Paul Witterstätter

Paul Witterstätter (born August 25, 1892 in Oppenheim , † April 23, 1966 in Bingen am Rhein ) was a German painter .

Life

As the son of a wealthy winery owner, Paul Witterstätter began an apprenticeship in banking after graduating from high school. Apparently, however, his interests lay more in the artistic field. He preferred to draw clients and colleagues. His father made it possible for him to attend the arts and crafts school from 1912 and then to study at the art academy in Munich with Professors Jank and Engels. During his studies he became friends with Franz Marc and August Macke , the founders of the expressionist artists' association " Blauer Reiter ". During this time, Witterstätter created abstract animal pictures in the style of Cubism with strong colors .

During the First World War he was injured in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 .

After the war, Witterstätter moved to Weimar in 1921 , where his parents had enabled him to build a house with a studio.

In Weimar he married the artist Marie Therese Commichau on May 29, 1925 (born November 3, 1895 in Bialystok). Every year he spent several months in Oppenheim and captured Rhine-Hessian motifs in his paintings.

He lost his hearing during World War II. At the end of the war he was taken as a prisoner of war in the prison camp near Bad Kreuznach ("Rheinwiesenlager") of the US Army, from which he was released in the winter of 1945, seriously ill and emaciated. His wife Marie Therese died on April 22, 1949 in Weimar; the marriage had remained childless.

Witterstätter fled to the west, returned to his home in Rhine-Hesse and lived with his sister in Bingen am Rhein. The impoverished artist painted landscapes and city motifs in a realistic style to earn a living. He died in 1966 in a retirement home in Bingen.

Sources, web links

Biographical and other information

Short biography on the homepage of the Carl Koch Erben family
Article from the Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz on the presentation of an information video about the life and work of Witterstätter ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Claus Stieh-Koch: The Oppenheim painter Paul Witterstätter , published in the 1990 homeland yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Homeland on the Middle Rhine.

Paintings (selection)

Footnotes (notes, individual references)

↑ The Koch, Senfter, Stieh and Witterstätter families, who emerged from several personalities in Oppenheim, are connected to one another by marriage (by marriage)

personal data
SURNAME	Witterstätter, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German painter
DATE OF BIRTH	August 25, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH	Oppenheim
DATE OF DEATH	April 23, 1966
Place of death	Bingen am Rhein

[1] The Koch, Senfter, Stieh and Witterstätter families, who emerged from several personalities in Oppenheim, are connected to one another by marriage (by marriage)