Ludwig Thormaehlen

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Ludwig Thormaehlen (born May 24, 1889 in Hanau ; † May 3, 1956 in Bad Ems ) was a German sculptor and art historian .

Life

Ludwig Thormaehlen was born in Hanau as the son of the architect Emil Thormählen . He grew up in Magdeburg , where he attended the arts and crafts school under the direction of his father . He then studied art history in Berlin , Munich , Magdeburg, Freiburg (with Wilhelm Vöge ), Bonn and Strasbourg .

In Berlin he joined an intellectual circle around Friedrich Wolters and Berthold Vallentin through his childhood friend Wilhelm Andreae from Magdeburg . In 1909 he met Stefan George here and was henceforth an important member of the George circle .

In 1914 Ludwig Justi appointed him to the National Gallery in Berlin . After the First World War, he helped set up the new department in the former Kronprinzenpalais . In 1925 Thormaehlen, who valued Expressionism and was friends with Erich Heckel , became curator at the Nationalgalerie, where he worked until 1933 as an employee of Ludwig Justi. In 1932 he curated the exhibition “Modern German Art” in the Kunstnernes hus in Oslo. The show, which came about primarily as a result of Thormaehlen's contacts in Norway, including Edvard Munch , celebrated great success in Scandinavia, but led to art-political disputes in Germany. From 1933 to 1937 he was curator at the Hessisches Landesmuseum Kassel .

In addition to his work as a museum employee, Thormaehlen worked as a sculptor. He mainly designed busts and portraits of Stefan Georges and his friends.

Political orientation

Within the George Circle, Thormaehlen was one of the most violent anti-Semites. Even before 1933 he was noticed by anti-Semitic attacks, referring to Alfred Schuler :

“We broke away from him because of Schuler's excessively wild enthusiasm for Judaism [so-called 'Cosmics Crisis' of 1903/1904, in which the circle of Munich cosmics disbanded because of the anti-Semitic invective of Schuler and Ludwig Klages ], but, I don't think I have to hold it back: Sometimes his curses stick in my ear like the blow of a drumstick, that come closer again. For example, right now in the Flechtheim case [the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim , about whom Thormaehlen got excited] his 'bloodsucking vampires!' "

- Ludwig Thormaehlen 1929

He welcomed the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933. His friend at the time, Karl Josef Partsch, reports: “At that time, Thormaehlen liked to show himself with the party badge in his buttonhole and only now have I found out that it wasn't his due, but that he had borrowed it from one of his Magdeburg friends, because he never was been more than party candidates ”. Thormaehlen's anti-Semitism was now also directed against the Jewish members within the George circle. In a letter to Robert Boehringer in December 1934, he came to the conclusion “that in an alliance or friendship the non-Jewish part must not be less than 51 percent in value and weight. If these friendships and alliances are to be very profitable, healing and useful in all directions. [...] It is no secret and an absolute law that always and always the same Israelite size, which is a partner of 51% or as long as he is 51%, brings the highest possible profit, enrichment and increase, only 49% For non-Jewish partners nothing but paralysis, hindrance, stunting, whether he wants it or not, even when he doesn't want it. ”This also had consequences for the“ friendships ”within the circle:“ I do not wish two of ours -German-born friends, now that d. M. [the master = George, who died in December 1933] is no longer there, actually, precisely because I love her, an early and unexpected end, so that what they did and did well would not be diminished, and we are not one day compelled to take action against them. "

Works (selection)

Fonts

  • The future of the National Gallery. Berlin 1910.
  • The expansion of the National Gallery. Berlin 1913.
  • The renovation in the National Gallery. Berlin 1914.
  • Open letter to Karl Scheffler. In: ZfbK. (Garnish). 54 (30), 1918/1919.
  • Habemus papam! Comments on Scheffler's bull "Berlin Museum War". Berlin 1921.
  • Hans Thoma. One hundred paintings from German private ownership. Berlin 1922.
  • Directory of the Schack gallery. Preface. Munich 1923.
  • Bernhard Koehler. Eulogy Berlin 1927.
  • From Corinth to Klee. German painting in the 19th and 20th centuries. A walk through the National Gallery. Berlin 1931.
  • From Runge to Thoma. German painting in the 19th and 20th centuries. A walk through the National Gallery. Berlin 1932.
  • Out. Reunion with museum items. Catalog. Berlin 1946.
  • Development of the Berlin museums. In: ZfK. I. 1947.
  • Obituary for Heinrich Wölfflin. In: JbAdW. 1951.
  • Masterpieces from the Dresden Gallery, exhibited in the National Gallery. Suggestions for closer inspection. Berlin 1955.
  • Memories of Stefan George . Dr. Ernst Hauswedell & Co Verlag, Hamburg 1962 (posthumously).

literature

  • Eugen Blume: Ludwig Thormaehlen under the spell of the master . In: Eugen Blume, Dieter Scholz (Ed.): Bridged. Aesthetic Modernism and National Socialism. Art historian and artist 1925–1937 . Cologne 1999.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ See for example Thomas Karlauf , Stefan George. The discovery of charisma , Pantheon, Munich 2008, p. 380f.
  2. ↑ Kurt Hildebrandt , Memories of Stefan George and his circle , Bouvier, Bonn 1965, p. 139.
  3. ^ In addition, the detailed study by Markus Lörz, Neuere Deutsche Kunst. Oslo, Copenhagen, Cologne 1932. Reconstruction and documentation , ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2008.
  4. ↑ This is reported by Klaus E. Herrmann, Stefan George, a trailblazer of the Third Reich , Ettenheim [1998], pp. 42–44, quoted here from Michael Philipp, “In the political sphere things went differently”. The theme of the 'Jewish' in the George circle before and after 1933 , in: Gert Mattenklott , Michael Philipp, Julius H. Schoeps (eds.), “Misunderstood brothers”? Stefan George and the German-Jewish bourgeoisie between the turn of the century and emigration , Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2001, pp. 31–53, here p. 35.
  5. ^ Karl Josef Partsch to Walther Greischel, March 1963, Stefan George Archive , here quoted from Ulrich Raulff , Kreis ohne Meister. Stefan Georges Nachleben , CH Beck, Munich 2009, p. 63, note 68.
  6. ↑ Both quotes from a letter from Ludwig Thormaehlen to Robert Boehringer, December 5, 1934, Stefan George Archive, here quoted from Philipp, “In the political, things went differently” , p. 47.
personal data
SURNAME Thormaehlen, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanau
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1956
Place of death Bad Ems