Overbeck Society

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The Overbeck Society - Association of Art Friends e. V. is the art association in Lübeck and a subsidiary of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities .

history

prehistory

A small circle of Lübeck citizens around Professor Adolf Holm founded the Society of Friends of Art in Lübeck in 1872 . This association lost its initiator four years later when Holms was appointed to the University of Palermo and until 1907 it increasingly turned to the maintenance of Lübeck's cityscape and monument protection. Under the chairmanship of Eduard Kulenkamp , the association succeeded in preventing the erection of a monumental memorial by the sculptor Cuno von Uechtritz-Steinkirch for Kaiser Wilhelm I on the Lübeck market square . The establishment of the Association for Homeland Security in Lübeck, in which the association was merged, then caused art lovers to approach the actual purpose of the association again in the late German Empire . From 1919 to 1931 the Society of Friends of Art was chaired by the internationally recognized patron and collector Max Linde , who was not undisputed in Lübeck and whose knowledgeable lectures enlivened the society.

Founding and twenties

The museum director Karl Schaefer , who was in the service of the Society for the Promotion of Charitable Activities as the sponsor of the Lübeck museums at the time, wrote a call for the establishment of another art association, the Overbeck Society, which still exists today in Lübeck, which appeared in the Lübeckische Blätter in March 1918 Name reminds of the Lübeck born Nazarene Friedrich Overbeck and his family. Schaefer established the unity of the office of museum director and artistic leadership of the Overbeck Society and initiated 20 exhibitions for the Overbeck Society until he left Lübeck in 1920.

Carl Georg Heise was appointed as his successor as museum director and head of the Overbeck Society , who soon after taking office established the Museum Behnhaus and in the 1920s became the engine of Lübeck's cultural life in the field of visual arts. His turn to modern art polarized the social and political discussion in the city to a great extent. "Art critics" from the German national and ethnic camps have really stuck to his person since the mid-1920s, but Heise did not detract from his course, which was open to all new developments. In 1931 it merged with the previously competing association of art lovers as the Overbeck Society - Association of art lovers .

Synchronization

The harmonization of Lübeck's cultural life led to Heises being dismissed by the non-profit organization, which was also harmonized, and the Lübeck museums were transferred to municipal Lübeck sponsorship. Heise was briefly represented by his research assistant, Theodor Riewerts , until Professor Hans Schröder, appointed by the Museum of Hamburg History , was able to take up his post as National Socialist director of all Lübeck museums and chairman of the Overbeck Society in June 1934. Under him, the exhibition activities of the Overbeck Society turned to more conservative art subjects. In the Overbeck Society, Hans Thoma , Fritz Witschetzky , Heinrich Eduard Linde-Walther and Erich Dummer were honored as artists with solo exhibitions and pleasant North German and Lübeck artists were shown in joint exhibitions. Schröder remained in office until 1946.

After the Second World War

After the Second World War, Hans Arnold Gräbke took over the office of museum director in Lübeck and the unity of museum director and artistic director of the Overbeck Society broke up. From 1946 to 1950 and from 1958 to 1970 Hans-Friedrich Geist , recognized nationwide, was the artistic director of the Overbeck Society. Ingrid Deecke then took over the artistic direction from 1971 to 1990. This separation was also maintained under Gräbke's successor Fritz Schmalenbach and continues to this day. After 1945, the Overbeck Society quickly became an art association again, which opened up to the avant-garde and young artists. Your exhibitions are in the hundreds; the catalog for the 500th exhibition was published in 1978. The Overbeck Society now organizes around five exhibitions a year. Oliver Zybok has been the artistic and commercial director since January 1st, 2015 .

Exhibition building

Coordinates: 53 ° 52 ′ 12.7 ″  N , 10 ° 41 ′ 24.4 ″  E The Overbeck Society's first exhibitions took place in the (old) Schabbelhaus at Mengstraße 36. whichwas destroyed inthe air raid on Lübeck in 1942. As early as 1927, the new Behnhaus Museum was the place where the Overbeck Society showed its exhibitions. With the further expansion of the Behnhaus collections on the one hand and the increase in the activities of the Overbeck Society on the other, the need arose for the Society's own exhibition building, which was built in 1930 by the Lübeck architect Wilhelm Bräck in the New Objectivity stylein the community gardens behind the Behnhaus. At the opening, Heinz Mahn calledBräck a “philosophizing architect” in his address and referred again to his design of the “oval house”, which Carl Georg Heise had already referred to earlier with reference to plans and models. In 1930 this design combined the thinking and all possibilities of modern architecture. The exhibition building survived the Second World War and is still used by society today.

  • The old Schabbelhaus at Mengstraße 36 (around 1900)

  • Advertisement advertising the Overbeck Society (1922)

  • The Behnhaus

  • Exhibition pavilion of the Overbeck Society from 1930

Publications

  • Abram B. Enns , Hans-Friedrich Geist : 50 years of the Overbeck-Gesellschaft Lübeck 1918–1968. Gebr. Schmidt, Lübeck 1968
  • Art of the 20th [twentieth] century from the possession of members of the Overbeck Society , Lübeck 1978 (catalog of the 500th exhibition 1978/1979)
  • Overbeck Society: 7 decades of Overbeck Society , Lübeck 1988
    • various exhibition catalogs

literature

  • Carl Georg Heise : Lübeck Art Care 1920–1933. Published on behalf of the head of the Museum of Art and Cultural History. Lübeck 1934.
  • Georg Behrens: 175 years of charitable work , Lübeck 1964, pp. 126–128
  • Abram B. Enns: Art and Bourgeoisie. The controversial twenties in Lübeck. Christians / Weiland, Hamburg / Lübeck 1978, ISBN 3-7672-0571-8
  • Thorsten Dame: The Overbeck Pavilion: a modern exhibition building in Lübeck; a research project at Jonas Geist / Universität der Künste Berlin, Faculty of Design, Department of History, Theory and Critique of Architecture. University of the Arts , Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89462-103-6

Web links

Commons : Overbeck-Gesellschaft  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Behrens: 175 Years of Charitable Work , Lübeck 1964, p. 126 ff.
  2. ^ Enns, Art and Citizenship, p. 19; Pp. 168/169
  3. ↑ Enns, Art and Citizenship, p. 170.
  4. ↑ Fritz Witschetzky (1887-1941), German author, painter and naval officer, most recently Captain. See Thieme-Becker, Volume 36, Leipzig 1947, p. 118; Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Fritz Witschetzky. Naval officer, painter and friend of Franz Radziwill , in: Nordelbingen, 58, Boyens & Co., Heide 1989, pp. 137–178.
  5. ↑ Jörg Fligge : Lübeck schools in the "Third Reich": a study on the education system in the Nazi era in the context of developments in the Reich. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2014, p. 473 ff.
  6. ↑ Rene Drommert : What should an art exhibition look like? The Lübeck Overbeck Society gives an example in: Die Zeit , July 22, 1966
  7. ↑ overbeck-gesellschaft.de
  8. ↑ Enns: Art and Citizenship, p. 139.