Nikolaus Röslmeir

Nikolaus Röslmeir during a radio interview (1957)

Nikolaus Röslmeir (born April 28, 1901 in Bad Tölz , † December 30, 1977 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German sculptor .

Life

When Nikolaus Röslmeir was ten years old, his family moved to Freiburg im Breisgau. There he began training as a technical draftsman in 1915 and then worked as a sculptor in Ludwig Kubanek's studio . From 1925 to 1927 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in the sculpture class with Joseph Wackerle . Until 1933 he attended Fritz Klimsch's courses several times for study purposes at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin . From 1930/31 Röslmeir worked as a freelance sculptor in Freiburg.

In the competition “From the Life of the Hitler Youth” in 1936 he received two first prizes, for a large stone sculpture and for a work on the design of the Freiburg Möslepark . Two Hitler Youths made for this purpose , freed from recognizable Nazi attributes, were disguised as "boy scouts" and displayed at the Lortzing School after the Second World War . The Hitler Youth, made of artificial stone , were moved to the depot of the Augustinian Museum in 1982 , they had probably become too embarrassing by now, especially since wall paintings with Nazi motifs by Adolf Riedlin can still be seen in the Freiburg Lortzing School, built in 1953/54 . The Freiburg museum director Werner Noack spoke of Röslmeir's "pretty good talent for portraits and monumental works" when he recommended him to the National Socialists together with 29 painters and seven sculptors to carry out "art in the spirit of the new time".

In 1941 he was called up for military service and was stationed in Donaueschingen for training , then from 1942 to 1944 in Altkirch in Alsace. However, he was released for artistic work and during this time he created the Orpheus for the stage portal of the Colmar City Theater.

His studio in Freiburg was destroyed in the bombing raid on the city on November 27, 1944 . Then he returned to Bald Tölz in 1945 to his parents' house, where his widowed mother lived. In 1955 he opened a new studio in Freiburg, where he was able to obtain several public contracts, although he could be considered a burden because of his proximity to National Socialism.

plant

New Bertoldsbrunnen

Wall plaque on the extension of the old town hall

Röslmeir's work began with drawings, which he then modeled in plasticine or plaster , and executed in bronze or stone.

Röslmeir's work was mainly limited to the Freiburg area, which he had made his adopted home. His main work is the new Freiburg Bertoldsbrunnen , which was unveiled in 1965. Further works in Freiburg are a Homer wall relief on the new building of the Berthold-Gymnasium from 1958, a wall relief on the extension of the old town hall with councilors and coat of arms (1962) and a sandstone fountain with a Poseidon figure in the courtyard of the regional council (1975). His bronze Prometheus sculpture in the courtyard of the Weiherhof School was completed in 1980 by his pupil Hanne Gollrad.

For the German military cemetery in Dagneux , he created a large sculpture entitled "Mourners". During his time in Bad Tölz, a memorial was created for the victims of the Penzberg murder night .

literature

• Michael Klant (Ed.): Sculpture in Freiburg . Modo, Freiburg i. Br. 1998, ISBN 3-922675-76-X , S. #
• Ute Stipanits: The sculptor Nikolaus Röslmeir and his main work, the Freiburg Bertoldsbrunnen: with catalog raisonné . Freiburg i. Br., Univ., Master's thesis, 1989
• Peter Kalchthaler: Not just the Bertoldsbrunnen ... the sculptor Nikolaus Röslmeir and Freiburg . In: Freiburg Almanac . Freiburg, Br., Poppen & Ortmann. 39: 119-124 (1988). ISSN  0429-6486

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Freiburg newspaper digital - edition of September 13, 1936 (Sunday edition) .
2. ↑ Peter Kalchthaler: Nicholas Röslmeier . In: Freiburg biographies . Promo-Verlag, Freiburg 2002, pp. 301-311 (without reference to the source).

Web links

Commons : Nikolaus Röslmeir  - Collection of images, videos and audio files