Nordic Art School

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The Nordische Kunsthochschule (NKH) in Bremen was the only new art college to be founded during the Nazi era . It was supposed to "draw from the foundations of German-Nordic folkhood, to work on the development of native culture in the sense of Adolf Hitler " - according to the opening quote from a brochure that describes the tasks and program of the NKH, here under the early name of the Nordic University of Fine Arts , outlines in National Socialism. The art college should therefore try to implement the Nazi racial ideology in the field of art.

history

The roots of the Nordic Art School go back to the 19th century. One root can be seen in the drawing school for artists and craftsmen, founded in 1823, another in the trade school, which only existed from 1853 to 1857. In February 1870, a technical aid institute for handicrafts and trades was founded, which began work in May 1873. The aim was to create a collection of samples, as well as a drawing institute, and later a library and school were added. While the number of pupils was low at the beginning, there was a curriculum introduced in 1904 by Emil Högg (successor to August Töpfer ). Four years after Erich Kleinhempel had taken over the facility, the arts and crafts school separated from the trade museum in 1916, with which it had previously formed an organizational unit. In 1922 the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule moved to the building at Am Wandrahm 23 , where it remained until 2003. In 1929 the school comprised ten specialist departments: In addition to a general department, which was intended as an orientation level , there were departments for architecture , decorative painting, sculpture , ceramics , metalworking , commercial graphics , fashion , textiles and handicrafts, as well as a decorator course.

The NKH was founded on April 9, 1934. The establishment was considered the "most conspicuous act of Bremen's art politics". It comprised nine departments:

  1. General department for painting, commercial graphics, graphics, decorative painting, compass drawing, descriptive geometry and writing (head Wilhelm Tegtmeier ),
  2. Departments for fine arts (painting ( Carl Horn , Wilhelm Tegtmeier, Theodor Schultz-Walbaum ), commercial graphics ( Ottomar Anton ), graphics (Ottomar Anton, Theodor Schultz-Walbaum) and sculpture ( Ernst Gorsemann )),
  3. Departments for architecture (architecture ( Eduard Scotland ), interior design (Ferdinand Sckopp), sculpture (Ernst Gorsemann), building ceramics, decorative painting ( Hans Groß )),
  4. Technical classes (design classes for building painting ( Ad. Scharffschwerdt ), interior design (Ferdinand Sckopp), metalworking (A. Berger), ceramics and pottery, fashion and fashion drawing (Ms. Lindemann), weaving (Ms. Krüger)),
  5. Workshops for the fine and handicraft arts (building painting, metalworking, interior design, sculpture, ceramics, book printing, bookbinding, copper printing, lithography, fashion and costumes, weaving),
  6. Supplementary lessons (compulsory lessons for all students had to take the subjects "National Political Education", anatomy, stylistics and art history, geometrical and circular drawing and perspective),
  7. Evening act (Theodor Schultz-Walbaum),
  8. Public library and student library,
  9. Evening classes for working people.

By 1940 the structure had changed again. The university now comprised four departments:

  1. Architecture (Nordic building yard),
  2. Liberal arts ( painting , sculpture , commercial art and graphics ),
  3. Applied arts and
  4. The Department of Art Education .

On December 8, 1936, the NKH was recognized as a university ("Nordic Art College and Crafts School Bremen"). During the war years, teaching had to be restricted more and more until the university was closed completely in 1945. In 1946 it was reopened under the name "State Art School - Master School for Designing Crafts". The first director was Willy Menz . In 1969 it changed its name again to "Academy of Design", 1970 to "University of Design", from 1979 then "University of Art and Music", today " University of the Arts Bremen " with the departments of music , painting , film and fashion . The university buildings have been located in Speicher XI in the former overseas port since 2003 (after the temporary accommodation location since 1987 in Dechanatstrasse) .

Directors

The directors of the NKH were:

Since research into the history of the NKH is still in its infancy, only rudimentary information is known about the directors, the teaching staff and the student body.

