Rolf von Hoerschelmann

Rolf Erik von Hoerschelmann (born February 28, 1885 in Dorpat , Livonia Governorate , Russian Empire ; † March 12, 1947 in Feldafing ) was a Baltic German illustrator , collector , writer and bohemian .

Life

Hoerschelmann was the third of four sons of the university professor and classical philologist Wilhelm von Hoerschelmann (1849–1895) and his wife Alexandrine, née von Bosse, daughter of the Russian court architect Harald Julius von Bosse , born in Dorpat, today's Tartu ( Estonia ). An older brother was the physicist Harald Wilhelm Tacitus von Hoerschelmann (1878–1941). As a result of a growth disorder that occurred during puberty, Rolf von Hoerschelmann was physically unstable and stunted , which is why his friends later nicknamed him "the little Hoerschel". In his hometown he attended Rudolf von Zeddelmann's private high school. He received his first drawing lessons from Susa Walter .

At the turn of the century, probably in 1903, he moved to Munich , where he lived for many years with his widowed mother, known as "Sascha", at 8 Gedonstrasse in Schwabing . As a passionate collector, he hoarded everything there in his “fox hole” that had to do with paper and that seemed interesting from a cultural and historical perspective, but primarily graphics . Despite limited financial resources, Hoerschelmann built a considerable collection in the course of his life. To do this, he used to roam Munich's antiquarian bookshops , jokingly regretting that he only knew the lower one and a half meters of their holdings, as it did not reach higher.

Under Hermann Obrist and Wilhelm von Debschitz , he completed a reform-oriented artistic training in the teaching and experimental studios for free and applied arts . Hoerschelmann then made a name for himself as a designer of bookplates . Some years he worked as silhouettes - Schneider in the Schwabing shadow plays , which in 1907 by Alexander von Bernus had been established. With Karl Wolfskehl and Emil Preetorius he soon met the draftsman Alfred Kubin , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. As a book lover , he was a member of the Society of Munich Bibliophiles (1908–1913) and the Society of Munich Book Friends (1923–1931). In these sociable circles he got to know many antiquarians, booksellers, publishers, illustrators, type and book designers. Through his work in the Schwabinger Schattenspiele and the Simplicissimus magazine , he also came into contact with the “Crème der Boheme von Schwabing”, among them Friedrich and Ricarda Huch , Heinrich and Thomas Mann , Richard Dehmel , Hermann Hesse and Stefan George . As a regular at the artist's café Stefanie , Hoerschelmann met other protagonists of the Munich art scene, such as Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow , Carl Georg von Maassen , Joachim Ringelnatz , Max Halbe and Erich Mühsam . The painter Max Unold said about the vita of his friend Hoerschelmann that he “succeeded in the miracle of multiplying life like seldom.” In the course of his life he undertook several study trips to Italy and France. There he created watercolors with views of Paris, Provence, Rome, Umbria and Tuscany. In September 1934 he took Hans Purrmann and Hugo Troendle on a trip to the Corot exhibition in Zurich. In the autumn of 1943 an air raid destroyed his Schwabing apartment. He then lived in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg , where he died and was buried.

Hoerschelmann only had a closer relationship with a lady in later years, with Elisabeth Bachmair, née Zeller, called "Lisel", the second wife of the publisher Heinrich Franz Seraph Bachmair . She called him "Pappilein" and cared for "the sick Hoerschel" until death and did the funeral correspondence. In 1945, a few months before his death, Hoerschelmann's thirst for creativity was revived when he was again in demand as an illustrator and collector at the same time as the fall of National Socialism . His publication Life Without Everyday Life (1947), in which he summarized memoirs and essays, comes from this time . The Neue Sammlung in Munich commemorated the deceased with an exhibition of his estate in 1947/1948 under the title All sorts of paper .

Works (selection)

As a writer, draftsman, caricaturist and graphic artist, Hoerschelmann created a versatile work, illustrations for around 40 books and the magazines Simplicissimus , Jugend and Fliegende Blätter , numerous woodcuts and silhouettes, watercolors and bookplates as well as poster designs . His drawings are characterized by a brisk, impressionistic line. The art form of the silhouette , which had been neglected up until then, was given a new status in book illustration by Hoerschelmann. Hoerschelmann's book illustrations are influenced by different creative periods of the graphic artist Alfred Kubin, including Max Slevogt . Hoerschelmann shared a penchant for fantasy with Kubin .

Illustrations (selection)

Pen-and-ink drawing from the book Drei Märchen by Theodor Storm from 1925, depicting the "Feuermann" in the fairy tale Die Regentrude

• Various drawings in Carl Georg Maassen's guest book
• Pfau , "decorative drawing" in the yearbook for fine arts in the Baltic Sea provinces , fourth year, 1910
• Self-portrait , 1916, pen and ink drawing
• Evening peace , 1919, illustration in the journal Der Orchideengarten
• The Column Saint , 1919, illustration in the journal Der Orchideengarten
• Goethe. Sensitive Stories , 1921 (ten illustrations)
• Self-portrait 1903–1935 , 1935
• Self-portrait as a “hodgepodge” in his Schwabing apartment , pen lithograph
• Street scene , pen drawing
• Dilapidated hut , pen drawing
• Encounter with death , lithograph
• The unicorn , spring lithograph
• Wolkenwanderer , pen drawing

Fonts (selection)

