Satiricum

The Satiricum (spelling: SATIRICUM) is a separate department within the State Collection of Books and Engravings in the Summer Palace in Greiz . It was founded in 1975 as the GDR's national caricature collection . Co-founder was Werner Becker, head of the book and copper engraving collection for many years . The collection contains a rich fund of historical caricatures from the 17th to 19th centuries, mostly from princely property. These include drawings by very important English, French and German artists. There are also numerous lithographs in old coloring by the French caricaturist Honoré Daumier . Many of the most famous sheets were created by James Gillray . A large inventory of English caricatures comes from the collection of the English Princess Elisabeth of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover (1770–1840). She bequeathed her scientific and artistic collections to her favorite niece Caroline von Hessen-Homburg (1819–1872), wife of Heinrich XX. Reuss a. L. (1794-1859). The collection also includes sheets by Chodowiecki , Rowlandson , Boilly and Monnier . There is also an extensive collection of German caricatures from the period of Vormärz and the revolution of 1848 .

After the founding of the Satiricum satirical magazines, works from the Simplicissimus , the True Jacob and the workers' press of the 1920s were added. Many well-known artists who published in the GDR magazine Eulenspiegel exhibited their originals here. From 1975 to 1990 a special collection with approx. 10,000 sheets was created, which forms the most extensive satirical picture fund in GDR contemporary history. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , collecting was expanded to include the entire German-speaking region, with caricature still being a focus in East Germany. Today, in addition to works by well-known GDR artists, you can also see works by colleagues who published in the former West German satirical magazine Titanic .

literature

• Harald Kretzschmar, Pia Büttner: 25 years of the Satiricum caricature collection . State collection of books and engravings, Greiz 2000, ISBN 3-9805653-5-1 .

Web links

• The Satiricum on the pages of the State Collection of Books and Engravings in Greiz

Coordinates: 50 ° 39 ′ 28 "  N , 12 ° 11 ′ 32"  E