Oskar Schürer

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Oskar Schürer (born October 22, 1892 in Augsburg , † April 29, 1949 in Heidelberg ) was a German art historian , writer and university professor .

Live and act

Oskar Schürer was born in Augsburg in October 1892 as the son of the factory director Oskar Schürer and his wife Emma Rensing-Mühlstephan. He came from a wealthy Protestant industrialist family. After graduating from high school, he studied art history, philosophy and architecture at the universities of Munich, Berlin, Marburg and Freiburg. The studies were interrupted by participation in the First World War.

After the war, Schürer continued his studies in Freiburg, Munich and Dresden and received his doctorate in 1920 from the art historian Richard Hamann in Marburg. Visits to Prague followed. The city inspired him with its historical buildings from different epochs as well as with its topography. From 1922 he wrote art reviews and from 1929 he lived as a writer in Prague. In 1926 he wrote an article about industrial photography for the photo magazine "Satrap", issue No. 6 June, using photos by the photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch . A friendly encounter with the photographer resulted in an expressive portrait of Schürer (approx. 1928), which is kept in the photographer's archive. The ring of friends of new art Nuremberg invited him on Wednesday, March 19, 1930 in the Katharinenbau Nuremberg to his lecture: The fine arts in today's life. (See 2, announcement of the ring .. 1930)

In 1924 Schürer married the Czech dancer Jarmila Kröschlová (1893–1983) in Prague, a pioneer of the expressive choreographic dance made famous by Isadora Duncan . This marriage comes from Eva Kröschlová (1926–2019), who in turn devoted herself to expressive dance and worked as a choreographer in ballet, theater and at various academies in the field of musical training until old age. She published in the Czech language a brief outline of her difficult life as the daughter of a German in a Czech environment.

Oskar Schürer did not find a permanent job in Prague and was unable to complete his habilitation at either the German or Czech universities. The habilitation took place in 1932 at the University of Halle-Wittenberg with Paul Frankl . Here he was appointed private lecturer on July 21, 1932. From 1932 to 1937 he was a lecturer for “German Art in the East” at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. After a rehabilitation at the University of Munich, he became a private lecturer there in 1937. From 1937 to 1942 he lived in the Munich district of Solln in what is now Diefenbacherstraße 11. In May 1939 he received an extraordinary professorship for art history at the University of Munich.

After his first marriage was divorced in 1939, he married the art student Elisabeth von Witzleben in May 1939 . On October 1, 1942, he was appointed associate professor for art history at the TH Darmstadt . The appointment was made on the express initiative of the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and National Education in Berlin. The position was converted into a full professorship in 1943.

Schürer's attitude was always in line with the intentions of the Nazi regime, even though he was neither a member of the NSDAP nor the SA or SS . In a court proceedings in November 1946, Schürer was classified as unencumbered, so that he was able to continue his work at the TH Darmstadt. In several educational speeches to his students who had survived the war, he tried to arouse hope and confidence for redesign and reconstruction. On behalf of the city's cultural administration, he held a lecture event over five evenings on the subject of "About the essence of German art" from mid-October 1945, which was well attended by the population of Darmstadt.

Oskar Schürer died on April 29, 1949 in Heidelberg. The philosopher Hans Georg Gadamer gave the funeral speech at the academic funeral service in Darmstadt . His extensive estate is in the literature archive of the city of Munich.

Publications

  • 1930: Prague. Culture / art / history. Berlin and Leipzig.
  • 1934: History of Eger Castle and Palatinate. Munich.
  • 1938: German art in the Zips. Brno.
  • 1946: From the internal structure. Three speeches, Stuttgart.

literature

  • Hans Georg Gadamer : Commemorative speech on Oskar Schürer. Darmstadt 1952.
  • Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism. Darmstadt 2014.
  • Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt. Darmstadt 1977, p. 189.
  • Elke Gerberding: Darmstadt cultural policy in the post-war period 1945–1949. Darmstadt 1996.
  • Ulrike Seeger: Oskar Schürer and the expressionist play of lights in the Romanesque double chapel, in: Hallesche Contributions to Art History , 5 (2004), pp. 103–116 and panel XVII.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schürer, Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian, writer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH October 22, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1949
Place of death Heidelberg