Students of the Nordic Art School

I.a. The following people were students at the Nordic Art Academy: Kurt Claußen-Finks , Heinz Dodenhoff , Kurt Elvers , Hellmuth Grüttefien , Karl Kothe , Christian Modersohn , Ulrich Modersohn , Elisabeth Pluquet , Otto Quirin , Gerda Schmidt-Panknin , Willi Schwinghammer .

Political incidents at the Nordic Art School

A quote from the long-time deputy director of the NKH, Hans Grohs, gives an indication of numerous incidents at the NKH: “The composition of the teaching staff at the Nordic Art Academy resulted in enormous difficulties. Carl Horn's ( Rudolf Heß's father-in-law ) close relationships with top party officials, Prof. Scotland's influence as a Gauarchitekt, Gorsemann's friendly relations with the Gauleiter and Anton as artistic advisor in the SS Hauptamt-Berlin - plus my very questionable and endangered situation, all of which solved a thousand adversities and opposites. ”The following examples show that this was not just a protective claim by Groß in order to make himself appear in a different, more positive light, but that there were indeed serious disputes and factions among the professors:

Wilhelm Tegtmeier, head of the general department for painting, etc., stated on October 20, 1942: “There are repeated incidents at our university, which creates a rather tense relationship among the teaching staff, which has now taken on forms that I haven't more in order to be able to work in peace, to endure and to be able to endure. ”In mid-April, Director Horn told several jokes in the party club of the Neustadt branch. Tegtmeier repeated one of them: “Then he told another political joke, put 4 matches on the table and gave the following explanation. The 1st match is the German army, the 2nd is the French coast, the space in between is the canal, the 3rd match is the English cliff and the 4th is the English army. He asked how the German army got to the English army. Since no one could answer correctly, he bent down and took the 1st match with his mouth and put it over to the 4th with the remark 'Only with your mouth!' "Tegtmeier was of the opinion" that I should report this incident to the party because it is not acceptable for a senior civil servant and head of an art college, who is thus an educator for German youth, to make such disparaging jokes about the German army public. I didn't want to make myself complicit by keeping silent. ”Tegtmeier reported the incident to his local group leader Ulbrich, then to the deputy director Groß. Together they go to Kreisleiter Blanke, "who was very upset about this matter." The result was a party court case for Horn, which he survived unscathed, but since Horn resigned as director a few months later, it must be assumed that he was not seemed more portable. For his part, director Carl Horn asked the personnel office to investigate Ernst Gorsemann, the head of the sculpture department, because he suspected that he was a Freemason. Gorsemann felt compelled to make a special statement, which he made on April 1, 1938: “After all my life and my attitude towards life, I am a born National Socialist.” And further: “For years [...] [I] [...] have served with mine artistic works of National Socialism. ”The investigation came to nothing. In turn, it was Carl Horn who denounced a student because he did not want to deliver the Hitler salute. This incident occurred as early as 1935. The student concerned was taken to a concentration camp and only released in 1942. After Hans Groß vouched for him, the student was able to continue his studies, which the Gestapo had previously refused.

The most serious case so far concerns the student Kurt Elvers . He studied at the NKH in the summer of 1944. When he heard about the Stauffenberg assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, he is said to have said to fellow students: “It's a shame it didn't work out, otherwise we would have peace now”. The fellow students denounced Elvers to the Gestapo, with the result that Elvers was executed on February 20, 1945 in Hamburg-Höltigbaum.

