Walter Romberg (painter)

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Walter Romberg (born July 16, 1898 in Ulm , † August 28, 1973 in Stuttgart ) was a German painter and etcher . He is known as the "Swabian Merian" because of his lifelike reproduction of the landscape and city images in his etchings.

Portrait bust by Walter Romberg
Stele on the grave of Walter Romberg in the forest cemetery Stuttgart

Life

After his youth in Bad Mergentheim , he studied from October 25, 1916 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Angelo Jank . After his time as a soldier in World War I , Walter Romberg initially returned to Jank; his inclination for etchings was already there back then. After the end of the First World War, Walter Romberg settled as a freelance artist in Stuttgart at the age of 23 , a brave decision at the time.

Working together with Felix Hollenberg in the Association of Württemberg Artists in Stuttgart not only resulted in a close personal relationship between the two men. It was Hollenberg who introduced him to the secrets of the art that made him famous: etching . His motifs were mainly landscapes, cities and communities as well as folk types from the rural environment. He produced detailed representations of many Württemberg places before they were destroyed in the war or lost their original face in the following years due to construction activities. Although Walter Romberg was primarily an eraser who drew the motifs on site and then transferred them backwards onto a metal plate, there are also a number of oil paintings and watercolors by him . His complete works were shown in large exhibitions at short intervals. In 1927 Romberg exhibited at the anniversary exhibition of the Württemberg Art Association .

The Swabian painter and etcher Paul Dörr ( Horb ) also had an influence on Walter Romberg's artistic development . To what extent and whether the documented acquaintance with Fritz Nuss (Strümpfelbach) influenced his work is not known. One of his pupils was Fritz Kohlstädt (1921–2000).

In 1944, Walter Romberg was totally bombed out in Stuttgart and together with his wife Else (née Ulmer) received an emergency apartment in Waldenbuch Castle , which he lived in until 1951. In the Waldenbuch years he created numerous drawings and etchings with motifs from Waldenbuch and its surroundings with motifs from the Waldenbuch old town, the Siebenmühlental (Schönbuch) and the Schönbuch , which fascinated him. At the time, Romberg used these works to partially pay for his purchases from local merchants.

Arnulf Klett , then Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, brought Romberg back to the state capital in 1951. Walter Romberg worked on the board of the Stuttgart Artists' Union until 1958 .

Romberg's recognition as a "Swabian Merian" began in the 1960s. Major exhibitions took place in Böblingen in 1966, in Stuttgart in 1968 and in Sindelfingen in 1973. In 1967 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon .

Walter Romberg lived in Stuttgart-Sonnenberg until his death a few weeks after his 75th birthday and was buried in the forest cemetery in Stuttgart .

Honors

  • 1967 Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon
  • 2013 Stele in Waldenbuch, corner of Bahnhofstrasse and Hintere Seestrasse

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A stele for the Swabian Merian . Stadtnachrichten Waldenburg, No. 34, 23 August 2013, p. 8 (.pdf), alt-waldenbuch.de, accessed on 17 November 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Romberg, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and etcher
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1973
Place of death Stuttgart