• Address book , from 1907, extensive, historically significant private collection of addresses by Hoerschelmann
• With Franz Blei , Carl Georg von Maassen, Carl Graf von Klinckowström and Ernst Schulte-Strathaus : About the lyricism of Max Halbe in its relationship to the anacreontics of the late romanticists . Fictitious inaugural dissertation, 1911
• With Carl Georg von Maassen, Reinhard Koester and Max Unold: Irma. A fragment . Parodic drama, 1913
• Life without everyday life . Collection of articles, Wedding-Verlag, Berlin 1947.

reception

• In the “Schwabingroman” Jossa and the bachelors, the writer Willy Seidel caricatured Hoerschelmann as the figure of the dwarf artist “Hasso von Klösterlein”, as an antipode to the gigantic figure of “Schweickhardt-Gundermann”, with which he exaggerated the writer Karl Wolfskehl. Seidel described the dwarf artist as follows:

“ Von Klösterlein was dwarfishly small; what he lacked in figure, however, he replaced with an extremely quick-witted tongue of Baltic observance, an aggressively jumping organ that, however, could be stretched gently like a rubber band when it was courted by picture dealers. To be sure, even then his eyes remained very lively and skipped over to the competition with his words. "

• The writer Thomas Mann called Hoerschelmann "Herr vom Hoerselberg", an allusion to the Tannhauser legend .

• The writer Hermann Hesse wrote as an obituary on April 2, 1947:

“ He's over there, he's released, and he has proven himself and remained true to the end. With that he moves into the ranks of those friends who are almost closer to me and with whom I have more contact than with those who are still alive…. "

literature

• Eva-Maria Herbertz: "The secret king of Schwabylon". The graphic artist and collector Rolf von Hoerschelmann in personal reports and image documents. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-86520-137-7 ( reading sample )
• Carola L. Gottzmann , Petra Hörner: Lexicon of the German-language literature of the Baltic States and St. Petersburg . De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019338-1 , p. 599 f .
• Kuno Hagen: Lexicon of Baltic German visual artists. 20th century . Cologne 1983.
• Ludwig Hollweck: German Balts in Munich . Munich 1974.
• Karl Bosl (Ed.): Bosls Bavarian Biography . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 358.
• Book and art auction house F. Zisska & R. Kistner: Rolf von Hoerschelmann. Auction catalog, auction 36 / II from October 20, 2000.

Web links

• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Rolf von Hoerschelmann. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
• Dirk Heisserer: The painter and draftsman Rolf von Hoerschelmann . In: Librarium. Journal of the Swiss Bibliophile Society (= revue de la Société Suisse des Bibliophiles). Volume 43, Issue 3/2000, p. 201 ff.
• Hoerschelmann, Rolf Erik von , biography in the portal kulturportal-west-ost.eu
• Hoerschelmann, Rof von , website in the portal bavarikon.de
• Biography in Eberhard Köstler: books books books books. From the heyday of Munich bibliophilia . Lecture on May 25, 2008, Munich, published in: Ute Schneider (Ed.): Imprimatur. ( Table of Contents ), NF XXI, 2009, pp. 259 ff., 273 (PDF)
• Rolf von Hoerschelmann , website in the portal literaturportal-bayern.de
• Rolf von Hoerschelmann archive in the municipality of Feldafing , website in the portal feldafing.de
• Rolf von Hoerschelmann , auction results on the portal artnet.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul Peter Ewald : Memories of the beginnings of the Munich Physics Colloquium. In: Physical sheets. Volume 24, 1968, p. 540 (PDF)
2. ^ Frieder Paasche: Shadow theater in Germany . Website ( undated ) in the vagantei-erhardt.de portal , accessed on December 31, 2014.
3. ^ H. Purrmann - Leben , website in the portal purrmann.com , accessed on January 1, 2015.
4. ↑ Eberhard Köstler: books books books books. From the heyday of Munich bibliophilia . Lecture on May 25, 2008, Munich, published in: Ute Schneider (Ed.): Imprimatur. ( Table of Contents ), NF XXI, 2009, pp. 259 ff., 273 (PDF)
5. ^ Annette Doms: New ways. About the situation and reception of modern painting in the Munich post-war period . Dissertation at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Munich 2004, p. 185 f. ( PDF )
6. ^ Association of poster friends (local group Munich): The poster . Catalog of the Munich Advertising Art exhibition, July / August 1914, with an introductory text by Georg Jakob Wolf (PDF)
7. ↑ Dirk Heisserer: The painter and draftsman Rolf von Hoerschelmann. In: Librarium. Journal of the Swiss Bibliophile Society (= revue de la Société Suisse des Bibliophiles). Volume 43, 3/2000, p. 201.
8. ↑ Beate Schlöglhofer: The graphic artist Alfred Kubin as the driving force behind the art of illustration in the 20th century. Diploma thesis University of Vienna, Vienna 2011, p. 70 (PDF)
9. ↑ Yearbook for Fine Arts in the Baltic Sea Provinces , Volume IV, 1910 ( JPG )
10. ↑ Abendfriede , 1919 , image on the tumblr.com portal , accessed on December 30, 2014.
11. ↑ Self-portrait 1903–1935 , JPG in the portal stadtmuseum.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de , accessed on January 1, 2015.
12. ↑ Street scene ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website in the portal de.zisska.de , accessed on January 1, 2015. 
13. ↑ Dilapidated hut ( Memento of the original from January 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website in the portal de.zisska.de , accessed on January 1, 2015. 
14. ↑ Dirk Heißerer: Where ghosts wander . Munich 1996, p. 169.
15. ↑ Dirk Heißerer, p. 9.
16. ↑ Peter de Mendelssohn : The magician. The life of the German poet Thomas Mann . Verlag S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1996, Volume 3, Part 2, p. 154 f.
17. ↑ Quoted from Eberhard Köstler, p. 276.