Ulrich Henn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ulrich Henn (born March 6, 1925 in Schwäbisch Hall ; † December 8, 2014 ) was a German sculptor of sacred art.

resume

Bugenhagenbrunnen on the square in front of the Andreas Church in Hildesheim

After attending school, serving in the military and being a prisoner of war in Stuttgart in 1947, Ulrich Henn began his artistic career as a carver and restorer . Among other things, he reconstructed the late Gothic shrine of the high altar of the Öhringen collegiate church , which was destroyed in the Second World War , for which he put the filigree carving, which had broken into thousands of individual parts, back together over a two-year period, and copied several parapet parts of the baroque staircase in the New Abbey of the Schöntal Monastery .

From 1953 he used bronze as a material in addition to wood and in the following years had several large bronze works cast for sacred and public spaces. After a tendon injury on his left hand, he gave up wood carving in 1958 and from then on modeled for bronze casting.

Bronze door at St. Andrew's Church in Hildesheim. Salvation on the Red Sea

He has created works not only in Germany , but also for places of worship in Austria , Luxembourg and the USA , including the monumental church portals of the National Cathedral in Washington DC (USA) and the St. James Cathedral in Seattle (USA). Both Protestant and Catholic parishes were among Henn's clients. Every object he creates - regardless of whether it is a church door, an altar cross or a tabernacle - wants to convey a message that is rooted in the Bible. He greatly reduced the pictorial program and stylized the figures down to the emblematic. The technique in which his work was created is the lost wax technique .

The focus of his work is sacred art. In addition to crosses, altars and candlesticks, Henn alone created 36 church doors, some of which are five meters high. Profane sculptures are also represented in his oeuvre, such as large open-air sculptures, architectural sculptures, fountains and smaller sculptures, some of which have an underlying sense of humor. Most of Henn's work is architecture-related.

Ulrich Henn lived and worked in Üxheim - Leudersdorf in the Eifel since 1962 .

Work example

The bronze entrance portal of the Evangelical City Church Pforzheim

When designing the monumental entrance portal, Ulrich Henn made direct reference to the destruction of the city of Pforzheim on February 23, 1945. According to official estimates, 17,600 people died in an attack by 369 British Royal Air Force aircraft, some estimates put more than 20,000 victims from (including forced laborers). This corresponds to about a third of the population living in the city at that time. The right side of the large bronze portal symbolizes a city that is enveloped in flames, on the right side you can see a group of figures who seemingly flee from doom, and a woman frozen in shock. Henn also refers to the biblical prehistory of the fall of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 18-19.

  • The burning city of Pforzheim - right door leaf

  • A woman frozen in shock (according to Genesis 19:30 ff, Lot's wife) - left door wing

  • Group of people fleeing from the burning city - left door wing

Works (selection)

The Good Samaritan
Marktplatz fountain in Oberlenningen
  • 1953: Oberlenningen, town hall. "Family", walnut, life-size.
  • 1953/1955: Oberlenningen, market square, market square fountain, bronze and limestone, life-size.
  • 1954: Markgröningen, Evang. Church, cheek cheek. "Petrus", oak.
  • 1957: Stuttgart, Church of the Redeemer , “Der Barmherzige Samariter”, bronze, life-size.
  • 1958: Stuttgart, Stiftskirche , "Cain and Abel and the dance around the golden calf"
  • 1959: Essen, Pauluskirche. Altar cross designed as a seven-armed chandelier.
  • 1961: Heilbronn, Kilian's Church , two bronze doors and altar cross, bronze.
  • 1963: Schwäbisch Hall, Church of the Resurrection , choir wall, bronze sculpture.
  • 1964: Heimerdingen, Peter and Paul Church , hanging cross with scenes from the Passion and Easter stories
  • 1964: Tübingen, collegiate church , bridal portal to the first and altar cross to the second article of faith
  • 1969: Ravensburg, Evangelical City Church , Majestas Domini (Christ in the Mandorla), hanging bronze sculpture in the choir arch
  • 1969: Ravensburg, Evangelical City Church , altar cross with scenes from the life of Jesus, bronze, on the main altar
  • 1968: Pforzheim, city church , apse. “Sending out the disciples”, bronze portal
  • 1972: Trier Cathedral, Helena crypt, Petrus altar with crucifix
  • 1973: Isny ​​/ Nikolai Church. Crucifixion group, seven life-size figures as rood screen in the choir arch, bronze.
  • 1973: Reformation Church (Hilden) , bronze door of the south portal with 10 paired high reliefs.
  • 1978: Schifflingen / Luxembourg, St.Martin. Altar, lectern and tabernacle stele, bronze.
  • 1979: Washington National Cathedral . Easter candlesticks and west portals
  • 1982: Gerolstein, St. Anna. Altar Circumpendium and Tabernacle, bronze.
  • 1985: Rankweil / Austria, Church of Our Lady. Pulpit, bronze.
  • 1985: Albstadt-Ebingen , St. Josef, altarpiece
  • 1992: Mainz-Bretzenheim, St. Bernhard parish church, altar, ambo, seven candlesticks in the chancel and Easter candlesticks
  • 1995: Bugenhagenbrunnen on Andreasplatz in Hildesheim, bronze 7.5 meters high.
  • 1996: Gerolstein. Rondell, "Mother and Child", bronze, life-size.
  • 1999: Seattle , St. James Cathedral, entrance system, ceremonial portal and two side portals
  • 2004: Mainz-Bretzenheim, St. Bernhard parish church, Stations of the Cross
  • 2005: Leudersdorf , free sculpture ″ St. Martin ″ in bronze
  • 2007: Mettingen, "Mother of God in the Rosary"
  • 2013: Tübingen, collegiate church, bronze candlesticks for Easter and baptismal candles for the Third Article of Faith

swell

  • Herta Beutter: Ulrich Henn, bronze work. Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum, 2008, ISBN 3-9805483-9-2 .
  • Art and church. Published by the Presidium of the Protestant Church Building Day. ISBN 3-211-75801-1 .

Single receipts

  1. ^ Photo of the choir wall in the Church of the Resurrection with a bronze sculpture by Ulrich Henn
  2. ↑ Horst Clauß , Hans-Joachim König and Ursula Pfistermeister : Art and Archeology in the Schwäbisch Hall District , Theiss, Stuttgart and Aalen 1979, p. 138.
  3. ^ G. Sch .: The new hanging cross in the Peter and Paul Church in Heimerdingen . In: Bulletin of the Heimerdingen community, March 19, 1965.
  4. ↑ Stiftskirche Tübingen The altar from 1964 stiftskirche-tuebingen.de, accessed on May 14, 2015
  5. ↑ Ulrich Henn in the collegiate church ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) reformationskirchen-wuerttemberg.de, accessed on May 14, 2015
  6. ↑ The Petrus Altar was created in 1972 in the competition for a new high altar for Trier Cathedral. The commission decided on a different design, but the altar by Henn was placed in the east crypt. Petrus altar in the east crypt ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  7. ^ State bibliography of Baden-Württemberg. In: statistik.baden-wuerttemberg.de. Retrieved October 27, 2019 .
  8. ^ Tübingen collegiate church completes works of art of the Trinity by Ulrich Henn ( memento of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 12, 2015

Web links

Commons : Ulrich Henn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Henn, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor of sacred art
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwäbisch Hall
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 2014