Otto Rahm

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Otto Rahm (born September 8, 1904 in Hamburg ; † January 6, 1994 in Deinste ) was a German expressionist painter , graphic artist and sculptor .

Otto Rahm: Self-Portrait , 1953

Life

Otto Rahm was born as the son of the Hamburg pastor at the Catholic Apostolic Church on Eiffestrasse in Hamburg , August Rahm and his wife Alwine, née. Brewer. After training as a banker, he began training as a painter and graphic artist at the private art school Loibel, in order to continue and finish it later as a student at the State Art School, today's Hamburg University of Fine Arts . In 1927 Rahm married his childhood sweetheart, Ilse Bauch, who later became known as a tapestry and hand weaver in the Altes Land, and initially moved with her to Moisburg . This relationship resulted in four children.

In 1933 the family moved to the Alte Land , where Otto Rahm also worked as a banker. In 1939 he lost his secure post at the Sparkasse through a targeted denunciation, whereupon Otto Rahm had to work as a farmhand to support his family. This situation only ended when the then pastor Meyer of the church community in Mittelkirchen , a sea captain in World War I, enabled him to join the Wehrmacht immediately through his good relations with the district military replacement office , although he could not count on being called up because of his family situation, and he did was stationed on the Eastern Front and later in Riga . As a radio operator in the Air Force , he was seriously wounded in 1941 while operating over Russia. After his greatest possible recovery, he was entrusted with assignments at the airports in Riga and Magdeburg - East and finally with the management of the German radio station on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Numerous paintings from these cities show that during the last years of the war, as far as the situation permitted, he devoted himself to painting during breaks in office.

After the end of the Second World War from 1945 Otto Rahm, who described himself as a "moderate expressionist", worked exclusively as a freelance artist. The loss of both parents, his sister, as well as his close nephew and other family members through the Allied air raids on Hamburg shaped Otto Rahm all his life and did not remain without effects on his artistic work, which according to original optimism was characterized by great thoughtfulness and sadness was, as can be seen, for example, in his most famous post-war works “Job” (for which his son Jürgen Rahm was the model) or “The Drummer”.

Otto Rahm: Job, 1951

In 1952 Otto Rahm and the painter and graphic artist Hermann Gawlik founded the association "Friends of the Fine Arts" in Stade. In the 1950s, Rahm was also active in the field of church art and art in architecture. So he created the design of the gate to the Neuenfeld cemetery and over 40 different church windows (including for the Seemannskirche Wilhelmshaven). Numerous mosaics were also designed for the State Building Department, banks and savings banks, public and church buildings as well as for commercial enterprises and private clients, primarily in the old country and the surrounding area.

Works (selection)

  • North Frisian Coast (in the Altona Museum, Hamburg)
  • David before Saul (private property)
  • Job (in St. Wilhadi (Stade) )
  • Drummers (private property) Grünendeich
  • Snow in the Old Country (private property)
  • The old country (wall mosaic in Neuenkirchen )
  • The Lower Elbe between Hamburg and Stade (wall mosaic in Horneburg )
  • - untitled - (wall mosaic in Jork )
  • The Blue Planet (private property) Grünendeich
  • Geest near Harsefeld (private property)
  • The Lühe near Grünendeich (private property)
  • Celsa - original cast of a relief of the Hamburg cathedral bell from 1487

Web links

Commons : Otto Rahm  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Regional views - 100 years of painting between Este and Oste, published by the Stadtsparkasse Stade, Krause Druck, Stade 1999, page 28ff
  2. ^ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover (ed.): Otto Rahm - a moderate expressionist , 2012.
  3. ↑ Hans-Eckhardt Dannenberg: An artist of humanity - memories of the painter and graphic artist Otto Rahm (1904–1994) , in: Between Elbe and Weser, No. 1, p. 15 ff., 2005.
  4. ^ City of Stade (Ed.): Otto Rahm - Oil Paintings - Graphics - Drafts , 1984.
  5. ↑ K. Hense: Otto Rahm and his traces , in: Stader Tageblatt, September 8, 2004.
personal data
SURNAME Rahm, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German expressionist painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1994
Place of death Yours