Walter Spies

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Spies, 1930s
Walter Spies: Iseh in the morning light

Walter Spies (born September 15, 1895 in Moscow , † January 19, 1942 west of Nias in the Indian Ocean ) was a German musician and painter who became known through his life and work in Bali .

Life

Spies came from a respected German merchant family who had lived in Russia for generations. His brother Leo Spies was a composer and conductor , his sister Daisy Spies was a dancer. After the First World War , Spies lived in Germany, where he was first friends with Hans Jürgen von der Wense and later with Friedrich Murnau .

In 1923 Spies left Europe and moved to Java , where the Sultan of Yogyakarta brought him to his court as a pianist and conductor . In 1927 he moved to the island of Bali and began to study the Balinese culture. Supported by Prince Cocorde Gede Agung Sukawati, he reformed Balinese painting and founded gamelan music ensembles . In the 1930s his house became the cultural center of Bali. Artists, musicians, writers, explorers and actors (including Victor von Plessen and  Charlie Chaplin ) from all over the world were his guests. From 1937, however, he increasingly withdrew because, on the one hand, he no longer wanted to play the tourist guide and, on the other hand, was increasingly hostile to being a homosexual . On New Year's Eve 1938 he was briefly taken into custody for immoral behavior and subsequently expelled from the Pita Maha Association .

After German troops marched into Holland , Spies was interned in Bali , which was under Dutch rule, and then brought to Java and Sumatra . Shortly before the Japanese invasion in January 1942 , he and other German internees were to be brought from Sumatra to Ceylon on the Van Imhoff cargo ship . Spies died on January 19, 1942 together with 411 interned Germans off Nias during or after the sinking of the Van Imhoff , after it was hit by a Japanese bomb. The Dutch crew had taken almost all the lifeboats for themselves and made the remaining ones unusable, so that the German internees perished with the ship or drowned after the sinking.

The shooting of a planned film about Spies' influence on Balinese art is the background of the TV adaptation Bali , which István Szabó shot for ZDF in 1984 .

literature

  • Michael Schindhelm : Walter Spies: An Exotic Life . Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-7774-3023-2 .
  • Walter Spies . In: Birgit Dalbajewa (ed.): New Objectivity in Dresden . Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-942422-57-4 , p. 302-303 .
  • Puri Lukisan Museum . Ratna Wartha Foundation, Ubud, 1999.
  • Hans Rhodius (Hrsg.): Beauty and wealth of life. Walter Spies - painter and musician in Bali. The Hague, n.d. (1964).
  • Hans Rhodius / John Darling: Walter Spies and Balinese Art, Zutphen 1980.
  • Elke Voss: Walter Spies: A life for Balinese art . in: Ingrid Wessel : Indonesia at the end of the 20th century . Abera-Verlag, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-931567-07-9 .
  • Bernd Wagner : I will never get along with European people. Walter Spies' adventurous life between Bashkiria and Bali . Radio feature, produced by SWR 2010.

Web links

Commons : Walter Spies  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Single receipts

  1. ↑ www.walterspies.com/walter_spies_biography.html
  2. ↑ Calendar sheet : Artists in Paradise , Germany radio culture
  3. ↑ Herwig Zahorka: The history of the German military cemetery Arca Domas in Indonesia
  4. ↑ Jochen Buchsteiner: Death before Sumatra , in: FAZ No. 294, December 17, 2011, page 3
  5. ↑ War Crimes: The Death Ship . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1965 ( online ).
  6. ↑ "The Search for Spies". TV review in Schwäbische Zeitung of May 10, 1984, p. 14
personal data
SURNAME Spies, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and musician
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1942
Place of death Indian Ocean