Peter-Ernst Eiffe

Peter-Ernst Eiffe (* 1941 ; † December 1982 ) is the first graffiti artist in Germany and was referred to as the so-called court jester of the apo due to his behavior .

Life

Peter-Ernst Eiffe grew up in Hamburg-Duvenstedt with adoptive parents . His adoptive father Peter Ernst Eiffe (1889–1965) was a submarine commander in World War I , then a merchant in Hamburg (import and export, ship broker), National Socialist, Senate Syndicate from 1933 to 1939 and representative of Hamburg to the Reich government in Berlin and in World War II again naval officer ( frigate captain ) and then took over his previous company again. Eiffestrasse in Hamburg-Hamm is named after his grandfather Franz Ferdinand Eiffe , businessman and building senator in Hamburg .

After graduating from high school in 1961, Peter-Ernst Eiffe was a soldier in the Bundeswehr, which he left with the rank of lieutenant in the reserve. He began studying business administration , which he broke off after a few semesters. He then worked in the Hamburg State Statistical Office. His superiors certified him above-average intelligence, but nothing came of his career, because Eiffe overstepped the curve: he decorated his workplace with a Bismarck picture and nudes and in the morning verbally abused the cleaning staff in French. In April 1968 he was dismissed from service without notice. In addition, his wife left him with their eighteen-month-old daughter Kathrin. This crisis situation can possibly explain his behavior as follows.

Actions

In the summer of 1968, Peter-Ernst Eiffe became famous in Hamburg within a few weeks: he covered the whole city with his scribbles. At first Eiffe just wrote his name in black felt pen on the tile walls in the area of ​​the University of Hamburg . Soon he expanded his radius of action and left his sayings on mailboxes, posters, street signs and in subway stations (selection):

• Eiffe, the bear is coming
• Don't be a pipe, choose Eiffe
• Eiffe the bear is sweet, strong and potent
• Eiffe is looking for women who can speak French and Chinese, as well as healthy senators
• Eiffe Federal Chancellor, Springer Foreign, Augstein Inner, Bartels vom Eros-Center as Family Minister, Heinemann Rest
• New York, Tokyo, Wandsbek : Eiffe for everyone
• Eiffe looks good. Eiffe creates a satisfied Germany. Eiffe wants to become Federal Chancellor
• No hammer, no sickle, just Eiffes hand on Hamburg's Michel
• Always directs the beam at Axel Springer with and without a finger
• Eiffe for president, all traffic lights are yellow

And as often as he could, he put his business card in addition: "Peter-Ernst Eiffe, Wandsbeker Chaussee 305, 2000 Hamburg 22" with the telephone number. When the Hamburger Hochbahn issued him an invoice for DM 900 for damage to property , he responded with his own sense of humor and issued a counter-invoice in the same amount for his works of art.

He was magically drawn to the student movement of the time . He was seen more and more frequently at general meetings, and he often pushed to the microphone: wearing a suit, white shirt and tie, Eiffe voiced his theories about the subversive power of fun with bitter seriousness. For First-May -Kundgebung the Berlin APO invited him Fritz Teufel as a guest speaker. There, to the applause of thousands, Eiffe announced that he wanted to become Chancellor of the students and demonstrators. The announcement of his government program did not come about: the microphone had been turned off.

On May 30, 1968, Eiffe drove his Fiat 600 - labeled “Free Eiffe Republic” - into the middle of the lobby of Hamburg's main train station and began to decorate the tiles with “magic triangles”. Eiffe was taken away in handcuffs and taken to the psychiatric clinic in Hamburg- Ochsenzoll that evening . The tabloid press took up the incident as an event.

After his release in November 1968, Eiffe found a job at a Düsseldorf advertising agency . In 1970 he fell ill with severe depression and was then taken to the psychiatric hospital in Rickling in Schleswig-Holstein . He escaped from there on December 24, 1982; his body was discovered in March 1983 on a nearby moor meadow.

reception

Uwe Wandrey and Peter Schütt produced a book in 1968 under the title Eiffe for president, Spring for Europe with photos of the Eiffe sayings in Quer-Verlag. 3000 copies could be sold, and Eiffe received an author's fee of 500 DM .

Even today there are toilets at the University of Hamburg: "Eiffe is alive!" In 1996 a one-hour documentary by Christian Bau was shown in arthouse cinemas under the title Eiffe for president, all traffic lights on yellow .

Even processed Uwe Timm 's novel Hot summer numerous awards EIFFES by Timm them as mounting internal in his text.

On their second album (released in 2014), the Hamburg band Die Liga der ordinary Gentlemen quoted Eiffe in the title song Alle Ampeln auf Gelb!

literature

• Ortwin Pelc : Eiffe, Peter-Ernst . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 103-104 .
• Eiffe, Peter-Ernst: Eiffe for President - Spring for Europe. Surrealisms for May 68 . Quer-Verlag, Hamburg 1968 (publication and information Uwe Wandrey. Political criticism preliminary remarks by Peter Schütt).
• Gessler, Katharina: Fascination of madness . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . February 1, 1995.
• Schütt, Peter: Who sprayed the first graffiti in Germany? In: Die ZEIT . No. 12 , March 17, 1995, pp. 95 ( online ).
• Brandt, Doris: Rebel with felt pen. In: ZEIT ONLINE. March 2016

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spiegel Special 1/1988 - Muff under the gowns
2. ^ Chronicle of the 1908 naval officer year , Volume 2, Hubert & Co. i. K., Göttingen 1958, p. 19
3. ↑ absolutondemand.de - Eiffe for President
4. ^ The thede film production: Eiffe for president, all traffic lights on yellow . Retrieved July 27, 2012