Robert Ittermann

Robert Ittermann (born April 1, 1886 in Iserlohn ; † July 15, 1970 Völlinghausen ) was a German sculptor and draftsman . Together with Wilhelm Wulff and Fritz Viegener, he formed the Soest sculptor triumvirate.

Life

Grugapark Essen, "Brunnenknabe" (2006)

Nordpark Düsseldorf , The "Shepherdess" (2006)

Soest, war memorial "The Mourner" in the cathedral courtyard (2009)

Born as the son of a baker in Iserlohn in the Sauerland region, Robert Ittermann completed an apprenticeship as a modeller at the royal technical college for the metal industry in his hometown from 1900 to 1904 after attending the eight-class elementary school . After a three-month stay in Munich , where he learned from April to July 1904 in the teaching and experimental studio for applied arts with the sculptors Hermann Obrist and Eugen Meyer , he started working as a modeler at Kissing & Co. on February 1, 1905 . Möllmann in Iserlohn before he began studying at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts in October of the same year , where he received lessons from Rudolf Bosselt and Peter Behrens . In 1908 he moved to the Grand Ducal Baden Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe for a further six years . There he was taught by the sculptors Hermann Volz and Wilhelm Gerstel , and furthermore in life drawing by the painter Wilhelm Trübner and the painter and graphic artist Hans Thoma . After completing his studies there, he temporarily stayed in Karlsruhe as a master student of Volz and Gerstel, but at the beginning of the First World War he did his military service at the front until 1918. During his stationing in France, he used time to draw. The block was his constant companion. After the end of the war, Ittermann returned to Karlsruhe, where he first worked as a freelancer from 1921. In 1928 he moved his studio to Düsseldorf, where many of his works were created. B. in the north park , where his shepherdess was placed in her original place in 2006, are freely accessible.

During the period of National Socialism , Ittermann's work did not contradict the National Socialists' conception of art. This can also be inferred from the choice he made as one of the sculptors for the redesign of the Düsseldorf North Park as part of the “ Great Reich Exhibition of the Creative People ” in 1937. The “shepherdess” created by him represents one of the 12 “estates”, which should represent the ethnic and esteem groups by depicting various professions. Ittermann created the Great Venus , also known as the standing one, a 1.95 m high nudes for the interior of the studio building for “young, yet unmarried painters and sculptors” at Franz-Jürgens-Straße 12 with studio apartments and exhibition halls in the Golzheim artists' settlement young woman with arms raised above her head, who stands in the middle of the pool. The architect Hans Junghanns , planner of the studio house, had the task of finding a Düsseldorf artist who conformed to the National Socialist conception of art , who would create a sculpture for the water basin in the inner courtyard of the building for a maximum of 2500 RM . Drafts were requested from several sculptors, all of whom were candidates for an apartment in the artists' estate. These included Kurt Schwippert , Fritz Peretti , Hans Breker , Alfred Zschorsch , Fritz Wienand (* 1901) and Kurt Zimmermann . The final order was given to Robert Ittermann, who lived from 1937 to 1943 in the Golzheim artists' settlement , part of what was previously known as Schlageterstadt and is now the Golzheim settlement .

“But it can be doubted that Ittermann's intention is to be equated with that of the National Socialists, who used male and female nudes to demonstrate gender-specific roles. There are no meaningful content or overriding principles behind his files, they merely demonstrate his preference for the human body. His male figures seem rather unhero-like, they show emotions, have a slim physique or appear withdrawn. Also in the female figures there is no evidence of an illustration of female virtues or National Socialist racial ideals. "

- Stefanie Riboni 2008

When his apartment and studio in Düsseldorf-Golzheim were destroyed during the Second World War as a result of air raids , he moved to Wamel am Möhnesee in the house of the widow Toni Kätelhön. Besides him, the house was inhabited by other artists, including the painter and graphic artist Hermann Prüssmann , the photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch , the painter, graphic artist and later director of the Folkwang School in Essen , Hermann Schardt and the director of the Dortmund Art School, Walter Herricht . Ittermann set up a new studio in a wooden garden house and it was there that he met his future wife, Elisabeth b. Know lump . At that time she was working as a housekeeper at Kätelhöns. In 1949 they both moved to Völlinghausen, where Ittermann also died. Their marriage was childless. Iserlohn's head of culture, Dr. Groth Ittermann with the condition that his estate will later be transferred to the city of Soest, which will keep it and make it available for exhibitions (Soest Collection). The copyright to the works of Robert Ittermann remained in the possession of the Wagner family after Robert Ittermann's widow Elisabeth (1911–1985) married Franz Valentin Maria Wagner (1914–1997) in 1973.

A traveling exhibition presenting numerous sculptures and drawings by Ittermann went through seven museums in Westphalia-Lippe from 2008 to 2010 : the Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus in Soest, the Münsterland Museum Burg Vischering , the Museum of the City of Bad Berleburg , the City Museum of Local History in Lippstadt , the City Museum Iserlohn , the Brakel City Museum and the Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy History in Rhede .

In Ittermann's oeuvre there are large commissions, including memorials and memorial plaques , as well as numerous small sculptures, most of them nudes (e.g. “Venus vom Möhnesee”, 1949). When designing the memorials, he followed the unhero-like depictions of artists such as Georg Kolbe , Ernst Barlach and Wilhelm Lehmbruck (“The Warrior”, 1928) in the 1920s . This way unheroic to make war memorials and monuments, Ittermann remained even after the Second World War loyal ( "The Mourner", 1954). Since the 1920s he also dealt with portrait busts . The plaster busts preserved in the estate are numerous , for which bronze casts were not always known or exist. Ittermann saw plaster as a material equivalent to bronze or clay. Ittermann was finally able to establish himself as a portraitist (plaster and bronze heads) after 1945.

