Manfred Kastner

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Manfred Kastner (* 5. April 1943 in Gießhübel / North Bohemia; † 3. June 1988 in Juliusruh , Rügen ) was an Stralsund painter and sculptor of Surrealism in the GDR .

Life

Manfred Kastner began an apprenticeship as a lathe operator in 1958 and then worked at the Stralsund shipyard until 1962 . He then worked as a taxidermist at the Stralsund Marine Museum until 1970 and from 1970 to 1974 as an equipment manager and set designer at the Stralsund Theater . He then worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist. In 1978 he was accepted into the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR . In 1982 he exhibited his works in the Kulturhistorisches Museum in Stralsund. Kastner lived in Juliusruh from 1985 and died in a car accident in 1988. A street in Stralsund is named after him.

Kastner was hired by the Ministry for State Security as an unofficial employee with the code name “Seagull” in 1963 . In 1970 he was released from his duties for religious and conscientious reasons. He and his family members were then observed by the state security until the end of his life.

With his works that did not correspond to the official art style of socialist realism , Kastner triggered controversial discussions up to the highest levels of GDR cultural policy and state security, was classified as "anti-socialism", harassed and persecuted.

After years of research at the Chair of Modern Art History at the Caspar David Friedrich Institute at the University of Greifswald , a special exhibition on Kastner was opened in the main building of the university in June 2008 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his death .

literature

  • Kastner, Manfred . In: Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania? A dictionary of persons . Edition Temmen, Bremen 1995, ISBN 3-86108-282-9 , p. 222.
  • Beatrice Vierneisel: The Stralsund painter Manfred Kastner and the district association of visual artists Rostock in the seventies. In: Zeitgeschichte Regional, 2004, No. 2, pp. 29–40.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kastner, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and sculptor of Surrealism in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Gießhübel
DATE OF DEATH 3rd June 1988
Place of death to reprimand