Otto Th. W. Stein

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Otto Th. W. Stein ( Otto Theodor Wilhelm Stein ; * January 23, 1877 in Saaz in Bohemia , Austria-Hungary as Otto Stein ; † November 28, 1958 in Friedland , Czechoslovakia ) was a German-Bohemian draftsman and painter .

Life

Stein was the son of the trader Ignatz Stein and his wife Elisabeth (née Taussig). He studied painting in Vienna, Prague, Karlsruhe and Paris. In 1913 he was a co-founder of the Munich New Secession . He worked mainly as a painter and graphic artist in Chemnitz , where he lived in Chemnitz-Kaßberg , and later in Berlin , where he was close to the Free Secession . Stein was sponsored by the art dealers Wolfgang Gurlitt and Heinrich Barchfeld in Leipzig. Among the collectors of his pictures were the Chemnitz art collector David Leder and his wife Lola, the parents of the writer Stephan Hermlin , and the writer Fritz Böttger . In 1929 he became a member of the Rotary Club of Chemnitz .

After the handover of power to the National Socialists , Stein emigrated to Prague in Czechoslovakia in 1935 . Because of his Jewish origins , he was persecuted by the National Socialists. He survived the Holocaust as a prisoner in the Theresienstadt concentration camp , where he was imprisoned for three years from 1942. After the Second World War he settled in Frýdlant.

In 1902/03 in Vienna he married Elena Däubler (April 11, 1880 in Trieste - September 1935 in Prague), the sister of his friend Theodor Däubler , whom he portrayed and for whom he also illustrated books. The marriage was divorced around 1924 and Elena married Stein's painter friend Willi Nowak .

Aftermath

Despite Olaf Thormann's 1992 monograph, Stein was a largely forgotten artist in Germany. By as art hunting described and in the network step by step weekly gebloggte search for one of his paintings by the German-American literary scholar Edward Engelberg (* 1929), of his emigration as a child from Germany owed in 1938 this painting, Stein received in 2015 again more media attention in German-speaking countries. During the (so far unsuccessful) search for the picture, Engelberg was accompanied by the family of Chemnitz collectors David and Lola Leder by the collectors' granddaughter Bettina Leder. The search itself was the work of four young investigative journalists trying to make use of all available social media . Engelbert is not concerned with restituting the painting, but with its history.

Works (selection)

  • Theodor Däubler: Poems from his works . Gurlitt, Berlin 1921, OCLC 832964132 (illustrations by O. Th. W. Stein).
  • Painting Portrait of the poet Theodor Däubler exhibited in the 2nd summer exhibition of the Munich New Secession
  • Four wall paintings, exhibited in the 2nd exhibition of German artists from Bohemia and a portrait of a woman.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Otto Theodor Wilhelm Stein at memorial.d-1800.org
  2. ^ Paul Mahlberg: Contributions to the art of the 19th century and our time . E. Ohle, Düsseldorf 1913, p. 115–116 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive - picture portrait of the poet Theodor Däubler ).
  3. ↑ Stephen Engelberg: The Painting That Saved My Family From the Holocaust. In: ProPublica . November 24, 2015.
  4. ↑ Alexander Koch: German art and decoration . tape 37 . A. Koch, Darmstadt 1937, p. 302 and 311 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ German work . 7th year, issue 7th Stuttgart April 1909, p. 511 and 655 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive , Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
personal data
SURNAME Stein, Otto Th. W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stein, Otto Theodor W .; Stein, Otto Theodor Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Bohemian draftsman and painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Saaz , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1958
Place of death Friedland , Czechoslovakia