Theodor Wagemann

Theodor Wagemann , called Theo (* July 12, 1918 in Venwegen (then Kornelimünster , today Stolberg (Rhld.) ); † May 3, 1998 in Kevelaer ) was a draftsman.

Life

Theo was the youngest of five children in a family in Venwegen. The father, a trained stone cutter , ran an inn in the village. Theo attended the local elementary school from 1924 to 1932 . In 1933 a mental illness broke out. Theo had to break off an apprenticeship as a tailor in neighboring Stolberg . From then on he took on simple temporary work in the village environment. According to family information, Theo was abducted and forcibly sterilized during the Third Reich . With the intervention of a doctor, he avoided euthanasia and eventually returned to the family, under whose protection he survived the Nazi era . In 1943 his brother died as a sergeant in World War II .

In 1960 the father died and in 1963 the mother. Theo continued to live with his brother in their parents' house. From 1964 to 1965 there was a stay in the Rheinische Kliniken in Düren . After his return to Venwegen, Theo lived with his older sister from 1965, who died in 1977.

After a short stay in a nursing home in Blankenheim , he was finally admitted to the St. Petrusheim in Weeze on the Lower Rhine. Here he began his intensive drawing activity.

During a social internship in St. Petrusheim, Robert Küppers met the taciturn eccentric in 1983 and developed a friendly relationship with Theo. Küppers began collecting works by Theo. In 1995 he broke off his drawing activity due to physical weakness. From 1997 to 1998 there were several hospital stays. In 1998 Theo died of old age in a hospital in Kevelaer at the age of 79. He was buried in the St. Petrusheim cemetery in Weeze.

Exhibitions

• February 9 - April 27, 2003 Theo - A retrospective at the Museum Schloss Moyland
• November 4, 2005 - April 2, 2006 in the Medical History Museum at the Charité in Berlin

See also

• Kind of brut

Web links

• "Theo - A Retrospective" at Museum Schloss Moyland