Rudolf Stundl

Commemorative plaque on Rudolf Stundl's house at Gützkower Str. 84 in Greifswald

Altar carpet of the church Kröslin

Rudolf Stundl (born February 4, 1897 in Vienna ; died April 4, 1990 in Greifswald ) was an Austrian pattern designer and tapestry artist . He is regarded as the actual inventor of the Pomeranian fisherman's carpets . In response to a job advertisement, Stundl came to Western Pomerania in 1928 to teach the local fishermen how to design, draw and weave carpets. Through his decades of commitment, he was able to initiate a folk art movement. It was not until 1972 that he resigned from his position as chairman of the knotter cooperative, but continued to be creatively active.

Live and act

Rudolf Stundl grew up in modest circumstances. Through his schooling in various rural locations in Slovenia and Hungary within the Danube monarchy , he came into contact with rural folk art early on . In 1918 he graduated from the Realschule in Zsolna (then Hungary) . From 1919 he was a four-semester student at the Commercial Academy in Budapest in connection with training in weaving and knotting techniques. In 1922, Rudolf Stundl set up a workshop in Zagreb that focused on restoring oriental knotted carpets. In 1925 he took over the management of an arts and crafts company in Budapest, in 1927 he worked as a pattern designer in Breslau. In 1928, Stundl moved to Berlin , where he came across the newspaper advertisement that an experienced carpet weaver was being sought in Greifswald.

Due to a three-year ban on fishing in the southern Baltic Sea , the district office in Wolgast felt compelled to look for an alternative source of income for the fishermen affected. Due to the existing skills for patching fishing nets, carpet weaving was developed. As the artistic and technical director of the Pomeranian Fischer carpet home weaving workshop based in Greifswald , Stundl encouraged the fishermen in the villages of East Pomerania to be inspired by the local landscape, the sea and the forest, when choosing motifs. For this he also provided his own designs, some of which were based on traditional ornaments from the Baltic Sea region, some of which also presented genuinely new things.

It was Rudolf Stundl's aim to develop a complex village culture with a diverse folk art movement parallel to carpet weaving. In 1934, for example, he initiated the first knotting festival in Freest and, in collaboration with G. Häußler, composed his Low German anthem Knüpperfest 1934 and the likewise Low German carpet weaving song Wi knoppen un wäben . He also supported the founding of a Heimatstube in Freest as a village museum in 1957. In addition, Stundl organized sales exhibitions in Berlin, Bremen , Hamburg , Hanover , Lübeck , Rostock , Stralsund , Misdroy and in the baths on the island of Usedom .

After the initial appropriation of the Fischer rugs as an “ancient Germanic tradition” by the National Socialists , the rug weaving workshop was discontinued due to the war and Rudolf Stundl was imprisoned in 1940 (until 1945). Carpet weaving was resumed as early as 1946 with the support of the Soviet Military Administration ( SMAD ). In the same year, Rudolf Stundl married Frida Pietschmann, a weaver from Greifswald. With the founding of the craft production cooperative Volkskunst on the Baltic Sea on May 17, 1953, Stundl became its chairman. The former Stundls weaving mill was affiliated as a "teaching and research institute". He resigned his position as chairman in 1971 for reasons of age, after which he was made an honorary member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR . In 1986 he was awarded the art prize of the Rostock district for his artistic life's work .

Rudolf Stundl was buried on May 2, 1990 in an urn grave in the Old Cemetery in Greifswald. His artistic legacy was taken over by the University of Greifswald , the written legacy is in the Dresden State Library . Stundl's memoirs, entitled Interview an der Ostsee , survive as an unpublished manuscript.

Rudolf Stundl Foundation

The Rudolf Stundl Foundation has existed in Greifswald since 1985 . The decisive co-initiator of the Stundl Foundation was Dr. Kurt Feltkamp, ​​member of the community of emeritus university teachers and Rudolf Stundl's legal successor. With funds from this foundation , the University of Greifswald can award the Rudolf Stundl Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of textile design, especially in ornamental work.

The Rudolf Stundl Prize was last awarded in 1995. At the beginning of 2013, the University of Greifswald decided to change the statutes of the Stundl Foundation in order to revitalize the foundation. Since there is no longer any training in the field of textile design/applied art and the necessary academic expertise in this field is therefore lacking, the rectorate has decided to expand the purpose of the foundation. Now the awarding of the prize is possible again. The purpose of the foundation is now the promotion of art, culture, science and research. The foundation statute now stipulates that the prize can be awarded for outstanding scientific or practical work in connection with textile materials or from related areas of material culture.

writings

• with Lutz Mohr : folk art on the Baltic Sea. Carpet knotting and weaving on the coast of the Bay of Greifswald, taking into account the history of the fishing village of Freest. On the occasion of the anniversary "50 years of Freester and Lubminer fisherman's carpet weaving". Neue Greifswalder Museumshefte , No. 6 (special issue). City Museum, Greifswald 1978.

literature

• Eckhard Oberdörfer: Prizes have not been awarded for years , in: Ostsee-Zeitung of January 21, 2009 (regional edition Greifswald), p. 14.
• Kurt Feltkamp and Birgit Dahlenburg : Freester Fischer rugs from the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald. Catalog for the exhibition (March 13 – April 30, 2008) on the occasion of the 110th birthday of tapestry artist Rudolf Stundl. Custody of the EMAU Greifswald: 2008.
• Dietmar Grieser : The Persians of the North: Rudolf Stundl , in: Home are you big names - Austrians all over the world , Munich: 08/2002, pp. 243-248.
• Werner Sündram: Fischer rugs , in: Ostsee-Zeitung of February 14, 1976 (Rostock).

web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Stundl in the German National Library catalogue
• Literature about Rudolf Stundl in the state bibliography MV
• Works by Rudolf Stundl in the state bibliography MV
• Estate of Rudolf Stundl in the Saxon State Library - State and University Library Dresden
• Rudolf Stundl Foundation at the Caspar David Friedrich Institute for Art Studies at the University of Greifswald
• "Prizes have not been awarded for years" in the Greifswalder Ostsee-Zeitung of January 21, 2009 (pdf; 205 kB)
• "Stundl price on hold" in the Greifswalder Ostsee-Zeitung of July 21, 2009
• dr Kurt Feltkamp: Forty years at Rudolf Stundl's side (speech manuscript as pdf; 150 kB)

itemizations

1. ↑ Kurt Feltkamp and Birgit Dahlenburg: Freester Fischer rugs from the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald. Catalog for the exhibition on the occasion of the 110th birthday of the tapestry artist Rudolf Stundl 2008.
2. ↑ Eckhard Oberdörfer: Interview on the Baltic Sea. The Memoirs of the Father of Pomeranian Fisherman's Carpets . In: Pomerania. Journal of Culture and History. Issue 2/2011, ISSN  0032-4167 , pp. 22–28.
3. ↑ Statutes of the Rudolf Stundl Foundation Archived copy ( memento of the original from May 14, 2013 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.