Rudolf Leptien

Bronze sculpture "Sitzender Akt" by Rudolf Leptien in Berlin-Kladow , approx. 1935

Bronze sculpture by Rudolf Leptien on the Golm (Usedom)

Rudolf Leptien (born September 22, 1907 in Kiel , † September 7, 1977 in Iggensbach ) was a German sculptor and sculptor.

Life

After training from 1923 to 1928 at the Technical and crafts college in Kiel graduated Leptien late 1920s to study at the Art Academy in Berlin and ended this in 1935 as a master student and Rome Prize Fellow of the Villa Massimo in Rome . In 1934 he was awarded the state prize. In 1935 he created a seated female nude in bronze for the outdoor facilities of the war school and the Reichsakademie der Luftfahrt (now the Havelhöhe Community Hospital). In 1937 he married the Russian-German artist Senta Petkiewicz and settled with her in Kronshagen near Kiel, but returned to Berlin in 1939. In 1939 he was shown with the two works "Wild Ducks" and "Jaguar" (both wood) as an example in the illustrated book "Junge Bildhauer". In 1941 he was represented with the figure "Leopard" at the Great German Art Exhibition. For the exhibition Young Art in the German Reich in 1943 he created the wooden sculpture “Young cat playing”.

However, he did not produce his most famous works until after the Second World War.

From 1942 to 1953 Leptien lived and worked in Bansin / Usedom .

The sculpture "Woman in a Soldier's Coat" (often also called "The Freezing" ), created by him in 1952 as a commission for the war cemetery on the Golm (Usedom) , did not fit into the concept of the SED officials responsible at the time . Officials said: “The unfinished sculpture says little.” It was only possible to erect it there in 1984 at the instigation of a citizens' initiative. The sculpture commemorates the many women who waited for their husbands after the Second World War and hoped that they would have survived the war.

In 1953 Leptien went to West Berlin . There he designed numerous artistic works in public spaces, in addition to animal sculptures, mosaic and metal casting.

Works

• Lying foal, wood, around 1934. Kunsthalle zu Kiel
• Two female nudes from one block, wood, 1945. Stadtgalerie Kiel.
• “Sitting fox”, Heine Str. / S-Bhf. Hermsdorf, Berlin-Hermsdorf , 1950s
• "Bird bath with duck", Preußenpark, Berlin-Wilmersdorf , 1950s
• "Snail and Sea Lion", Rixdorfer Str. 126, Berlin-Tempelhof , 1955
• "Pinguine", Rixdorfer Str. 126, Berlin-Tempelhof , 1958
• "Two Heidschnucken and a lurking fox", Volkspark Hasenheide , Berlin-Neukölln , 1958
• “Fountain with two penguins”, Wenckebachstr. 23, Berlin-Tempelhof , 1959
• “Lauerder Fuchs”, Alt — Wittenau 6, Berlin-Wittenau , 1959
• "Lauernder Hase" (play sculpture), Am Nordgraben, Berlin-Reinickendorf , 1959
• "Three relief plates with gymnasts", Schulenburgring 7, Berlin-Tempelhof , 1960
• "Water features Kaufmitte", Siemensdamm 43/44 (Kaufcentrum Siemensstadt), Berlin-Siemensstadt , 1961 (removed in 1976)
• "Zwei Delphine" (play sculpture), Leopoldplatz, Berlin-Wedding , 1963 (removed?)
• "Seven Animal Sculptures", Richardplatz / Karl-Marx-Platz 19/23, Berlin-Neukölln , 1969

Mortimer G. Davidson placed Rudolf Leptien in a row with other important sculptors and artists of his time, such as Max Bernuth , Fritz Behn , Wilhelm Krieger , Fritz Wrampe and Max Esser .

literature

• Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer, Rudolf Leptien, in: Ders: Kieler Künstler Vol. 3: In the Weimar Republic and National Socialism 1918–1945, Heide 2019, pp. 378–381. ISBN 978-3-8042-1493-4
• Mortimer G. Davidson: Art in Germany 1933–1945. A Scientific Encyclopedia of Art in the Third Reich . tape 1 . Grabert Verlag , Tübingen 1988, ISBN 3-87847-089-4 , p. 20 .

Web links

• Literature on Rudolf Leptien in the state bibliography MV
• Life dates

Individual evidence

1. ^ Catalog Exhibition of Young Art in the German Reich 1943
2. ^ Jobst C. Knigge. The Villa Massimo in Rome 1933-1943. Struggle for artistic independence
3. ^ Description of the Golm Memorial
4. ^ Letter from the Rostock District Council of July 18, 1954 to the Wolgast District Council: Sculpture for the Golm cemetery , a copy is posted in the information pavilion on the Golm
5. ↑ Golm war cemetery
6. ^ Golm peace project
7. ↑ Júlia Székely: The transfiguration of a hero - A memory politics of the everyday in Berlin and Budapest, Dissertation, 2016 ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2018 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. 
8. ↑ Plastic sitting fox in Heinstrasse. in Berlin-Reinickendorf
9. ↑ Three relief plates with gymnasts at Schulenburgring 7 in Berlin-Tempelhof, 1960
10. ↑ fountains purchasing center in Berlin-Spandau
11. ↑ Sculptures Seven animal sculptures on Karl-Marx-Platz in Berlin-Neukölln
12. ^ Mortimer G. Davidson: Art in Germany 1933–1945. A Scientific Encyclopedia of Art in the Third Reich . tape 1 . Grabert Verlag , Tübingen 1988, ISBN 3-87847-089-4 , p. 20 .