Marianne Schönfelder

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Marianne Schönfelder (born December 30, 1917 in Dresden , † February 16, 1945 in Großschweidnitz ) was a victim of forced sterilization based on racial hygiene during the Nazi era . She is best known for an oil painting by her nephew, the painter Gerhard Richter .

Career

Marianne Schönfelder was the daughter of the businessman Alfred Schönfelder and his wife Dora. After attending the secondary girls' school in Dresden, Marianne Schönfelder was suspected of having schizophrenia and was admitted to the Arnsdorf State Institution in 1938 at the age of 21 . In the same year, the decision for forced sterilization was made and carried out by doctors who were not simple NSDAP members , but members of the SS and who had distinguished themselves through particular loyalty to the followers.

Marianne Schönfelder died on February 16, 1945 in the Großschweidnitz institution. In this killing center, over 5000 patients were murdered in the so-called Aktion Brandt . The main causes of death were drug overdoses, systematic malnutrition, and inadequate care. Marianne Schönfelder was buried in a mass grave on site.

Posthumous effect

In 1965 her nephew Gerhard Richter painted an oil painting named Aunt Marianne based on a photo from 1932 . The photo-realistic painting, slightly blurred, shows the painter as an infant in the foreground on a table and two white pillows with his then 14-year-old aunt who is standing behind the table. She looks to the side with an embarrassed, seemingly knowing smile. Forty years later, the fate of Marianne Schönfelder and a detail of Gerhard Richter's family history became known to a broad public through an article in the Berlin Tagesspiegel (August 22, 2004): Richter's later father-in-law Heinrich Eufinger , as a doctor, was primarily responsible for forced sterilization measures during the Nazi era Dresden.

In the early summer of 2006, the picture Tante Marianne from the London auction house Sotheby’s was auctioned for 3.1 million euros by an initially anonymous collector from Taiwan .

Previously, there had been increasing public calls for the picture to be acquired as a national German cultural asset (for example through the Dresden Neue Meister gallery ) in order to make it permanently accessible to the public in Germany. In the end, however, those responsible were no longer able to obtain the necessary funds and thus bring the picture to Germany.

In December 2006 it became known that the art collector Pierre TM Chen, who lives in Taiwan, will give the painting Aunt Marianne to the State Art Collections in Dresden on permanent loan . It has been shown in the Neue Meister gallery since April 4, 2007 .

Stumbling block for Marianne Schönfelder in Dresden

As part of the worldwide coverage of the auction, Richter's aunt Marianne was featured in several hundred media in the world press. The picture, which was painted from a photo, became the face of the apparently nameless victims of euthanasia in Germany. In addition to Anne Frank and Sophie Scholl , Marianne Schönfelder thus became a symbol for the crimes of the National Socialist tyranny and for human dignity. On February 9, 2007, on the occasion of Gerhard Richter's 75th birthday, the reading Gerhard Richter - A Painter from Germany (with Kathrin Angerer , Stefan Hunstein and Jürgen Schreiber ) was held and a piece of music was performed at the Berliner Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz . which bears the name Aunt Marianne . It was composed and premiered for voice solo by the composer Alex Nowitz .

A stumbling block in Dresden has been remembering Marianne Schönfelder since 2012 .

In 2014 the picture Tante Marianne in the Topography of Terror was captured, persecuted, destroyed as part of the exhibition . Sick and disabled people shown during National Socialism .

Others

In the film Werk ohne Autor , which ties in with Gerhard Richter's biography, the fate of the painter's aunt, named here “Elisabeth”, plays a central role, and the creation of the picture “Aunt Elisabeth” becomes a key moment for the artist.

literature

  • Heidi Stecker: Victims and perpetrators: Aunt Marianne and so on. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt. 103, edition 28–29, July 17, 2006, pages A − 1982 / B − 1703 / C − 1647.
  • Jürgen Schreiber : A painter from Germany. Gerhard Richter. A family drama. Pendo, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-86612-058-3 .
  • Albrecht Scholz, Birgit Töpolt: The practice of forced sterilization in Dresden (doctors and medicine under National Socialism). In: Ärzteblatt Sachsen. 4, 2005, pp. 164-167.
  • Eckhart Gillen : Gerhard Richter: Mr. Heyde or the murderers are among us. Dealing with the trauma of suppressed history in West Germany. In: Eckhart Gillen: Difficulties in searching for the truth. Berlin 2002, pp. 186–191, Chapter II.1 b) (PDF file; 2.80 MB)
  • Birgit Töpolt: Prehistory and practice of the forced sterilization in the Dresden area 1933-1934. Medical dissertation at the TU Dresden 2000. Dresden 2002.
  • Christiane Rothmaler: Sterilizations according to the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring" of July 14, 1933. An investigation into the activity of the Hereditary Health Court and the implementation of the law in Hamburg between 1934 and 1944. Dissertation. University of Hamburg 1986. Matthiesen, Husum 1991, ISBN 3-7868-4060-1 . (= Treatises on the history of medicine and natural sciences 60)

Footnotes

  1. ↑ On Großschweidnitz see Heinz Faulstich : Hungersterben in der Psychiatrie 1914–1949. With a topography of Nazi psychiatry. Lambertus-Verlag, Freiburg, 1998. ISBN 3-7841-0987-X . Pp. 500-511. On page 507 the picture of a memorial plaque in Großschweidnitz with the number of over 5,000 victims mentioned here.
  2. ↑ Image: Gerhard Richter, 2012, Aunt Marianne (Tante Marianne) - 1965, huile sur toile, 100 x 115 cm - Taïwan, Yageo Foundation
  3. ↑ [1]
  4. ^ Gerhard Richter: Aunt Marianne's tragedy - BZ Berlin. March 25, 2019, archived from the original on March 25, 2019 ; accessed on March 25, 2019 .
  5. ↑ 11 things you need to know about Gerhard Richter | Day of the week. March 25, 2019, archived from the original on December 2, 2018 ; accessed on March 25, 2019 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schönfelder, Marianne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German woman, victim of racist-motivated forced sterilization
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1945
Place of death Großschweidnitz