Paul Egon Schiffers

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"Crouching" in Braunschweig
Abbot monument in Braunschweig

Karl Paul Egon Schiffers (born October 18, 1903 in Eilendorf near Aachen , † January 8, 1987 in Braunschweig ) was a German sculptor , medalist and draftsman .

Life

Paul Egon Schiffers was one of four brothers who all embarked on artistic careers. Oswald Schiffers became a graphic artist, Arno Schiffers a painter and Anselm Schiffers a composer and church musician.

Schiffers attended the arts and crafts school in Aachen in 1923 and the technical college in 1924 , where he studied with Bernhard Halbreiter . In 1924/25 he trained as a stonemason.

Schiffers left Aachen and his Professor Halbreiter because he rejected the expressionism art movement represented by Halbreiter . Expressionism at that time was downright “chic” in an inflationary manner, as the gestalt psychologist Rudolf Arnheim wrote. After all, it was also the time when the great Expressionists gave up this style one after another and devoted themselves to studying nature.

Since Schiffers rejected this "belated" Expressionism, he switched to the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and became a student of the sculptor Richard Scheibe , who is one of the artists at the " Berlin Sculpture School ". Disk taught a thorough study of nature. He sent Schiffers to Paris, Italy and Belgium to broaden his horizons.

From 1929 Schiffers was a teacher of life drawing at the Städel Academy, later he became head of the sculpture department.

From 1938 Schiffers worked as a freelancer. In 1940 he received a call to the Dresden Art Academy , which he could not accept because the Saxon Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann canceled the appointment on the grounds that Schiffers was not a member of the NSDAP .

In 1942 Schiffers was awarded the Villa Romana Prize, in 1943 he went to the Werkkunstschule in Braunschweig, which later became the University of Fine Arts (HbK). A close friendship with Bruno Müller-Linow developed here .

Schiffers was never politically active. He viewed the takeover of power by the National Socialists primarily from an artistic perspective, and from this he foresaw the decline. In a letter to Gerta, his future wife, he wrote on April 22, 1933:

“Our Darmstadt exhibition was initially banned. Should everything really be blocked for us? The classic days of art are over again. This fact will probably only be recognized in public when the works have become worse, more petty, more useful, more tendentious. Mentally the climax has been passed. There are two paths left for the bearers of the spirit: tragic downfall and misjudgment and shabby obituary afterwards, or shameless submission and apparent instant success. Little people, yes they can come with us now ... "

In 1940 Schiffers married his long-time partner and former student, the painter Gerta Schöhl. They had two children, including the musician and composer Heinrich Peter Schiffers (* 1941).

Between 1941 and 1945 Schiffers served as a soldier and returned from captivity in 1946. After the end of the Second World War , he was involved in the reconstruction of the Braunschweiger Gewandhaus between 1948 and 1950 . In addition, in Braunschweig he created the relief of the memorial for Franz Abt, newly created in 1960, as well as the “mourners” and the “crouching”.

From 1962 to 1969 he was professor at the Werkkunstschule Braunschweig . Schiffers, who has also made an international name for himself as a medalist and numismatist, left behind an extensive artistic work after his death in 1987. Most of the sculptures and reliefs are privately owned, but can also be seen in public spaces throughout Germany. A large selection of drawings, graphics and plaques are part of the collection of the Duke Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig; the written estate is in the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg.

In the 2010s the importance of Paul Egon Schiffers is slowly being rediscovered. The art historian Susanne Kähler emphasizes “that his work has largely been preserved and makes it possible to follow the change in figurative sculpture in western Germany over the course of the 20th century.” Sculptures by Schiffers are also being cast from existing plaster models again, in 2014 For example, two life-size female figures in the Lauchhammer art and bell foundry or the middle section of the triptych “Large Runner Relief” from 1935, which was made in bronze for the first time in 2016 by the Hermann Noack art foundry in Braunschweig's Gauss School .

Work in public space (selection)

“Standing” (Frankfurt a. M., Städelschule), “Standing young man” (Bonn, former Federal Government), “Friedrich Froebel Monument” (Frankfurt a. M. Holzhausenschlößchen), “Sitting athlete” (City of Mainz), “Slingshot and discus thrower ”(Friedberg, Hesse),“ Adorant ”(Braunschweig, former University of Education),“ Hockender Sterngucker ”(City of Gifhorn),“ Girl with a raised arm ”(Wolfenbüttel, Post),“ Standing girl ”(City of Braunschweig) , "Gewandhaus Braunschweig" facade (City of Braunschweig), "Till Eulenspiegel" (Schöppenstedt, Eulenspiegel Museum), "Standing Lovers" (Braunschweig, City Museum), "Large standing mourners" (City of Braunschweig), "Seated" (City of Wolfsburg), "Seated Johannes" (Braunschweig, Christian community), "Hoffmann von Fallersleben monument" (Braunschweig, grammar school), "Jesus riding a mule" (city of Gifhorn), "Freiherr vom Stein portrait" (city of Oldenburg / city of Braunschweig), "Great, Hockende Stille »(Bündheim, Harz / City of Braunschweig),« Zwei S Young men standing in conversation ”(Groß-Ilsede, school center),“ Sitting girl and standing boy ”(Edemissen, school center),“ Standing Atreg ”(Wolfsburg, Parkhotel),“ Fighting bucks ”relief (City of Hanover),“ Rising horse ” (Hanover, Continental Company), “Jumping Boar” (Wolfsburg, Drömling Pharmacy), “Guided Freedom” (Oldenburg, State Museum for Art a. Cultural history)

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Paul Egon Schiffers  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Lecture about the life and work of Paul Egon Schiffers  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on artgallery-online.net@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.artgallery-online.net  
  2. ↑ Susanne Kähler / Andreas Mietzsch: Paul Egon Schiffers - Sculptors in the 20th Century . Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-9812417-4-7 , pp. 5 .
  3. ↑ Susanne Kähler / Andreas Mietzsch: Paul Egon Schiffers - Sculptors in the 20th Century . Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-9812417-4-7 , pp. 16-17 .
personal data
SURNAME Schiffers, Paul Egon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schiffers, Karl Paul Egon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor, medalist and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Eilendorf near Aachen
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1987
Place of death Braunschweig