Odo Tattenpach

The rising Phoenix shortly after assembly

Hannes Schulz-Tattenpach , born as Hans Wilhelm Schulz (born December 29, 1905 in Lannesdorf , † December 28, 1953 in Braunschweig ), artist name Odo Tattenpach , was a German painter and sculptor .

life and work

For financial reasons, Tattenpach was forced to leave school after nine years to begin an apprenticeship as a carpenter , which he successfully completed in 1924. This was followed by years of study at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and, from 1926, at the Cologne factory schools . From 1927 he received his first work orders for commercial graphics . In 1928 Tattenpach opened his first studio in Berlin and then initially worked in the field of (church) glass painting and glass mosaics . In 1929 orders for the design of the Berlin S-Bahn and U-Bahn followed , and again between 1930 and 1932 glass work for churches (windows and altars ). In 1930 he created eleven stained glass windows for the Hedwigs Church in Jüterbog . These windows were removed after a few years and have been considered lost ever since. They were expanded because the community “didn't like them” and their processing was faulty. They were then replaced by works by Tattenpach's atelier colleague Egbert Lammers .

In the wake of the National Socialists' “ seizure of power ” , Tattenpach and his work “The Believer in the Big City” (made for the Church of Reconciliation in Leipzig-Gohlis ) or the crucifixion group for the Catholic Bonifatius Church in Bad Dürrenberg came into focus as examples of “ degenerate art ” the Nazi polemics and agitation against the artist. The rulers insinuated that Tattenpach was a communist and wanted to “poison” the “healthy German national body” with his works. While the archbishop's general vicariate in Paderborn demanded the removal of the work in Bad Dürrenberg, the local Catholic community hid the scene behind a curtain and saved it from destruction. With the help of friends and sponsors (including the politician Heinrich Krone ), the smear campaign was soon silenced.

In 1933 Tattenpach became a member of the group of Catholic artists . He escaped the influence of the Nazi regime by emigrating to France , where he wanted to work in Aix-en-Provence , but had to return to Germany that same year because the French authorities refused him a residence permit on the grounds that he would neither politically or racially persecuted. Thanks to another sponsor, Richard Brademann , the senior building officer at the General Directorate of the Deutsche Reichsbahn , Tattenpach was accepted into the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts despite his opposition to the Nazi regime , whereby he again received public contracts.

In 1941 Tattenpach was drafted into the Wehrmacht and in 1942 was on the road in southern Europe on behalf of Deutsche Asphalt- und Tiefbau AG to carry out construction work for the Air Force . Numerous drawings were made during these stays. During this time, his apartment and studio in Berlin with much of his work were destroyed by an Allied bomb attack. Tattenpach then moved to Braunschweig with his wife and child. After the end of the Second World War , he lived with his wife Arete and their son Wolf in the Anker house . He had married Arete, the daughter of the last imperial district president of Magdeburg , Karl Miesitschek von Wischkau , in 1932 in Berlin. In 1946 Tattenpach founded the Ypsilon workshops for artistic design . The family survived the early post-war period because their father produced and sold everyday objects by hand. He also painted.

In a decree, the Ministry of Economics of the State of Lower Saxony , which was only created in 1946, stipulated that one percent of the construction costs of a building should be invested in fine arts during the reconstruction . The federal government followed suit in 1950 with the art funding program Kunst am Bau . Tattenpach was given the opportunity to have his works publicly financed and in the following years equipped various schools and other public buildings, in Braunschweig, for example, the meeting room of the new town hall , the boys' middle school on Augustplatz (today's John-F.-Kennedy-Platz secondary school ) or the school in the Rühme district and numerous other buildings in the area between Wolfsburg and Hanover .

The rising Phoenix on the grounds of the Heinrich Zerries stonemasonry in Braunschweig before being transported to Bonn.

In 1952 Tattenpach took part in the tender for the artistic design of the new parliament building in Bonn . It was the first order to design a public building that the Bundestag had to award to the young Federal Republic of Germany . Tattenpach did not win the competition, but the 15-member jury still selected his Ascending Phoenix from the 333 entries and awarded him the contract.

The implementation of the work turned out for the artist initially as difficult as his studio for the 20-square-meter relief from limestone was too small, but he left the Municipal Museum Braunschweig his skylight hall for this work. The work was finally created under Tattenpach's guidance and supervision on the grounds of the Braunschweig stonemasonry Zerries on Helmstedter Straße . The finished work of art was installed on August 28, 1953 in the entrance area of ​​the parliament building, where it is still located today.

Four months later, on December 28, 1953, Schulz-Tattenpach died of a heart attack at the age of 48 .

reception

The city of Braunschweig honored the artist in 1955 with a memorial exhibition. In 2013, on the 60th anniversary of his death, an exhibition took place in the Reconciliation Church in Leipzig-Gohlis .

Tattenpach's mythological “ phoenix from the ashes” quickly became a symbol of the young democracy and reconstruction . In 1974, on the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany , the Deutsche Bundespost issued a special 30 Pfennig postcard, the stamp of which depicts Tattenpach's phoenix relief.

Works (selection)

• 1930: Window for the Martinskirche in Berlin-Kaulsdorf
• 1930: eleven windows for St. Hedwig's Church in Jüterbog
• 1932: Window for the Reconciliation Church in Leipzig-Gohlis
• 1934: three windows for the Dreikönigskirche in Rahnsdorf
• Relief in the town hall in Braunschweig
• 1953: The rising Phoenix at the high- rise building in Bonn

literature

• Rainer Behrends: Odo Tattenpach - life and work of the painter and sculptor Hannes Schulz-Tattenpach (1905–1953). Pro Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-936508-86-4 .
• Guntram Jordan: The father of the German Phoenix. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung of January 27, 2018.
• Eckhard Schimpf : The man who created the “Phoenix” in the Bundestag. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung from November 1, 2013.
• Städtisches Museum Braunschweig (Ed.): H. Schulz-Tattenpach. Exhibition catalog, Braunschweig 1955.

Web links

Commons : Odo Tattenpach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Hannes Schulz-Tattenpach: Rising Phoenix from 1953 at the Bundeshaus in Bonn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Structural renovation and restoration of the Reconciliation Church Leipzig-Gohlis in the years 1993 - 2016 (PDF, accessed April 4, 2018)
2. ↑ "Window puzzle" apparently solved. In: Märkische Allgemeine from August 9, 2013.
3. ↑ Crucifixion scene in the Bonifatiuskirche.
4. ↑ Eckhard Schimpf: The man who created the "Phoenix" in the Bundestag.
5. ↑ Zerrie's Tombs , official website
6. ^ Claudia Büttner: History of art in building in Germany. Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, Berlin 2011, pp. 62–63. ( Digitized version ( memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). 
7. ^ Stained glass in Kaulsdorf
8. ↑ Glass painting in Rahnsdorf