Post-history

After 1945 the art college was re-established in 1946 as the "State Art School". The first director was Willy Menz, who was already a member of the faculty of the previous institution and was dismissed in 1934 "for political reasons". Today's “ University of the Arts Bremen ” began in spring 2011 to work through its Nazi history.

swell

State Archive Bremen inventory 4,114

literature

  • Jutta Müller: Hans Groß (1892–1981). Aspects of a Controversial Artist. (Catalog for the exhibition in the Dithmarscher Landesmuseum Meldorf from September 27 to December 6, 1992.) Meldorf 1992.
  • Jörn Barfod: The painter Rudolf Hengstenberg (1874–1974). Husum 1994.
  • Klaus P. Lücke: Rudolf Hengstenberg. Painter under National Socialism. Eschborn 1996.
  • Hans Hesse: "The Nordic University of Fine Arts should, drawing from the primordial foundation of German-Nordic folklore, help to build up a species-specific culture in the spirit of Adolf Hitler." Sketches for the history of the Nordic Art College (NKH). In: Workers' Movement and Social History , No. 23/24 (2009), pp. 85-104.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bremen State Archives, 3 - 4.a. No. 1075 [12].
  2. ↑ The representation essentially follows the description of Brigitta Nimz in the finding aid for inventory 4,114 (Bremen State Archives).
  3. ↑ Similar to comparable institutions of the time in the German Reich. Cf. Purpus, Elke, The Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne. The history of the library and the photo archive, Essen 2007.
  4. ↑ Schwarzwälder, Herbert, History of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Vol. IV, p. 208.
  5. ↑ About him cf. Manske, Hans-Joachim, Neumann-Dietzsch, Birgit (eds.), “Degenerate” - confiscated. Bremen Artists under National Socialism, Bremen 2009, pp. 132–135, p. 255.
  6. ↑ About him cf. Manske, Hans-Joachim, Neumann-Dietzsch, Birgit (eds.), “Degenerate” - confiscated. Bremen Artists under National Socialism, Bremen 2009, pp. 124–127, p. 255.
  7. ↑ See a. Olsen, Arne (ed.), The University of the Arts in Dechanatstrasse, Bremen 2006, and Olsen, Arne (ed.), From Warehouse to Memory of the Arts, Bremen 2005.
  8. ↑ You can often read about him that he was the "father-in-law" of Rudolf Hess , which is what a. have brought the post at the NKH (e.g. Black Forest, Herbert, Geschichte der Free Hansestadt Bremen, Vol. IV, pp. 209, 360 and 560). In fact, it wasn't a direct relationship. Hess was married to the daughter from the first marriage of Horn's future wife. However, it cannot be ruled out that this close relationship with the “Deputy Leader” gave him certain advantages. But whether they alone were decisive for the appointment as director of the NKH is pure speculation.
  9. ^ Staatsarchiv Bremen 4, 66 - I. - 3760, application for rehabilitation of the painter Hans Groß.
  10. ↑ Bremen State Archives, 3 - 4.a. No. 1075 [45], file concerning the proceedings against Professor Horn, Nordic Art College. 1942. Octbr. 20.-
  11. ↑ Schwarzwälder, Herbert, History of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Vol. IV, p. 560 gives December 1941 as the date of discharge and the reason for his release from Hess to England, from which Horn's "political reputation" suffered. However, Horn was still in office in October 1942, so that a connection with Tegtmeier's advertisement (with the support of Groß) must be assumed. Nonetheless, the process shows that Horn had become vulnerable.
  12. ↑ Bremen State Archives, 3 - 4.a. No. 1075 [24] File concerning the differences between the director of the Nordic Art Academy Professor Horn and Professor Gorsemann. Gorsemann's statement, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Staatsarchiv Bremen, 4, 66 - I. - 3760, affidavit by Albert Gercken January 20, 1946. This case is mentioned in the denazification file of Hans Groß and unusually - the victim made an affidavit - did not lead to further investigations against horn. Therefore, the case still needs to be examined more closely.
  14. ↑ The case is documented in: Hesse, Hans, Bis zur Scarbe (published by the Hochschule für Künste Bremen), Bremen 2011. As Groß reports, Kurt Elvers is also said not to have greeted with the Hitler salute (State Archives Bremen, 4, 66 - I. - 3760, the investigator in his report of November 9, 1948).