Otto Klein (restorer)

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Otto Klein (born May 23, 1904 in Berdjansk , Russian Empire ; † August 8, 1995 in Hoya / Weser) was a German restorer .

Life

The young Otto Klein fled to Germany with his parents during the Russian Revolution , which also seized the Ukraine. From then on, the family lived in Bad Sulza in Thuringia . The father wished that the son should become an engineer. Instead, he secretly attended the arts and crafts school in Dresden for some time . On a trip through Italy in 1925 in Florence , he decided to become a restorer. After years of apprenticeship in Florence, Dresden and Berlin , where he was assistant to painting technician Kurt Wehlte for three years , he went into business for himself in 1934. He restored for museums in Düsseldorf , Cologne and Bonn and took on larger public commissions more and more often. He lived on Johann-Heinrich-Platz in Cologne-Lindenthal , in his house he had set up his studio and built up a large specialist library. In July 1943 Otto Klein was recruited by Reichsleiter Rosenberg's operational staff to look after the looted art collection of the German Reich. At the same time, however, Otto Klein secretly restored “degenerate” works of art for private individuals in his studio . In 1963 he founded the "Otto Klein School of Restorers" in Cologne. This later went on in today's Institute for Restoration and Conservation Science at the Technical University of Cologne . Otto Klein was active until shortly before his death, writing about his projects and giving interviews.

plant

In his long working life Otto Klein restored thousands of pictures and sculptures, often figures of saints . His most important and largest commissions were the Carolingian frescoes in the Reichsabtei St. Maximin in Trier (1939 and 1956), the castles Augustusburg and Falkenlust in Brühl (1956 and 1967), the frescoes of the Bremen town hall (1955-1957), the high altar in Xanten Cathedral (1961–1963), the wedding and baptistery in the Carthusian Church in Cologne , the Loccumer Kreuz (1953–1957) and the Marien Altar in St. Jacobi in Göttingen . In teaching painting techniques, he was an intimate connoisseur and admirer of the Spanish court and clerical painters Francisco de Zurbarán and Diego Velázquez as well as the French Jean-Honoré Fragonard , whose “loose lines”, which were already pointing to the modern era, he appreciated. Otto Klein not only trained restorers, but also painters in basic painting skills, art history, materials and techniques.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BADV: Provenienzen ( Memento of the original dated December 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / badv.bund.de
  2. ^ DDB: Otto Klein gives lessons in a class at his school
personal data
SURNAME Klein, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German restorer
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Berdyansk , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1995
Place of death Hoya