Severa Dennstedt

Severa Dennstedt (born December 3, 1893 in Hamburg , † January 25, 1971 in Rostock ) was a German painter and writer .

Life

Dennstedt was the child of an upper-class family of professors from Hamburg. It is said that her parents traveled with her to the cultural centers of that time in Europe such as Rome , Florence or Paris . Inspired by these impressions, she soon received painting lessons herself, even if only sporadically. She later learned from 1912 with Professor Prötel in Geneva , after which she became a student with Professor Lacrois in Paris.

At the age of 21, against her father's will, she began studying art with Marie Kierluf in Berlin. A year later, in 1915, with the help of her mother's inheritance, she was able to work as a freelance painter. Nevertheless, she was also hit by the Great Depression in 1923, but was able to buy a house in Neuendorf on Wolin as early as 1931 through her father's inheritance . There she rented some rooms to holiday guests and thus achieved a profitable income. It was here that her first work, Paths to the Self , was written in 1931 .

After the Second World War , Dennstedt had to flee Wolin because the city was now part of the territory of Poland . Much of her work was lost during this time. After a year as a farm worker, Dennstedt fell ill with typhus and could no longer work in this profession. In search of a new home, she came to Graal-Müritz and bought a house in need of renovation together with her friend Gisela Schubert. She wrote down her experiences with the renovation in her second work Von der Kiste zum Eigenheim , which appeared in 1951. After her friend's death, Dennstedt lived in modest circumstances in the community to which she left her house. In return, she received a small pension.

Dennstedt's grave in the cemetery of the Lukaskirche in Graal-Müritz

After a broken bone, she was admitted to a hospital and died there. Her tombstone is in the Lukaskirche cemetery in Graal-Müritz.

Works

• From the box to the home . Dr. Wilhelm Spael, Essen 1951.
• Paths to the self . Martin Warneck Verlag, Berlin 1931.

literature

• Joachim Puttkamer: Visual artists in Graal-Müritz . 1st edition. Klaschmohn Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Bentwisch / Rostock 2003, ISBN 3-933574-28-5 , p. 52 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Severa Dennstedt in the catalog of the German National Library