Margarethe von Glehn

Margarethe Maria von Glehn (June * 28 ^{. Jul} / 11. July  1909 ^{. Greg} in Narva , † 28 December 2001 in Richlandtown in Bucks County in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) ) was a Baltic German paper cutting - artist .

Life

Margarethe von Glehn was the daughter of Felix von Glehn and Maria von Glehn, who died shortly after the birth of Margarethe. She was first brought up by her maternal grandparents Bernhard in Reval . Her grandfather Glehn composed waltzes, and her great-uncle Alfred von Glehn was a famous cellist . When the First World War broke out , she came to live with her father, who played the violin ready for a concert , and his sister Agnes von Glehn, who gave her first piano lessons as a pianist . She grew up speaking German, Russian , French and Estonian .

After the October Revolution , the family fled to Germany , where the family fell apart and Margarethe was taken in by the Löffler family at the Zigahnen manor in the Marienwerder district . Together with her friend Lieselotte (Lotte) Löffler, who later became Lieselotte Cardinal von Aries, she received private lessons and also her first art lessons from Lieselotte's aunt. In 1923 she began to make paper cuttings . From 1926 she attended the Oberlyzeum in Marienwerder , where she graduated with distinction in 1929. Then she returned to Reval to her uncle Erwin Bernhard, who adopted her. She now worked as an accountant for a Ford dealer and took evening drawing lessons from the Russian painter Anatoli Kaigorodow . In 1935 she married the merchant Ferdinand Paul Martin "Freddi" Luther (born September 19, 1907 in Helsinki), nephew of the plywood factory owner Luther in Reval from the old Luther family from Reval (descendants of Martin Luther's uncle ). She now lived in Nömme and became known as Margarethe Maria Luther von Glehn (later Margaret Maria Luther von Glehn in the USA ). In 1936 she gave birth to their first son, Lars.

In 1939, as a result of the Hitler-Stalin pact, Margarethe von Glehn and her family had to leave Reval within a week. She came to Gotenhafen near Danzig , where she gave birth to her second son Holger in 1940 and became seriously ill. Her husband was drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to Russia as an interpreter . In 1945 she fled with her children from the Red Army and found accommodation with her friend Lieselotte in Glücksburg , where her husband was also taken from French captivity in 1947. To overcome her destitution, she worked for an artist who made and sold gifts and souvenirs. Then she set up her own business with her husband and made paper cuttings - portraits and finally also paper cuttings with floral motifs and Madonnas. Her works were popularly bought, especially by the Danish royal house and the ducal family in Glücksburg Castle , and were shown at exhibitions in Germany and Denmark . The silhouette of Michael fighting the dragon is in the art museum in Bern .

As early as 1947, the family applied for immigration to the USA, which was finally approved in 1955 with the support of a church leader from the Lutheran Church . She settled in Marietta (Ohio) , where she initially supported Margaret's nephew Senta Bernhard, a lecturer at Marietta College . Margarethe worked in the public library and went on to make and sell paper cutouts. Her husband Ferdinand worked as a carpenter and made picture frames for his wife. In 1970 they moved to Torresdale near Philadelphia to work for the Lutheran Church on their Glen Foerd Estate , Margarethe as a tour guide and Ferdinand as a gardener. In 1978 they retired to a retirement home in Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey , where their son Lars lived. Margrethe continued to make paper cuttings, Ferdinand carved, and loyal customers bought her works of art. In 1990 she was made an honorary member of the Guild of American Papercutters . After her husband's death on August 19, 1992, she lived in Ottawa at the invitation of her friend Lieselotte . She gradually went blind and was placed in a nursing home near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1997 .

literature

• Lars C. Luther: Brief Biography of Margaret M.Luther (accessed January 14, 2016).
• Dr. Klaus Zentz: Margarethe Luther von Glehn (accessed on January 14, 2016).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Margarethe Maria Von Glehn Luther in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 3, 2015.
2. ↑ List of descendants of August Constantin Hoffmann (accessed on January 14, 2016).
3. ↑ Claudia Hopf: Papercutting: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Learning the Craft . Stackpole Books 2011, p. 13, ISBN 0-8117-0819-5 .