Otto Rost

Otto Paul Rost (born June 16, 1887 in Keuert near Döbeln, † June 25, 1970 in Döbeln ) was a German sculptor .

Life

Otto Rost studied between 1909 and 1914 at the Dresden School of Applied Arts and from 1920 to 1923 with Georg Wrba at the Dresden Art Academy . He then worked as a freelance sculptor in Dresden. Otto Rost became a member of the German Association of Artists and remained so until it was dissolved in 1936 by the Reich Chamber of Culture .

After Wrba had retired, Rost received as his successor in 1939 an initial three-year employment contract for a teaching post for sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden from the Ministry of National Education, followed by a second, similar contract in 1942. However, rust was not even shortlisted at first. But after his style met the aesthetic interests of the rulers during the Third Reich and he had also received a prize in 1936 for his relief "rugby match", which he had created for the Olympic Games, the decision was made to go for rust. During his time as a teacher at the academy, he regularly exhibited works; However, his fame was more or less limited to the area of Saxony . The second contract expired on March 31, 1945, and Rost, who was a member of the NSDAP , was not reinstated by the later heads of the art academy .

In the post-war period Otto Rost was active in the interests of the new rulers in the democratic bloc and in the commission of the city of Dresden. During this phase of his life, he mainly created monuments, first the memorial for the fallen Soviet soldiers, which was erected on the Unity Square in Dresden, then other similar works of art in Freiberg , Schwedt / Oder and Czestochowa in Poland . In addition to the war memorials, he mainly created portrait busts of politicians, educators and artists.

There is Otto-Rost-Straße in Döbeln.

Fate of individual works

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  The big knee end

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  Soviet memorial in Dresden, photo by Abraham Pisarek

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  Former Karl Marx monument on Unity Square in Dresden, 1953

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  A bronze sculpture of a bear stored in 1987 at the New Jägerhaus in Grillenburg

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  Stolen bronze sculpture Keiler in 2000 at the New Jägerhaus in Grillenburg

The female nude with headband , a 75 cm high bronze figure, appeared in 1997 when the Deutsche Fotothek moved into its holdings. The origin of the work of art was unclear; it had not been cataloged anywhere up to that point. The file was given to the State Art Collections .

The large kneeling figure, a sandstone figure, stood in front of the Rosengartencafé in Dresden until the 1960s. Today there is a fountain roughly at this point. The large knee end was transferred to the plinth of the girl with a gazelle by Wrba who was destroyed in the war .

The memorial for the fallen of the Fifth Guard Army was initially erected on the substructure of the Stormy Waves fountain created by Robert Diez . It was inaugurated on November 25, 1945 and remained in its original location until 1994, today's Albertplatz in Dresden-Neustadt (1945: Red Army Square, 1946: Unity Square, 1991: Albertplatz). Then the bronze statue without the old substructure was moved to Olbrichtplatz in front of the Military History Museum . The memorial consists of a bronze group on a three-tiered base made of red Meissen granite . It shows a Red Army soldier holding the Soviet banner with his left hand and behind whom a second soldier is kneeling, holding a machine gun at the ready. Otto Rost used a scene from the documentary "Dresden 1946" for this group of figures, which also explains the almost photo-realistic depiction of the two figures and their attributes. The base of the statue bears Soviet decorations such as hammer and sickle , the Soviet star , laurel and sword and rifle, a Russian inscription and on the central section four bronze reliefs. On the front side seven Red Army soldiers can be seen with the waving flag, on the other side of the base you can see military scenes and the reconstruction of the Elbe bridges .

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Karl Marx's death , the Dresden SED district leadership commissioned a Karl Marx memorial, which was erected in 1953 next to the Dresden pavilion of German-Soviet friendship on the Unity Square (Albertplatz). Rost created the sculpture in natural proportions and body dimensions, which made it appear small and stocky and was, among other things, ridiculed as a "root dwarf". The memorial was soon removed and probably destroyed.

Works (selection)

• Pomona (bronzed and patinated metal)
• Sandal maker (Meissen porcelain) (around 1930)
• Memorial to the fallen of the First World War ( Döbeln ) (1922)
• Bronze sculptures boar and bear the new hunting lodge from the Castle Grillenburg (1938)
• Female nude with headband (bronze sculpture)
• Football match (bronze relief)
• Bronze bust of a swimmer
• Bronze bust of a mother
• Male bust ( City Museum Bautzen )
• SA Chief of Staff Wilhelm Schepmann (metal sculpture)
• Dr. Wilhelm Külz (bronze bust)
• Dr. Otto Nuschke (bronze bust)
• Large knee end (stone sculpture)
• Soviet Memorial (formerly Albertplatz in Dresden-Neustadt, moved to Olbrichtplatz in 1994) (1945)
• Mauersberg Dance of Death ( Großrückerswalde , Mauersberger Kreuzkapelle)
• Karl Marx Monument next to the Dresden Pavilion of German-Soviet Friendship on Unity Square (1953)
• Facade reliefs and figures on the Altmarkt house in Dresden (1953–1958)
• Relief sculptures at the Central Theater in Döbeln
• two stone children's groups in Bad Elster
• Bathers (bronze figure in Bad Elster)
• Wounded (bronze figure in Bad Elster)

literature

• Rust, Otto . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958, p. 114 .
• Ernst G. Knüppel: Otto Rost (1887–1970). Saxon sculptor in Dresden and Döbeln. Life and work. Sachsenbuch, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-89664-045-1 .

Web links

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

• Literature by and about Otto Rost in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst G. Knüppel: Otto Rost (1887–1970). Saxon sculptor in Dresden and Döbeln. Life and work. Sachsenbuch, Leipzig 2006
2. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Rost, Otto ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 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 notice. (accessed on December 29, 2015) 
3. ↑ Otto Rust in the list of all 250 members of the DKB in 1936, in: 1936 forbidden pictures. 34th annual exhibition Bonn , Deutscher Künstlerbund eV, Berlin 1986. (p. 98)
4. ↑ "Große Knieende" - a sandstone sculpture by Otto Rost. In: Rosengarten-Dresden.de. Retrieved July 29, 2014 . 
5. ↑ Simone Simpson: Between cultural mandate and artistic autonomy: Dresden sculptures of the 1950s and 1960s , Böhlau 2008, ISBN 978-3412201012 , pp. 78–81
6. ↑ Ernst G. Knüppel: Otto Rost (1887–1970). Saxon sculptor in Dresden and Döbeln. Life and work. Sachsenbuch, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 978-3-89664-045-1 . P. 66 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
7. ↑ Otto Rost "Pomona". Schmidt Kunstauktionen Dresden, accessed on July 29, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Otto Rost (1887–1970): "Sandalenbinderin", porcelain figure, around 1930, made in Meissen. Antiques and Restoration Lothar Czambor, accessed July 29, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Chub in old views: Warrior memorial on the Geyersberg. Retrieved July 29, 2014 . 
10. ↑ Großrückerswalde: Worth seeing. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 21, 2013 ; Retrieved July 29, 2014 . 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.  
11. ↑ Thomas Kantschew: Altmarkt: Redefine the character of Dresden! In: The new Dresden. Retrieved July 29, 2014 .