Melchior Grossek

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Melchior Grossek (born January 6, 1889 in Bralin , † July 9, 1967 in Berlin ) was a Silesian priest who was also artistically active.

Life

Grossek was born in Bralin, a village in the former district of Groß Wartenberg .

In 1909 he obtained his Abitur at Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau and in the same year began his studies in theology at the University of Breslau . At the same time he began an artistic training at the local art academy with the artist Heinrich Tüpke . Four years later he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Kopp . Since then he has worked as a chaplain at the Herz-Jesu-Kirche and St. Hedwig-Kirche in Berlin. In 1920 he completed his additional artistic training in Munich , Aachen and Bonn . Then Grossek worked for two years as a deaf-mute, prisoner and artist pastor in Berlin. In 1924 he became a pastor in the St. Franziskus parish in Berlin-Friedrichshagen . In the same year, Grossek began working for many years on various church radio broadcasts in Berlin, which he  did not resign until 1954 - interrupted by the time of National Socialism . One year before the start of the Second World War , Grossek moved to the Holy Family congregation in Berlin-Lichterfelde in 1938 . In 1949 Melchior Grossek, who was now looking after Polish-speaking Catholics in Berlin, was appointed to the clergy . Five years later he was appointed diocesan president of the Catholic labor movement and, in 1959, he was elevated to monsignor . He celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest in 1963, one year before his retirement.

Melchior Grossek died in 1967 in St. Gertrauden Hospital in Berlin-Wilmersdorf .

plant

In addition to his actual work as a priest, Grossek was artistically active throughout his life. His work was mainly influenced by two factors. Personal war experiences on the one hand, his Christian creed on the other, make his work so versatile.

With the help of expressionistic means he tried to express certain feelings and impulses. Grossek was not only influenced artistically by modern art. The Apocalyptic Horsemen are inspired by Albrecht Dürer and Peter von Cornelius. His work series Totentanz was influenced by Max Klinger and Wilhelm Busch , among others, as well as the popular war picture sheets . Despite the numerous influences, Grossek did not simply copy these artists, but knew how to incorporate those inspirations appropriately and convincingly into his own design.

His silhouette works The Life and Shape of Death were published for the first time in 1923. About two years later, these were then exhibited in the Wroclaw Silesian Museum of Fine Arts and in the Silesian Art Association. Shaping death. A Dance of Death of the World War , as it is called, is considered to be Grossek's most important and central artistic work. This row of fifteen paper cuttings was dedicated to his two brothers who died in the First World War . The motifs show a greedy and inventive bone man who determines what happens in the theaters of war. This series should be a protest and at the same time a complaint against evil and, above all, war. Melchior Grossek planned two more cycles for the dance of death . It did not come to their publication. However, there are not only a number of sketches and drafts for it, several finished paper cuts are known. Some sketches and silhouette versions have been preserved. Another exhibition during his lifetime did not follow until 1946, when seven of his works were shown in the exhibition Designed Gospel in Berlin-Zehlendorf . To finance the rebuilding of his church after the war, he traveled through the country and also sold his pictures.

In addition to his paper cuttings, Grossek mainly worked with linoleum and woodcuts . Christian motifs dominate here. In contrast to his silhouette work Das Leben with 33 scenes from the life of Jesus, he dared to use a more intensive and expressive design for his graphic works. Probably not intended for a wider public were his sketches watercolors . Most of his landscape watercolors were created in the later years of his life while he was traveling through the Allgäu Alps and southern Europe. Today the majority of Grossek's works are in the possession of a Munich collector.

Grossek wrote the script for a silent film Souls in Need , which dealt with ecclesiastical and religious-human problems of the Catholic diaspora in Germany. The film was produced in 1933 by Grossek together with the cameraman Kurt Skalden with amateur actors for the Bonifatiuswerk in Paderborn and was widely received.

From 1946 Grossek was a member of the Presidential Council of the Kulturbund for the Democratic Renewal of Germany , but withdrew after 1948, as he no longer saw the organization as being non-partisan.

Quote

“Like the priest from the pulpit through the word, so the artist should preach to the people from the walls through the image. The task for both preachers is: teach the peoples. "

- Melchior Grossek

literature

  • Peter-Christian Wegner: Melchior Grossek (1889–1967). The artistic work of a Berlin priest. Paper cutouts and prints. Mitzkat, Holzminden 2006 (annual gift for members of the German Scherenschnittverein e.V. ), ISBN 3-931656-87-X .
  • General artist lexicon , The visual artists of all times and peoples. KGSaur, Munich / Leipzig, Volume 63, 2009 page 158
  • Adalbert Klein: Melchior Grossek - priest and artist . In: Yearbook for the Archdiocese of Berlin , 2009. Verlag Christliche Familie, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-939168-10-2 , pp. 41–53.
  • Adalbert Klein: priest and artist from Silesia, Melchior Grossek painted and cut . In: Schlesischer Kulturspiegel , Volume 44, 1/09 Jan – March 2009, Würzburg, pp. 21–22.
  • Adalbert Klein: Melchior Grossek - priest and artist . In: Black on White , magazine of the German Scherenschnittverein e. V., Volume 16, November 2009, Issue 35, pp. 20-23.
  • Adalbert Klein: The priest and artist Melchior Grossek brought back to consciousness? In: Steglitzer Heimat , bulletin of the Heimatverein Berlin-Steglitz e. V., Volume 54, No. 2, July – December 2009, pp. 37–42.

Web links

  • Website - for the Melchior Grossek exhibition 2011 in the Oberschlesisches Landesmuseum in Ratingen

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heiner Schmitt: Church and Film. Church film work in Germany from its beginnings until 1945. Boldt, 1978, ISBN 3-7646-1723-3 , p. 175 and p. 313
  2. ↑ Martin Broszat , Hermann Weber (ed.): SBZ manual: State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany 1945-1949. Oldenbourg, 1990, ISBN 978-3-486-55261-4 , p. 916
  3. ↑ Johannes R. Becher : Letters to the Editor. President Becher writes . In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1947, pp. 21–22, here 22 ( online - only in PDF format).
  4. ↑ Power structures and decision-making mechanisms in the SED state and the question of responsibility. Materials from the Enquete Commission "Processing the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany". Nomos, 1995, p. 94, ISBN 978-3-7890-4006-1
  5. ^ In: Germania-Zeitung , No. 471, October 26, 1920.
personal data
SURNAME Grossek, Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German priest and artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Bralin
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1967
Place of death Berlin