbingen No. 34, 1965, pp. 15-17.

  • The legend of Francis in the upper church of S. Francesco in Assisi and its position in art historical research. Dissertation. University of Kiel 1931. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 1932.
  • The drawings by Carl Friedrich von Rumohr . In: Nordelbingen. No. 15, 1939, pp. 157-189.
  • Schleswig-Holstein painting in the 19th century. Neumünster 1956.
  • Carl Friedrich von Rumohr and Friedrich Nerly , teachers and students. In: Art in Schleswig-Holstein. 1959, pp. 77-91.
  • Experienced - told to relatives and friends. Kiel 1970, private print.

Awards and honors

The Danish consul Hans-Carl Rüdel presented Martius with the Dannebrogorden in 1975.
  • 1951: University medal from the University of Kiel
  • 1955: Honorary citizen of the University of Kiel
  • 1962: Appointment to the cultural senate of the city of Kiel
  • 1962: Culture Prize of the City of Kiel for her special services to Kiel's cultural life and for her fundamental scientific publications on the history of art in Schleswig-Holstein
  • 1970: Appointment as honorary professor at the University of Kiel
  • 1975: Awarded the Knight's Cross of the Dannebrogorden , in the name of the Danish Queen Margarethe II.

The Lilli-Martius-Schule , a primary and community school , and the Lilli-Martius-Weg are named after Lilli Martius .

literature

  • Nordelbingen, contributions to art and cultural history 34, Heide in Holstein 1965 (= Festschrift for Lilli Martius).
  • Olaf Klose : Martius, Elisabeth (called Lilli) in: Schleswig-Holsteinisches Biographisches Lexikon , Wachholtz Verlag , Neumünster 1979, Volume 5, ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pp. 156–159.
  • Petra Hölscher, Maike Wiechmann: Lilli Martius (1885–1976). Art - theory and practice. In: Hans-Dieter Nägelke (ed.): Art history in Kiel. 100 years of the Art History Institute of Christian Albrechts University, 1893–1993. Art History Institute of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel 1994, ISBN 3-928794-11-6 , pp. 52–55.
  • Prof. Dr. Lilli Martius . In: Schultheiß, Nicole: There's no such thing as impossible ... 24 portraits of outstanding women from Kiel's city history . Kiel 2007, p. 19 ff.
  • Lilli Martius. In: Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer : Kiel artists - Volume 3: In the Weimar Republic and National Socialism 1918–1945 . Special publications of the Society for Kiel City History edited by Jürgen Jensen, Volume 88, Boyens, Heide 2019, ISBN 978-3-8042-1493-4 , pp. 9, 69f, 84–86, 88, 174, 326, 361, 421, 431-441, 442, 456, 459ff.

Web links

Commons : Lilli Martius  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer : Kiel artist - Volume 3: In the Weimar Republic and in National Socialism 1918–1945 . Special publications by the Society for Kiel City History edited by Jürgen Jensen, Volume 88, Boyens, Heide 2019, p. 432
  2. ↑ Lilli Martius (1885–1976) on the website of the University of Kiel.
  3. ^ Lilli Martius School , accessed December 27, 2013.
  4. ↑ Hans-G. Hilscher, Dietrich Bleihöfer: Lilli-Martius-Weg. In: Kiel Street Lexicon. Continued since 2005 by the Office for Building Regulations, Surveying and Geoinformation of the State Capital Kiel, as of February 2017 ( kiel.de ).
personal data
SURNAME Martius, Lilli
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Martius, Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Ems
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1976
Place of death Kiel