Stephan Selhorst

Stephan Selhorst (born August 30, 1913 in Rietberg ; † December 31, 1976 in Raesfeld ) was a German art historian , monument conservator and professor of art history (art and cultural history) and design theory at the Münster University of Applied Sciences .

Live and act

Stephan Selhorst was the eldest son of nine children of the wood sculptor and cabinet maker Hermann Selhorst (1877–1931), owner of a workshop for Christian art in Rietberg in Westphalia, later in Nordhagen near Westenholz . His sister is the artist and missionary sister Pientia Selhorst . He received painting lessons early on from Father Walter Tecklenborg in the Franciscan monastery in Rietberg.

Selhorst attended the humanistic then pro- grammar school Nepomucenum Rietberg , where he wrote his examination paper for the one-year-old shortly after the day of his father's death as a description of the picture Albert Birkle, wanderer in the winter night with award from the Minister of Culture in Berlin and passed his Abitur at the grammar school Theodorianum in Paderborn on March 23, 1934. His friend was Georg Wagner (1915–1991), later cathedral vicar and professor of religious folklore in Paderborn. Studies in art history, German studies, philosophy and history in Münster , Bonn , Cologne , Florence and Rome followed . Selhorst studied philosophy at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster with Peter Wust , whose existentialism aimed at the cultural unity of Europe under the sign of the Catholic faith. In 1939 Selhorst received his doctorate in art history from the romantic researcher Günther Müller from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Münster with his dissertation: The problem of individualism in romanticism . The work, especially on Philipp Otto Runge , was published under the title Zur Künstlerpsychologie der Romantik in Karl Busch Verlag in Wattenscheid in 1941 as issue 7 (102 pages) in the series Habitats of Art. A series of studies published by Martin Wackernagel , Münster.

After compulsory labor, six years in the Wehrmacht and four years of Russian imprisonment, Selhorst became editor-in-chief of the Borkener Zeitung (1953–1956, then freelancer), from 1958 editor of the district yearbook Unser Bocholt , magazine for culture and homeland care (articles from 1951–1970) and Our home town. Yearbook of the district of Borken and since 1961 elected cultural representative of the district of Borken , next to 16 years chief editor of a work magazine. The Landesdenkmalamt Westfalen-Lippe commissioned him - at the suggestion of the Oberkreisdirektor Alfons Lengert (1951–1972) - with the inventory for the volume of architectural and art monuments of the district of Borken . In addition to the well-known moated castles such as Burg Gemen z. B. the architectural and art-historical importance of the residential castle Raesfeld , from 1643 to 1658 by the imperial count Alexander II of Velen , called the Westphalian Wallenstein , rebuilt from the original castle, with the highest tower in Westphalia in the west wing and the so-called Sterndeutertum, where Alexander a Had set up an observatory. During the changes in the Baroque era, Selhorst's references helped to discover the original Renaissance style in the many noble houses, as did the romanticism in the churches. One of his concerns was to convey icon painting , which he had already described in the Kiev Works of Art book of 1943, which was created during the two-year occupation of Kiev. Selhorst emphasized the autonomous laws of development of this mystical art of painting compared to Western European art history, since it was not descriptive but rather representational. Selhorst's application to help establish art protection (since May 1940 under the art historian Franz Graf Wolff-Metternich , Rhenish provincial curator, 1928–1950) in the eastern countries was made by the Bonn professor Alfred Stange , successor to the art protection expert in the first World War II Paul Clemen , rejected in March 1941 (Selhorst had studied with Wolff-Metternich and Stange in Bonn in the summer semester of 1937).

