Telegram group
The Telegram group was an informal circle of visual artists and writers in Reutlingen in the 1950s, named after the literary-graphic leaflet "telegramme" (1954–1958) that emerged from the circle.
Emergence
The initiator and center of the circle of visual artists and writers was the painter Winand Victor (1918–2014), son of an Aachen family who, after studying art and doing military service, came to Reutlingen in 1949 through marriage. Here he built a studio house in the garden of his in-laws. When he met his friend and writer Richard Salis (1931–1988) and Günter Bruno Fuchs (1928–1971) in Reutlingen in 1952 , he invited them to readings in his studio and offered Fuchs from Berlin temporary accommodation.
Soon a whole group of different artistic temperaments came together in the studio, all of whom shared the experience of war and the disgust for the system that had caused it, and consequently an attitude of critical vigilance. Some wrote like Gerhard Blind, Werner Dohm, Willy Leygraf, Rudolf Paul and Richard Salis, others painted like Fritz Ketz and Winand Victor, still others wrote and created pictures like Günter Bruno Fuchs and Dietrich Kirsch, and one, the musician Walter Hecklinger , set poems from the circle to songs.
Publications
In changing editorships, “pacifist leaflets were printed - in tiny editions, with original graphics and startling texts - which, recognizable from the title, understood themselves as messages, as messages to individuals: 'The Door Knocker' (1952), 'Call and Answer' (1952), 'telegrams' (1954–1958), 'Visum' (1957/58). "
The leaflet-like publication “telegramme”, of which 14 numbers appeared in an edition of 250 to 300 copies, was published by Winand Victor, Dietrich Kirsch and Günter Bruno Fuchs. The name of this most enduring publication was soon applied to the circle around Winand Victor, even if there were contributors in the paper who were not part of the Reutlinger circle ( Wolfgang Bächler , Hermann Lenz , Kurt Leonhard , Johannes Poethen , Oliver Storz ).
Some particularly haunting images from the leaves are exemplary:
- From Victor: the handkerchief of Christ (with the dedication "the dead of violence". No. 1), sleeping child (4)
- Von Ketz: The Partisan Boy (5), The Missing One (10)
- From Fuchs: Man with Bird (9)
Also exemplary three poem beginnings:
- From Fuchs: Arioso: Alley in the maze of light / to the crib, to the Son of Man: / Standards everywhere / the tooth-for-tooth campaign (No. 8)
- Von Lenz: Destroyed Schaubude: The ways so terrifying: everywhere / The wax figures without heads. Shines on the ground / There is a white hand, there is a pink breast (6)
- Von Salis: Behind the milk glass: Factories are built with large windows / because of the light. / But the panes have to be made of frosted glass / so that you can't see the trees outside. (6)
The effect of the sheet “telegram 7”, which shows Winand Victor's picture of an emaciated woman with a Jewish star, supplemented by a concentration camp instruction form, is described by the editor of the Mitteldeutscher Verlag Martin Gregor-Dellin . On August 2, 1955, he wrote to Winand Victor:
“One of my professional colleagues [...] pulled a crumpled 'telegram 7' out of his pocket [...]: He has now shown it to many. Each time they had acknowledged the inscription 'telegram 7' with a smile, and when they hit the pruning had started. At first, looking at the picture with a thoughtful forehead, they would finally have fallen silent in their arrogance ... "
The sponsors of the "telegrams" included u. a. Martin Buber (Jerusalem) and Hermann Hesse (Montagnola). Buber wrote to the editors:
"You can be sure of my attentive viewing and reading now and always ..."
And Hesse:
"One of the dangers to be combated is, among other things, the fear of war [...] To counter this fear [...] everywhere [...] is one of the duties of those who are of good will."
Texts and graphics from the “telegrams” have been reprinted in book editions. Poems by Günter Bruno Fuchs, Dietrich Kirsch and Richard Salis appeared as early as 1955 in the joint volume “Fenster und Weg”, which was published by Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle, with monotypes by Winand Victor. There are later books by all three authors in which texts from their early years in Reutlingen were included (see bibliography). Graphics by Winand Victor and Fritz Ketz have also been reprinted in illustrated books dedicated to the artists.
Exhibitions and readings
In 1956, Winand Victor and Fritz Ketz (1903–1983), who had previously presented pictures in Reutlingen, participated in a larger exhibition in the Reutlingen Spendhaus . In the same year, arranged by Dietrich Kirsch (* 1924), the Reutlinger Group held an exhibition in Munich in which, in addition to Victor and Ketz, Fuchs and Kirsch were also represented. The symbolic title of the exhibition was programmatic: "bird flight discards the fences". In addition to the picture show, there were readings by Fuchs and Kirsch and, as a guest, by Martin Gregor-Dellin. A representative from the organizing "Association of Visual Artists" wrote to Kirsch on June 12, 1956:
"It is very good that you show the 'telegrams', the visitors are always hanging on them in whole bunches."
