Ruthild Hahne

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Ruthild Hahne with Otto Nagel and Wilhelm Pieck , 1951

Ruthild Hahne (born December 19, 1910 in Berlin ; † September 1, 2001 there ) was a German sculptor who had her main creative phase in the early years of the GDR .

biography

Memorial plaque in today's Beatrice-Zweig-Strasse No. 1 in Berlin-Niederschönhausen
Ruth Hahne's studio house on Beatrice-Zweig-Strasse
Detail from a model of the Thälmann monument

Education and time of National Socialism

Ruthild Hahne grew up as the daughter of a family of merchants and manufacturers in an upper-class villa in Berlin-Schmöckwitz with a housekeeper, gardener and chauffeur. In 1920 she was in Italy, for which she developed a passion. She later spoke fluent Italian. After attending the Neukölln Lyceum , she trained as an orthopedic gym teacher and worked in this profession for several years. Although she grew up in a middle-class family, she had early contacts with the labor movement and the KPD . In 1930 she met Jean Weidt , the head of the Red Dancers , who brought her to the expressive dance practiced in this group . A short time later she began to study sculpture at the University of Fine Arts, where she was a master class student of Wilhelm Gerstel and was taught by Arno Breker in monumental sculpture . She spent 1941 as a scholarship holder at the Villa Massimo in Rome . During this time, small sculptures and portraits of children were created based on the classic forms.

Gerstel's master students also included Fritz Cremer and Cay von Brockdorff , through whom she came into contact with Wolfgang Thiess , with whom she fell in love, after the National Socialists came to power . The group of art students became a resistance group of the Rote Kapelle , in which Ruthild Hahne became active because of her political socialization. Among other things, she was working on the illegal newspaper The Inner Front in her apartment at Nachodstrasse 20 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . After the group was uncovered in autumn 1942, Wolfgang Thiess was sentenced to death and executed. Ruthild Hahne was sentenced to four years in prison. During the turmoil of the final months of the Second World War , she managed to escape from prison. It made its way to the Eastern Front and switched to the Soviet side.

Work as a sculptor in the GDR

In 1946/1947 she was a co-founder of the "University of Applied Arts" (today's Berlin-Weißensee School of Art ), where she also worked as a lecturer for several years. Artistically she concentrated on the creation of portrait sculptures, in particular of politicians of the communist movement such as Lenin , Karl Liebknecht and Wilhelm Pieck . She also created several portraits of children.

In a tender for the creation of a Thälmann memorial for the Thälmannplatz (previously Wilhelmplatz, now part of Wilhelmstrasse) in Berlin-Mitte , which was so named until 1986 , it was able to prevail against 182 competitors. For practical and financial reasons and out of political conviction, she moved in 1953 from West to East Berlin in the then newly formed road 201 (today: Beatrice Branch Road ) in Berlin-Niederschönhausen in her own atelier, which then after 17 June 1953 was transferred into communal ownership against their will. In contrast to the other type houses on this street, she had chosen her own architect and helped design it. In the nearby studio in the Pankower Bürgerpark, scaled-down models of the planned monument were initially created. This consists of two streams of people who are meant to symbolize the workers' parties KPD and SPD , headed by Ernst Thälmann, one hand clenched into a fist. In 1958, a partial plaster of paris of the planned monument on the “IV. German Art Exhibition ”of the GDR. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the intended location on Thälmannplatz became a restricted area and it was no longer possible to erect the monument. The GDR leadership was also no longer behind the memorial concept developed by Ruthild Hahne in 1951 under strong influence. In 1965 she had to finish her work on the Thälmann Memorial, her central life's work. Some of the created models were destroyed, others, such as Thälmann as the front figure and the following group “Workers and Farmers” on a scale of 1: 2 are still in their house no. 1 in Beatrice-Zweig-Strasse in one of their son's private museum to see. The Märkisches Museum Berlin has two relief parts on a scale of 1: 4.

After 1965 she continued to work as a sculptor and created a number of portraits and small sculptures. It wasn't until 1985, at the age of 75, that she had her first personal show. In 1971 she was awarded the Silver Patriotic Order of Merit .

She found her final resting place in the Pankow III cemetery .

The atelier house became the Ateliermuseum Ruthild Hahne and can be visited on request. It also occasionally serves as a conference venue.

Exhibitions

  • The children's portrait busts "Nora" and "Richard" (both from 1947) are shown in the exhibition "Art Space Inner City - Sculpture Collection of the Bernau Forest Estate".

literature

  • Stefan Eitze, Stefan Grunert, Stefan Hahne: It rains longer under trees. about the life and work of the sculptor Ruthild Hahne . Stefan Eitze, Berlin 2016, DNB  1081668083 (136 pages).
  • Jörg Fidorra, Katrin Bettina Müller: Ruthild Hahne - story of a sculptor . Catalog. Ed .: Association of Berlin Women Artists 1867 e. V. Schadow Society, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-9802288-8-6 .
  • A detailed, illustrated text in the book Bürgerpark Pankow by Astrid von Killisch-Horn, p. 167, 175–181, ISBN 978- describes the work of Ruthild Hahnes in her studio in Bürgerpark Pankow 1951–1963, where the models for the Thälmann memorial were made . 3-00-021923-8
  • Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Hahne, Ruthild . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Ruthild Hahne  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deike Diening: Ruthild Hahne. Serious aside. In: tagesspiegel.de. September 2, 2013, accessed December 31, 2019 .
  2. ^ Jobst C. Knigge: The Villa Massimo in Rome 1933–1943. Struggle for artistic independence . Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin 2013, p. 237-243 , doi : 10.18452 / 13566 .
  3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , February 27, 1971, p. 4
  4. ↑ IBAES10_PROGRAM. In: .rz.hu-berlin.de. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  5. ^ Art space downtown - sculpture collection of the Bernau forest settlement. In: bernau-bei-berlin.de. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Rediscovered bronze head included in the sculpture collection. In: bernau-bei-berlin.de. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hahne, Ruthild
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 1, 2001
Place of death Berlin