Max Schwimmer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Max Schwimmer (left) and Conrad Felixmüller (1950)

Max Schwimmer (born December 9, 1895 in Leipzig ; † March 12, 1960 there ) was a German painter, graphic artist and illustrator.

Life

Max Schwimmer was born in Leipzig as the son of a factory bookbinder. He attended the teachers' college there . He then spent several years teaching in Obersaida in the Ore Mountains and in Marienberg . During the First World War he was drafted as a soldier. After returning from the war in 1919 he began studying art history and philosophy at Leipzig University . His artistic activity began at this time. He also found connection with the anti-bourgeois cabaret scene, which was dominated by Hans Reimann , Erich Weinert , Slang and Ringelnatz . He worked for the satirical magazines Die Aktion and Der Drache . With the help of Johannes R. Bechers , Schwimmer managed to establish himself in the left-wing art scene.

After traveling through France and Italy, Schwimmer began teaching at the arts and crafts school in Leipzig. In 1922 he married the graphic artist Eva Götze (1901–1986), with whom he had two daughters (Gabriele * 1923, Francis * 1925). The couple separated in 1933. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he was immediately dismissed from his teaching post in 1933. Nine of his works were defamed as " degenerate art " and confiscated. Schwimmer now devoted himself more to book illustration, until 1944 over 25 illustrated titles had been published. In 1939 he was drafted into the medical aid service in Leipzig, but was soon released again. In 1943 Max Schwimmer married the painter Ilse (Ilske) Naumann (1915–1969). On August 24, 1944, Max Schwimmer was finally drafted into the Wehrmacht. After a preparatory camp in Komotau , he was transferred to the guards of the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag IV B in Mühlberg / Elbe at the end of September 1944 . In April 1945 the guards from the POW camp fled to Altenburg in the American zone of occupation. Schwimmer managed to walk to his wife in Wohlbach in the Vogtland.

After the end of the war he joined the KPD and in 1946 was appointed professor and head of the graphics department at the State Academy for Graphic Arts and the Book Industry . He worked there from 1946 to 1950. In 1951 he was released from his job as a result of a targeted campaign. On October 29, 1951, he was officially appointed to the Dresden University of Fine Arts as head of the graphics department, where he remained until his death.

Schwimmer died on March 12, 1960 as a result of a heart attack. On March 23, 1960, the urn burial took place in the Leipzig- Lindenau cemetery .

As an expressive realist, Max Schwimmer is one of Saxony's most important painters from the past century. He had been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts since 1952 .

Awards

Works

The artist's estate, which is in the possession of the Leipzig City Library, includes 72 paintings, 30 gouaches , 1494 watercolors, 1880 drawings and 2335 book illustrations. These include 1267 works from the possession of Ilske Schwimmer, Max Schwimmer's second wife.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 561.
  2. ↑ Max Schwimmer's curriculum vitae, from his great-nephew Jürgen Schwappach ( memento from July 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
  3. ^ Postcard Schwimmer from his time in Stalag IV B
  4. ↑ Magdalena George: Max Schwimmer: Life and Work . Ed .: Academy of the Arts of the GDR. Verlag der Kunst, 1981, p. 68 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web links

Commons : Max Schwimmer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Swimmer, max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1960
Place of death Leipzig