On July 13, 1956, the Reutlinger General-Anzeiger published a report on the “Reutlinger telegram group in Munich”, in which the Süddeutsche Zeitung is quoted at the end :
"The courageous, independent will of the Reutlinger Group is a welcome sign in our atmosphere of the economic miracle."
Also in 1956 and again in 1957, the group took part in the youth festival meeting in Bayreuth, "the climax and end of the 'telegram group'", as Gregor-Dellin noted in retrospect. The head of the youth festival meeting, Herbert Barth, wrote in a catalog foreword:
“What the telegramm group offers us in its exhibition and in its author's readings are testimonies to the artistic expressiveness of the young generation, who do not ignore the phenomena of our time and want to be content with an Arcadian state. She is [...] deeply touched by what is happening to the people of this time. "
What Barth puts into words here is pointedly shown in the catalog in a graphic by Winand Victor: the depiction of a one-legged man leaning on a crutch with a harmonica to his mouth - titled “Pan in the Backyard” (1957).
After the second meeting in Bayreuth, the group gradually broke up. Fuchs returned to Berlin in 1958, where he made a name for himself as a city poet. Kirsch became a book designer at Otto-Maier-Verlag , Ravensburg, Salis was co-editor of literary magazines (alternative; reutlinger prints). Winand Victor and Fritz Ketz further developed their painting style and presented themselves to the public in solo exhibitions in various German cities. There were still contacts between the members of the telegramm group.
literature
- Brigitte Bausinger: Literature in Reutlingen. Oertel + Spörer, Reutlingen 1996
- Günter Bruno Fuchs: Works in three volumes. Edited by Winfried Ihrig. Hanser, Munich and Vienna 1990–1995
- Rainer Hartmann: Fritz Ketz. Life and work. Edition Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau 1993
- International art exhibition Bayreuth 1957. Reutlingen 1957 (Herbert Barth: Foreword)
- Dietrich Kirsch: 99 artificial moons. Poems from the years 1945–1960. DCS-Verlag, Überlingen 2009
- Dietrich Kirsch: Letters to the moment. Life pictures. DCS-Verlag, Überlingen 2013
- Reutlingen 50s. Literary magazines, Theater in der Tonne, Gallery 5th Ed. By Rudolf Greiner. Reutlingen 1988 (catalog)
- Richard Salis / Günter Bruno Fuchs / Dietrich Kirsch: Window and Path. Poems. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 1955
- Richard Salis: With the feathered serpent. Poems, prose, aphorisms. Edited by Theodor Karst and Reinbert Tabbert. Klöpfer u. Meyer in the DVA, Tübingen 2001
- Dietrich Segebrecht : Profession “bricklayer, now writer.” Günter Bruno Fuchs in Reutlingen 1952–1958. Traces 17. Marbach 1992
- Reinbert Tabbert: The circle of artists around Winand Victor. A documentation. In: Swabian homeland. Volume 54, Issue 3/2003, pp. 320-329
- Reinbert Tabbert: Winand Victor - painter in Reutlingen. In: Reutlinger Geschichtsblätter. Volume 46, 2007, pp. 237-264
- Winand Victor: Pictures. Edition Cantz, Stuttgart 1983 (art book. Texts: Martin Gregor-Dellin and Willy Leygraf)
- Winand Victor: On the trail of life. Hirmer, Munich 1998 (art book. Text: Rainer Zerbst)
Individual evidence
- ^ R. Tabbert: The artist circle around Winand Victor. In: Swabian homeland. Volume 54, Issue 3/2003, pp. 320-329
- ^ W. Victor in: B. Bausinger: Literature in Reutlingen. Oertel + Spörer, Reutlingen 1996, pp. 122-123
- ↑ D. Segebrecht: Profession “bricklayer, now writer.” Günter Bruno Fuchs in Reutlingen 1952–1958. Traces. Marbach 1992, p. 13
- ↑ Quotation in: R. Tabbert: The artist circle around Winand Victor. In: Swabian homeland. Volume 54, Issue 3/2003, p. 321
- ^ R. Hartmann: Fritz Ketz. Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau 1993, p. 113.
- ^ W. Victor: Pictures. Cantz, Stuttgart 1983, p. 144
- ^ M. Gregor-Dellin in: W. Victor: Pictures. Cantz, Stuttgart 1983, p. 8
- ^ H. Barth in: International Art Exhibition Bayreuth 1957. Reutlingen 1957, p. 5