Selhorst founded in 1956 together with his wife Ruth, née Fattinger, Verw. Wahl (1919–1986) the Kulturkreis Schloss Raesfeld e. V. , whose first chairman he remained until his death and for whom he held numerous cultural events (exhibitions, e.g. Unkulunkulu as a testimony to 'current African art' (1956) with works by his sister Sr. Pientia Selhorst, Mariannhill / South Africa, Concerts, e.g. with Martha Argerich, theater performances) and art-historical study trips, e.g. B. 1974 the "Second Sicilian Expedition". The top-class cultural offer for this border region was under Selhorst's redefinition of the concept of home and the motto the regional as the starting point for the international . In the Kulturkreis, Selhorst promoted contacts with the Dutch neighbors from the province of Gelderland. From this network, the "German-Dutch Working Group / Stichting Achterhoek - Westmünsterland" was created in 1961 with Selhorst, the district administrator Günther Inhester (Department of Culture and Homeland Maintenance of the City of Borken) and the Dutch Gerad Johan Bernard (Geert) Stork (journalist), Johan Gerard Vos (publicist, Doetinchem), Henk Krosenbrink (poet, regional radio RONO) and Jan Berend Vlam (Mayor of Winterswijk). This also included the initiation of the days of Platt as an expression of the dialect renaissance of Low German. Ruth Selhorst was awarded a Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon (report in the Borkener Zeitung of October 29, 1980), honoring this honorary position, especially the initiation of the Federal Association for German-Dutch cultural work . In 1964 Selhorst was appointed as a lecturer in art history at the Werkkunstschule Münster , after organizing a meeting between students from the Kunsthandwerkschule Bergen (Norway) and the Werkkunstschule Münster at Raesfeld Castle in 1959. On April 1, 1971, when he took over the Werkkunstschule in the new Münster University of Applied Sciences , as the design department (art and design), he was appointed professor by the Minister for Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Selhorst wrote the script for the documentary cultural film Westfalenlied. A home movie from the Red Rocks of 1957. The film was successful, was highly praised for its conciseness (Recklinghäuser newspaper) in the six chapters ( Silent Country, Altes Land, Westphalia diligence, Westphalia faith Westphalia spirit and home country ) and 2015 from the fiber optic media center from On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Prussian province of Westphalia, elaborately digitized, but re-published unchanged. In 1958 and 1959 Selhorst published in the Frankfurter Hefte . He was friends with the Catholic publicists Magdalena Padberg (Eslohe) and Erich Kock (Cologne) as well as the freelance industrial photographer Rudi Angenendt (Dortmund), with whom he organized exhibitions in Cervo / Province of Imperia / Liguria / Northern Italy, z. B. 1971 on depictions of Mary by his sister Pientia Selhorst.

The obituary of the Westfalenspiegel acknowledges the fact that Selhorst shaped cultural life in the Borken district for a quarter of a century, especially with a view to European contacts. “ When you consider the short time he was able to work, his life's work, which was a real development, becomes all the more impressive. "

Fonts (selection)

• On the artist psychology of romanticism , Verlag Karl Busch: Wattenscheid 1941 (Diss. Münster 1939).
• Kiev and its works of art. A walk through the city on the Dnieper . Published for the German soldier by a propaganda company, 1943 (31 pages).
• Wilted bouquet. From Russia - War and Captivity , J. Mergelsberg: Borken 1953 (17 poems).
• .... 'who gave her loved one'. Poems by Hermann Kersting , Raesfeld 1955 (19 poems). Editor of the poems of his cousin and childhood friend, fallen in the east,
• Under the town hall arbor. Current affairs - history - stories from an old town , in: J. Mergelsberg: Borken 1953 (= series of publications of the city of Borken, vol. 6), Reprint Rehms Druck: Borken 2010.
• Borken district , together with Wilhelm Rave , Westphalian provincial curator from 1931–1952, Aschendorff: Münster 1954 (= The architectural and art monuments of Westphalia, vol. 46 = BKDWestf 46), reprint of the first edition of Borken 1970.
• An old city is being rebuilt. The reconstruction of Borken (series of publications by the city of Borken, vol. 8), Borken 1954.
• The mission of Christian art. Pioneering work of a religious woman in South Africa , in: Frauenland. Journal for Catholic Women : Organ of the Catholic German Women's Association, Cologne, Volume 39, 1956, Issue 9/10, pp. 132-134.
• Bark. Character image of a city , office for business journalism: Burgsteinfurt 1956, new edition: Borken 1226–1976: present and retrospect. Documentation and visual language in four sentences . Ivan Köves. [Ed .: City of Borken. Essay on Borken: Stephan Selhorst] Borken 1976.
• Borken district in the border area. About life and work in Westmünsterland. Business Journalism Office Edgar Sommer: Burgsteinfurt 1956.
• Castles Churches Treasures. Small art history of the Borken district , Wilhelm Rehms & Co: Borken 1951, second edition together with Ulrich Reinke, 1971, third, expanded new edition 1979/1980 (including numerous drawings by Stephan Selhorst).
• Raesfeld Castle: Yesterday and Today . Publishing House of West German Crafts: Dortmund 1957, second edition 1965.
• State of Low German in the Borken district. A revealing survey by the culture department . In: Our home. Yearbook of the Borken district 1965, p. 42f.
• The goldsmith and sculptor Hermann Kunkler , in: art and craft. European handicraft . Monthly magazine for decorative arts, 11th year January 1967, pp. 9–20; Lights from the Peill & Putzler glassworks, Düren , ibid., Pp. 21-25.
• Les Chateaux De La Loire - The moated castles of Westphalia . Catalog for the exhibition of the same name on the occasion of the friendship between Orléans, Münster and Kristiansand in Norway. Text Stephan Selhorst, self-published Kunstindustrimusee: Oslo / Lillehammer / Trondheim 1973 and Cramer: Greven 1973 (Münster and the Münsterland; the moated castles of Westphalia: Döring, Vischering, Gemen, Burgsteinfurt, Havixbeck, Darfeld, Raesfeld, Lembeck, Anholt, Welbergen, Hülshoff, Rüschhaus, Overhagen, Assen, Neuhaus, Nordkirchen, Altena).
• Good old times. Rural memories from Westphalia , Verlag Wolfgang Hölker Münster 1976 (110 pages) Reviews: [gie.] With leather corners: Rural memories from Westphalia , Bild-Zeitung Friday, December 10, 1976, No. 288/50; anon., A declaration of love to the old days of Westphalia. A Rietberger brings them to life in his book , Die Glocke, Neue Bücher, 1976; Alwin Hanschmidt: Review of Stephan Selhorsts' good old days. Rural memories from Westphalia '. Munster 1976 . In: Westfalen 55, 1977, pp. 249-250.
• Julia Schily-Koppers . Painter from Borken (1855–1944) , Heimatverein Borken - Kulturkreis Schloss Raesfeld e. V. 1976.
• The building as an event . An essay.
• Essays: Pure Art , The Solemn Mass , Two Landscapes [with a drawing of the Church in Russia ], in: Bernhard Selhorst: Selhorst. An old-established Westphalian family of artists , Höber Verlag: Delbrück o. J.
• Ignaz Schulze Beiering (1879–1965), farmer, cooperative pioneer, politician , in: Westmünsterländische Biografien 2. Contributions by the Society for Historical Regional Studies of the Western Münsterland eV (History in Westmünsterland, Vol. 8), Ed. Ingeborg Höting / Ludger Kremer / Erhard Mietzner / Timothy Sodmann, Achterland: Vreden / Bredevoort 2016, pp. 307–310 (with life data slightly supplemented from: A man of critical understanding - Ignatz Schulze Beierung , in: Our home. Yearbook of the district of Borken 1962, pp. 77–79 ).

