Walter Kaesbach

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Walter Kaesbach around 1925

Walter Carl Joseph Kaesbach (born January 18, 1879 in Gladbach ; † July 1, 1961 in Konstanz ) was a German art historian and important promoter of the art of Expressionism .

Education and employment

Walter Kaesbach was one of four sons of Carl Josef Kaesbach (1839–1928) and Anna Petronella Kaesbach, nee. Hülsmann (1844-1892). His older brother Rudolf Kaesbach became a sculptor . He graduated from secondary school in Rheydt and studied economics , philosophy and art history in Leipzig , Munich , Berlin and Heidelberg . He received his doctorate in 1906 under Georg Dehio in Strasbourg with the thesis "The work of the painters Victor and Heinrich Duenwege and the master of Kappenberg" . In 1906 he became a volunteer at the Royal Museums in Berlin. A year later, in 1907, he received the rank of scientific assistant under Hugo von Tschudi at the National Gallery in Berlin. In 1909 he became an assistant to Tschudi's successor at the Berlin National Gallery Ludwig Justi .

During the First World War , Walter Kaesbach volunteered for the medical service. He headed the medical team at the Ostend sick bay . Here he succeeded in saving a number of artist friends from direct employment as soldiers at the front by accepting them into the medical service. These sponsored artists included Max Beckmann , Erich Heckel , Anton Kerschbaumer , Heinrich Nauen and Otto Herbig . Her use in Flanders was partly reflected in the motifs of her artistic work.

In 1920 Walter Kaesbach became director of the municipal museum in Erfurt , today's Angermuseum . On December 1, 1924, Walter Kaesbach ended his activity after he had been appointed to the post of Academy Director in Düsseldorf on October 10, 1924 . During his directorate at the Erfurt Museum, he exhibited, among others, Wassily Kandinsky , Lyonel Feininger , Paul Klee , Erich Heckel, Otto Mueller , Hermann Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff .

From 1924/25 to 1933 Walter Kaesbach was director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy . In 1930 he had the Kaesbach house built in Düsseldorf-Lohausen. As a result of the National Socialist art policy in March 1933 and then relieved of his office, Walter Kaesbach retired to Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance .

After the end of the Second World War, by organizing the exhibition “German Art of Our Time” in the Museum of the City of Überlingen , he continued the promotion of modern art from the time before the dictatorship began in Germany.

Walter Kaesbach Collection

An important impetus for dealing with modern art was the acquaintance with the important patron Karl Ernst Osthaus in Hagen in 1904 . It was here that Walter Kaesbach met Christian Rohlfs in the same year and bought his first painting from him - “Straße nach Weimar” - which marked the beginning of his collecting activity. In the company of Hugo von Tschudi and Ludwig Justi, he took part in the efforts to establish modern art at the Nationalgalerie Berlin , partly against the resistance of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II . In 1912 Walter Kaesbach became friends with Heinrich Nauen and Erich Heckel, among others. Expressionism artists in general and Die Brücke in particular formed the focus of his collecting activities. At the same time, Walter Kaesbach was open to other directions in modern art and acted as their sponsor.

In 1922 Walter Kaesbach donated part of his collection of expressionist works of art to the Municipal Museum in his hometown of Mönchengladbach. The "Art Association of the Dr. Walter Kaesbach Foundation" was founded - also in 1922 - to promote exhibition opportunities for this collection. Walter Kaesbach's first foundation consisted of a total of 97 paintings, watercolors and drawings with works by Erich Heckel, Heinrich Nauen, Lyonel Feininger, Emil Nolde and Christian Rohlfs. Before the collection was able to move into suitable rooms in the Mönchengladbacher Karl-Brandts-Haus of the Städtisches Museum in 1928, the works had been exhibited in the Krefeld Kaiser Wilhelm Museum. In 1928, Walter Kaesbach's works by Heinrich Campendonk , Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Wilhelm Morgner , August Macke , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Otto Mueller, Hermann Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff were added as part of a further foundation .

Through these foundations by Walter Kaesbach, the Mönchengladbach Museum became one of the most important collections of Expressionist art in Germany during the Weimar Republic .

In the course of the “ Degenerate Art ” campaign, this collection was confiscated in 1937 with the exception of seven works and later liquidated. It was only possible to buy back this work in individual cases after the end of the Nazi regime . One of these rare cases is Erich Heckel's painting “Flandrische Ebene” from 1916, which returned to the Mönchengladbach Municipal Museum in 1979.

After the foundations of 1922 and 1928, works from the property of Walter Kaesbach were again transferred to the collection of the Mönchengladbach Municipal Museum in 1954.

Awards

family

Walter Kaesbach and Frida Passenheim (* January 23, 1887 - April 20, 1984) had a son who was also baptized Walter Kaesbach. In 1939 Walter Kaesbach jun. to Brazil, where he married Hilde Maria Rosenfeld (* August 17, 1924 - June 14, 2003).

literature

  • Anna Klapheck : Walter Kaesbach and the twenties at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Düsseldorf 1961.
  • Sabine Kimpel-Fehlemann : Walter Kaesbach Foundation. 1922-1937. The story of an expressionist collection in Mönchengladbach. City Archives, Mönchengladbach 1979.
  • Christoph Bauer & Barbara Stark (eds.): Walter Kaesbach. Mentor of modernity. Libelle, Lengwil 2008, ISBN 978-3-905707-19-9 .
  • Steffen Raßloff : Escape into the national community. The Erfurt bourgeoisie between the Empire and the Nazi dictatorship. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-412-11802-8 (with a chapter on Kaesbach and the Erfurt museum question )
  • Kaesbach, Walter , in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical manual of German-speaking art historians in exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism . Munich: Saur, 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 348-351

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The work of the painters Victor and Heinrich Duenwege and the master von Kappenberg. Münster 1907 ( online ).
  2. ↑ March 29, 1933 Leave of absence for the director of the State Art Academy Dr. Kaesbach. , Notable occurrences from October 1, 1932 to October 1, 1933 in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf, 1934
personal data
SURNAME Kaesbach, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaesbach, Walter Carl Joseph (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Mönchengladbach
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 1961
Place of death Constancy