Volker Detlef Heydorn

Volker Detlef Heydorn (born June 17, 1920 in Blankenese ; † July 15, 2004 in Hamburg-Blankenese ) was a Hamburg artist and author who, in addition to paintings, drawings and graphics, made over 2,000 illustrations and published numerous books. In addition, he made 15 window walls and murals and engraved around 400 plates for casting pewter figures.

Live and act

Volker Detlef Heydorn was the youngest of three sons of the Protestant theologian Carl Eduard Heinrich Wilhelm Heydorn and Dagmar Eva Heydorn, nee. Huesmann. His brothers were Richard Huesmann Wilhelm Heydorn and Uwe Jens Theseus Heydorn (1912–1972).

Heydorn grew up in Blankenese and attended the Reformrealgymnasium there from 1927. In his youth, during the time of National Socialism, interest in the military was aroused, and his parents did not allow joining the Hitler Youth . But he remained interested in everything military history throughout his life . Heydorn was particularly interested in history and mathematics at school, and according to his own statement, his later painting was significantly influenced by mathematical issues. As early as 1936, he had the desire to later become professionally involved in art. From 1930 he was artistically influenced by the painter Hugo Ernst Schnegg, an acquaintance of his mother. In the same year he joined the Blankenese Graphic Arts Association .

At the turn of the year 1936/1937 Heydorn met Eduard Bargheer , who made a great impression on him. In 1939 he was excluded from the Abitur for political reasons and was denied the oral Abitur examination.

In the meantime he attended the Schmilinsky art school until 1940, where he was taught by Eduard Bargheer, Erich Hartmann and Gabriele Schmilinsky , among others . In addition to a scholarship, he earned money selling watercolors and oil portraits. In the summer of 1940 he was sent to Stettin for basic military training , and in 1941 he was transferred to the Eastern Front in the Bug Valley as a radio operator in the intelligence and reconnaissance service. Even during the war years he used every opportunity to record his impressions artistically. At the front, he also followed the reactions to his first exhibition, which was held in 1941 during his absence in the Schauburgstuben Hamburg-St. Pauli took place. At the request of his father, he was given a high school diploma in 1942 because of his probation at the front.

Heydorn married the graphic artist Eva Frederike Antonie Stürmer (1922–2008) in 1944. The marriage resulted in two sons and a daughter. In 1945 Heydorn returned to Hamburg and ran a temporary studio with the painter Fritz Husmann. From 1946 he studied at the State Art School in Hamburg with Erich Hartmann. Here he learned u. a. also know the artists Diether Kressel , Harald Duwe and Fritz Fleer . During this time he earned his money a. a. with the engraving and casting of tin figures.

In the summer of 1949 Heydorn went on a study trip to Munich and the foothills of the Alps. After his return to Hamburg, he began to work as an illustrator for various Hamburg newspapers, initially together with his wife, and from 1953 as an illustrator for children's books.

In 1952, Heydorn was one of the first to receive a scholarship from the newly established Lichtwark Prize . A study trip to Paris that resulted from this gave his art further impulses. In the same year he founded the Hamburg-Blankenese local group of the International of War Resisters (IDK). While he was inclined to communism in the early 1950s , the violent suppression of the popular protests in the GDR and Hungary, as well as the increasing instrumentalization of West German communist groups in the sense of the USSR, led to a break with communist ideology. From then on Heydorn regarded himself as a political nonconformist , who resolutely defended himself in his thinking and his art against any suppression of civil liberties.

In 1955 Heydorn took over the editing of the monthly magazine Von Atelier zu Atelier . He held this position until the magazine was discontinued in 1964.

In 1965 Heydorn accepted a teaching position at the adult education center in the subjects of printmaking , drawing and art history .

Heydorn initiated a benefit exhibition in favor of the Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People , which was supported by the Hamburg artists. Out of gratitude for the commitment of his professional colleagues, he now felt obliged to work for the Hamburg artists. In the mid-1970s, this culminated in his four-volume work, Maler in Hamburg, which was decisive for the history of Hamburg painting .

In 1969 he was awarded the Edwin Scharff Prize of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. In 1974 he worked as a lecturer at the Technical College for Design in the subject of drawing. His appointment to the Hamburg Heritage Council in 1974, of which he was a member until 1984, aroused his interest in local history and architectural history. He became the author of local history publications in the 1980s. And from 1964 to 1989 he was editor of the Blankenese magazine of the Blankeneser Bürgererverein. For his commitment in this regard, he was awarded the “Golden Pfahlewerpreis” of the Blankeneser Citizens Association in 2002.

In 1992 Heydorn was guest of honor at the Deutsche Akademie Rome Villa Massimo . During this trip, he became almost completely blind due to glaucoma in one eye. Nevertheless, he continued to paint. Especially in his late creative phase, he tried to process his experiences as a war participant again. In addition to painting, he continued to work as an illustrator of children's books and as an author of war history books.

