Paul Häberer

Paul Häberer (born June 20, 1902 in Greiz , † June 22, 1978 in Langenenslingen ) was a German painter.

life and work

Born as the son of a master chimney sweep in Greiz , Paul Häberer became a technical draftsman in a motorcycle factory in Suhl, after having completed elementary school in Greiz and a folk high school in Schloss Dreizessacker in Meiningen, where his talent was noticed. At the age of 20 he began studying at the State Bauhaus Weimar (1922–1925). After the preliminary course with Johannes Itten and Georg Muche , he took courses with Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee and in the mural painting workshop with Oskar Schlemmer and Kandinsky. Häberer took part in the 1st Bauhaus exhibition in 1923 with his lithograph postcard "Hausmodell" (today, among others, in the Bauhaus Museum Weimar, Bauhaus Archive Berlin and MoMA New York). After graduating from the Bauhaus (1925), at the same time with the HWK journeyman's examination as a decorative painter, he traveled to Italy. After moving to Dresden (1926) he worked as a freelance painter, received orders for interior design, e.g. B. Large orders for wall painting in the home folk high schools Schloss Drei 30acker / Meiningen and Schloss Sachsenburg / Frankenberg. With the closure of these educational institutions and their use by the National Socialists , all traces of it were erased from 1933.

With the founding of the family (1928 marriage with Johanna Häberer, née Zimmermann, 1932 daughter Uta, 1935 son Eckehard), Häberer started his own business as a craftsman in Greiz and also painted. After 1933, in the repressive, fearful atmosphere of the Nazi state, which drove many Bauhaus artists to emigrate, the painter Häberer withdrew from the public and took refuge in privacy: “His pictures were only hanging in his own apartment (in the bedroom ); The topic of ' degenerate art ' was only discussed in the closest family circle. ”(Daughter Uta Menke, née Häberer) Nazi reprisals were also directed against his arts and crafts business, which was shaped by the Bauhaus.

Drafted for military service in 1941, he was taken prisoner by Russia (until 1949).

Since the Bauhaus style in the young GDR did not correspond to the doctrine of “ Socialist Realism ”, Häberer was again unable to paint autonomously and freely. He created a few more watercolors and tried to keep his arts and crafts business as a livelihood, against massive reprisals such as the confiscation of his goods from the "West" for a newly established competitor HO shop nearby. Because of political problems and helping a friend to escape, he himself had to flee to the West (1958), where he had to contend with massive material difficulties. In Bad Cannstatt he made his way as a representative for handicrafts as well as for Stockmar wax paints. From 1961 onwards again as a freelance artist, Häberer found accommodation in Sehringen near Badenweiler / Baden (in the house of Oskar Schlemmer's widow). From 1963 he found his own apartment in Langenenslingen / Baden-Württemberg (from 1963) and in 1964 was finally able to bring his wife from Greiz. Until his death (1978), Häberer painted intensively here and was able to show his pictures at over ten regional exhibitions. After the death of his widow (1978), the pictures of his older work were sold in Langenenslingen. Except for a good 30 pictures that remained in one hand, they were scattered in private households, and with the change of generation, knowledge about the painter probably also disappeared.

Because Paul Häberer was exposed to all the political adversities of the 20th century - war, imprisonment, repressive, anti-Bauhaus policies of the Nazi state and the GDR, which prevented him from continuous free painting for many years - he is one of the forgotten painters from the Bauhaus to a lost generation.

Memberships

• Art Association Stuttgart
• Internationaler Bodensee-Club eV Überlingen

Exhibitions 1926–1978 and 2016

• Kunsthütte Chemnitz (1926)
• Baumbach Gallery Dresden
• Ulm (May 1960, initiator: Board of the Ulm Artists' Guild, Peter Schwarz)
• Kunsthöfle Bad Cannstatt (August 1960)
• Kisslegg Castle
• Ravensburg town hall
• Art Association Stuttgart
• Art Association Tuttlingen
• Meersburg New Castle
• Lake Constance Club Überlingen
• Kreissparkasse Riedlingen (1972)
• Small gallery in the Elisabethenbad, City of Bad Waldsee (1976)
• Sparkasse Riedlingen (April 4-22, 1977)
• Sparkasse Ehingen (May 7-24, 1978)
• Planned first exhibition in the GDR (summer 1978), did not take place after his death.
• Memorial exhibition: Philosophical University of the Jesuits, Munich (April 11 to July 15, 2016)

literature

• Dankmar Trier: Häberer, Paul . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 67, de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-598-23034-9 , p. 215.

swell

• Stuttgart newspaper. May 27, 1960 for the Ulm exhibition
• Cannstatter newspaper. August 31, 1960, Kunsthöfle: wax color painting and graphics
• Official Journal of the City of Stuttgart. August 18, 1960: Exhibition by Paul Häberer and Frau Wilhelm in the Kunsthöfle
• Stuttgart newspaper. August 15, 1960, swirls of color and satires - exhibition at the Kunsthöfle
• Stuttgart news. August 13, 1960, Cosmic Fantasies, Häberer and Wilhelm in the Kunsthöfle
• Swabian newspaper. February 3, 1976, Paul Häberer was a student of Kandinsky and Klee. A painter tells about the once famous "Bauhaus"
• Swabian newspaper. May 9, 1978: "A pupil of Kandinsky and Klee exhibits in Ehingen (Sparkasse)"
• Uta Menke, b. Häberer (letters and conversations from 2013)
• Reinhold Wahl, collection of exhibition brochures, articles, etc.
• Klaus Weber, point line area. Prints at the Bauhaus, Berlin 1999; Directory of Bauhaus students (there, the 1970 date for the settlement in Langenenslingen is incorrect; according to Uta Menke, née Häberer; correct: 1963)