literature

• Henrik Entjes: Stephan Selhorst 1913–1976 , in: Grenslandontmoetingen / Grenzlandbegegegen , No. 4, ed. Arbeitsgemeinschaft / Culturele Grenscontactencommisie Achterhoek - Westmünsterland, Wilh. Rehms & Co., Borken 1980, pp. 5-10 (reprint from Dreimaandelijkse Bladen ).
• Thomas Hacker: 60 years of cultural passion. Raesfeld Castle cultural area . In: Borkener Zeitung from September 12, 2016.
• Günther Inhester: Prof. Dr. Stephan Selhorst (1913–1976), art historian and “Kreiskulturbeauftragter” [based on an article from 1995], in: Westmünsterländische Biografien , Vol. 3 (Geschichte im Westmünsterland, Vol. 9), Ed. Ludger Kremer, Erhard Mietzner and Timothy Sodmann, Achterland: Vreden / Bredevoort 2018, pp. 343-350. ISBN 978-3-933377-28-9 ,
• Markus Köster: You may praise the proud Rhine. Images of Westphalia in two cultural films from 1929 and 1957 . In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , No. 163, 2013, pp. 139–156.
• Markus Köster: Through beautiful Westphalia. City and landscape films from the 1910s to the 1970s as cultural and historical sources . LWL archive office for Westphalia 87, 2017, pp. 4–11.
• Alfons Lengert: Stephan Selhorst , in: Our home. Yearbook of the Borken District , 1977, pp. 5-9.
• G [eorg] Wagner: Art historian Stephan Selhorst † , in: Association of former Theodorians. Annual report 1977 , Bonifacius Paderborn 1977, p. 57.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Romantic research in the Third Reich. Retrieved May 25, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Volker Tschuschke: Raesfeld and his castles (PDF). Retrieved May 2, 2020 . 
3. ↑ History: Chronicle of the culture area Schloss Raesfeld. In: Kulturkreis Schloss Raesfeld. Retrieved May 25, 2020 . 
4. ^ Westphalia song . A homeland film from the land of the red earth from 1957. (PDF). In: LWL media center for Westphalia. Retrieved May 25, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Sigle "Jh": Stephan Selhorst . Ed .: Westfälischer Heimatbund. Regional Transport Association of Westphalia. 1st edition. Volume 26, Issue 2: February. Ardey Verlag, Dortmund 1977, p. 37 .
6. ↑ Heimatverein Südlohn: Heimatbrief No. 243, August / September 2016 (PDF). Retrieved May 25, 2020 .