Works

Illustrated books

• Paula Dehmel : Rumpumpel (together with Eva Heydorn) Verlag Heinrich Ellermann, Hamburg 1953.
• Paul Hühnerfeld : Dixi is to blame for everything. Adam Reitze publishing house, Hamburg 1956.
• Julius E. Lips: Tents in the Wilderness. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1958.
• Hans Leip : The nigger on Scharhörn. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1959.
• Alder Wilson: Coorinna. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1960.
• René Guillot : Grischka and his bear. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1963.
• Scott O'Dell : The Island of the Blue Dolphins. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1964.
• Nancy Spofford: The Day of the Bear. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna u. a. 1964.
• Sterling North : Rascal the Raccoon. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1965.
• Katharine Allfrey: Dolphin Summer. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt a. a. 1966.
• Hans-Georg Noack : Stars over the Wall. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna u. a. 1966.
• Folder I and II for the Door and Gate Primer . Hermann Schroedel Publishing House, Hanover 1967.
• Annaliese Wulf: Tadashi is coming to Tokyo. Georg Bitter, 1968.
• Shirley Ann Gran: The Keepers of the House. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1969.
• Klara Jankukowa: The brother of the silent wolf. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 1969.
• Astrid Lindgren : Kalle Blomquist. Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, Hamburg 1969.
• Hans Peterson : Expedition Snowstorm. Verlag Friedrich Oettinger, 1970.
• Astrid Lindgren: Kalle Blomquist. Licensed edition, Bertelsmann Verlag, Amsterdam 1973.
• Astrid Lindgren: Super Detective Blomkwist. Bertelsmann publishing house, Amsterdam 1973, 1976.
• Astrid Lindgren: Super Detective Blomkwist leeft gevaarlijk. Bertelsmann publishing house, Amsterdam 1975.
• Siegrfried Heinke: From morning to night . Publishing house Bote and Bock, Berlin 1975.
• Astrid Lindgren: This is super detective Blomkwist! Bertelsmann publishing house, Amsterdam 1976.
• The great Merian anecdotes book. Hoffmann & Campe publishing house, Hamburg 1980.

Publications

Art history

• Painter in Hamburg I – IV. Hamburg 1974–1977.
• Carl Hilmers - A painter between the fronts of modernity. Neumünster 1976.
• Erich Hartmann - artist monograph. Hamburg 1976.
• Eduard Bargheer - artist monograph. Hamburg 1976.

Local lore

• Fritz Stucken and the settlement of the Falkenstein. Hamburg 1984.
• Around the Krähenberg. Hamburg 1985.
• The Blankeneser Oberland. Hamburg 1987.

Military history

• Close intelligence reconnaissance (East) and Soviet Russian army radio systems until 1945. Ed. Military History Research Office , Freiburg 1985.
• The Soviet march in the Bialystok balcony until June 22, 1941 and the Wolkowysk pocket. Publishing house for military sciences, Munich 1989.

Autobiography

• Become a painter between art, politics and religion. Autobiography. Hamburg 1979.
• Fine Arts and Politics - Memories of a Nonconformist. Munich 1995.

Heydorn published numerous articles in yearbooks, magazines and exhibition catalogs.

Solo exhibitions

• 1941: Schauburgstuben Hamburg
• 1946: German Youth Training Center Hamburg
• approx. 1954: Art foyer of the German Democratic Culture Association Hamburg
• 1958: Kunsthalle Hamburg
• 1959: Lübeck City Hall
• 1965: Gallery v. Limestone Berlin
• 1966: Hans Thoma Society Reutlingen
• 1966: Galerie Helmut vd Höh Hamburg
• 1966: Art Association Marburg
• 1968: Kunstkabinett Hannover
• 1968: Graphic Cabinet Frankfurt am Main
• 1971: Kunstverein Steinburg Itzehoe
• 1971: Kunstverein Hattingen
• 1971, 1975: Galerie Krüll Krefeld
• 1973: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
• 1974: Osnabrück Museum of Cultural History
• 1974: Kirchheim unter Teck cultural ring
• 1975: Hagener Kunstkabinett
• 1975: Galerie Henning Hamburg
• 1976: Hameln Art Circle
• 1977, 1980, 1988: Kunstetage Dresdner Bank Hamburg
• 1977: Graphisches Kabinett Rathaus Lünen
• 1978: Kunstkreis Lingen
• 1979: Federal Ministry of Bonn
• 1981: Uetersen town hall, the magistrate
• 1981: Reinbek town hall, Stormarn
• 1985: Emslandmuseum Schloss Clemenswerth
• 1986: North German Forum Lüneburg
• 1990: Jewish Museum Rendsburg
• 1991, 2000: Galerie Elysee Hamburg
• 1992, 1995: Kunstverein Ahrensburg Town Hall
• 1995: Kunstetage Hamburgische Landesbank in cooperation with Museum Altona, North German State Museum Hamburg
• 2010: Haspa art foyer at Hamburg City Hall

swell

• Volker Detlef Heydorn: Painters become between art, politics and religion. Hamburg 1979. ISBN 3-7672-0520-3
• Volker Detlef Heydorn: Fine arts and politics: memories of a nonconformist. Munich 1995.
• Lichtwark Society (ed.): Volker Detlef Heydorn - painter and graphic artist. Neumünster 2006.

Web links

• Website about Volker Detlef Heydorn
• On the death of the Blankenese painter Volker Detlef Heydorn, obituary , in: Die Welt, July 30, 2004