"Robert Ittermann approached the old task of the sculptor with tenderness and heart, lyrical and sensitive, to elevate the human body from the accidental into the valid."

- Anton Henze 1957

Awards

• 1937: Cornelius Prize , Düsseldorf for "Sitting Girl" and "Sitting Girl in Plaster"
• 1937: 1st prize at the Rhenish sculptor competition of the city of Mönchengladbach
• 1949: Karl Ernst Osthaus Prize , Hagen for the small sculpture "Standing Girl"
• 1951: 1st prize competition for a market fountain in the town of Viersen
• 1955: Art Prize of the City of Iserlohn

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1923: Mannheim together with Karl Albiker and Wilhelm Gerstel-9999
• 1929: Münster , City Hall, 3rd Great Westphalian Art Exhibition-9999
• 1937: -9999Düsseldorf, “Great Reich Exhibition of the Creative People” in the North Park : Shepherdess
• 1940: Berlin and 1941 Danzig , "Rhenish Art Exhibition" (Organizer: Kunst-Dienst, Berlin and the Society of Rhenish Artists and Art Friends, Düsseldorf)-9999
• 1943: Vienna , Künstlerhaus , "Young Art in the German Reich" (Organizer: Reichsstatthalter in Vienna, Reichsleiter Baldur von Schirach)-9999
• 1944: -9999Munich, House of German Art , "Great German Art Exhibition"
• 1950: -9999Munich Haus der Kunst and Dusseldorf, Kunsthalle "Neue Rheinische secession" / "Rheinische secession Dusseldorf"
• 2008–2010: Bad Berleburg, Brakel, Iserlohn, Lippstadt, Lüdinghausen, Rhede and Soest "Robert Ittermann - Sculptures and Drawings"

further presentation of his works at numerous exhibitions in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia , including in Dortmund (1931, 1935, 1951), Düsseldorf (1940, 1942, 1944, 1953, 1956, 1957 and 1970), Essen (1936), Hagen (1939, 1940 and 1942, 1949) and Cologne (1939) and beyond, before and after the Second World War.

Works (selection)

• 1920: -9999plaster bust of father and bronze bust of mother
• 1927–1928: Karlsruhe , small fountain for the city garden (small boy who kneels and points to the bubbling spring)
• 1928: -9999Iserlohn, memorial in the central cemetery for the fallen of the First World War: "The Warrior" (bronze, height figure 151 cm; height with base 341 cm)
• before 1937: –9Actor Adolf Dell , plaster model (Soest Collection)
• 1945: -9999bronze bust of his wife Elisabeth
• after 1945: Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš , plaster model-
• 1948: -9999Albert Renger-Patzsch, plaster model (Soest Collection)
• before 1949: –9bronze sculpture "standing girl"
• 1949: -9999"Venus vom Möhnesee", free sculpture (bronze)
• 1950–1960: Soest, district building, exterior sculpture "The thinker, the thinker"
• around 1950: –9Soest, garden of the city archive, free sculpture "Standing boy" (bronze)
• before 1951: Friedrich Kirchhoff , plaster model (Soest Collection)–9
• between 1950 u. 1960: Völlinghausen and Soest, exterior sculpture of the "large seated woman" (duplicate)
• around 1953: –9Essen- Margarethenhöhe , fountain (plus the plaster figure of the "Brunnenknabe" from 1953; as a bronze sculpture in Grugapark )
• 1953: -9999Iserlohn, memorial for the city (memorial plaque, bronze relief "Free them")
• before 1954: –9Prof. Arthur Böhme , plaster model (Soest collection)
• 1954: -9999plaster model "Hüttenmann"
• 1954: -9999Altena- Dahle , memorial (war memorial, Brone "mother with dead boy")
• 1954: -9999Soest, memorial "The Mourner"
• before 1955: –9City Director Wilhelm Hansmann , plaster model (Soest Collection)
• around 1955: –9Actor Wolf Budde, plaster model (Soest Collection)
• 1958: -9999Völlinghausen, memorial ("mother with dead child")
• 1962: -9999plaster model load carrier
• Undated: –9Wamel, plaster model "Mother and Child" as an enlarged external sculpture, the sculpture is in the Kätelhönschen garden in Wamel
• undated: Marl -Hüls, exterior sculpture of the "shot putter"–9
• undated: –9Soest, fountain relief
• undated: –9Josef Bertram, plaster model (Soest Collection)
• undated: –9Dr. Vormbrock, plaster model (Soest Collection)

Some of the works were only purchased and installed after Ittermann's death.

literature

• Stefanie Riboni: Robert Ittermann - sculptures and drawings. With exhibit photographs by Greta Schüttemeyer. Catalog for the exhibition of the LWL Museum Office for Westphalia and the City of Soest, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-927204-68-3 .

Web links

Commons : Robert Ittermann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd} Stefanie Riboni: Robert Ittermann - sculptures and drawings. With exhibit photographs by Greta Schüttemeyer. Catalog for the exhibition of the LWL Museum Office for Westphalia and the City of Soest, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3-927204-68-3 .
2. ↑ Standing (Great Venus) by Robert Ittermann, art in public space, Franz-Jürgens-Straße , on d: kult, cultural office of the state capital Düsseldorf
3. ↑ Die Stehende , on schaffendesvolk1937.de, accessed on September 25, 2017
4. ↑ Die Künstlerhäuser , on schaffendesvolk1937.de, accessed on September 25, 2017
5. ^ Corina Gertz (Ed.): 80 years of Golzheim artists' settlement , State Capital Düsseldorf, 2017. pp. 78–79, 89, 97