Walter from Wecus

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Walter von Wecus (born July 8, 1893 in Düsseldorf , † December 15, 1977 in Neuss ) was a German painter , graphic artist , architect , set designer and university professor . He designed the first stage arts course at a German university.

life and work

Wecus was born in Düsseldorf-Unterbilk as the offspring of a merchant family who immigrated to Düsseldorf from Franconia in the 16th century . His school career began in 1899, which was continued in 1904 by attending the Royal High School in Düsseldorf (later Görres-Gymnasium ). In 1908, the parents sent those who were more interested in music to the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts , which was shaped by its director, the architect Wilhelm Kreis , through architecturally oriented teaching content, which also gave Wecus a clearly architectonic basic education. In 1910 he interrupted his studies for an internship in a painting and decorating company as well as for study trips to Munich, Paris and Berlin. During this time he was interested in painting churches and restaurants as well as a Berlin swimming pool, in which he was involved. In 1912 he resumed training at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts.

With the outbreak of World War I , he volunteered in the summer of 1914. In Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 261 he was sent to France on the Western Front and to Russia on the Eastern Front. During the military service, which disaffected him, Wecus was commissioned to artistically document the history of his regiment. In 1919 Wecus returned from the war and tried to gain a foothold in the art scene in his hometown. He applied for membership of the artists' association Malkasten and founded - together with former classmates of the arts and crafts school - the expressionist artist group Die Form . The photographer Erwin Quedenfeldt which Wecus allowed an exhibition of his works in his studio spaces, made him acquainted with the leftist artist community of Dusseldorf, which at that time from the activists Confederation of 1919 , the group of artists Young Rhineland and anarcho-syndicalists around the Free Workers' Union of Germany was . His drawings and watercolors with “representations from the field in an idiosyncratic view” found a benevolent reception by art critics. The Düsseldorf gallery owner Alfred Flechtheim exhibited it in February / March 1920. The graphic artist Ernst Aufseeser was one of Wecus' closer circle of friends .

During this time, Louise Dumont , the director of the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf , commissioned him to develop stage designs for the new production Gyges and his Ring . The designs, characterized by expressionist and modernist architectural ideas, led to employment contracts with the theater management under Paul Henckels and Fritz Holl . From 1919 to 1921 he worked as an artistic advisory board with a focus on stage design and architecture for twelve productions. In 1920/1921 he also advised the Stadttheater Düsseldorf and the Freilichtbühne für Volkskultur zu Düsseldorf (14 productions) as well as the Landestheater Altenburg (two productions). In the following season 1921/1922 he worked for the Stadttheater Bonn under Albert Fischer . At the same time he worked as an editor for the weekly Das Kunstfenster published by Karl Röttger . He also worked as a set designer for five other venues between Krefeld and Frankfurt am Main. During this season, Wecus created a total of 27 sets for various opera and theater performances, ten of them in Bonn. The direction, ensemble and stage design of the productions allowed the Bonn theater to acquire a reputation that extends beyond national borders as one of Germany's leading theaters. Until June 10, 1932, Wecus took part in a large number of performances at the Bonn City Theater, which cemented his reputation as the leading stage designer in West Germany. The guest performances for the performance of Titus Andronicus in the 1924/1925 season in the Prinzregententheater in Munich caused a scandal . For a modern interpretation of the play, Wecus had designed a spartan, reduced set. After “the outraged Munich public stormed the stage”, the play was canceled. The stage design for the hall of the Stieldorf Passion Play, which was newly built in 1928, also fell during Wecus' time in Bonn .

In 1925, the director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy , Walter Kaesbach , commissioned Wecus to set up and run a "Stage Art Class", the first stage art class at a German university. At the age of 33, Wecus was appointed professor there in 1926. Wecus developed the following curriculum for the study of stage arts:

  • The stage space (interior design, floor design, the movements of the actors, the stage model)
  • The stage color (color theory, lighting apparatus, stage painting)
  • The actor (costume design, costume studies, the person in the stage design)
  • The dramatic poetry (content of poetry, form of poetry, stage directions by the poet)
  • The stage technology (stage equipment, use of materials, transformation system)

After the teaching staff required for this curriculum had been hired, the Düsseldorf Art Academy began teaching the stage arts class under Wecus' direction in 1928. A large number of later well-known stage designers were influenced by Wecus in this class, among them Max Fritzsche , Walter Gondolf and Helmut Jürgens . Wecus taught a modular overall stage architecture with changeable room constellations (for example by means of revolving stages ), with stepped play areas as well as dramatic lighting and shadowing. A characteristic signal element that frequently appeared in his stage sets and that he used to mark interior spaces was a centrally suspended (candlestick) lamp.

House Drususallee 48, designed
by Walter von Wecus

When National Socialism came to power, Wecus' traces were lost for a few years. In the period from 1933 to 1937 there is also no evidence of an activity on a German stage. It only became tangible again in 1936, when he designed the Drususallee 48 house for the Neuss doctor Hubert Kranz as an architect . In 1937 he sent the Great German Art Exhibition with landscapes from a trip to Dalmatia. He was represented in subsequent exhibitions of the House of German Art . In addition, he appeared again in specialist publications in 1937 - as the person responsible for the “overall artistic design” of the “light, flag and water games” at the Reich Exhibition Creative People . For this National Socialist propaganda exhibition in today's Nordpark Düsseldorf , Wecus designed up to 50 meters high, illuminated water fountains ("light fountains") on a monumental fountain axis, 30 meters high light objects flanking the main entrance ("main light carriers ", "light organs " with linear tubes ), a " Fahnenfeststraße ”with 36 illuminated flagpoles with the coats of arms of German cities and indirect lighting of the“ Henkel Pavilion ”.

When Wecus reached the age of 65 in 1958, he was honorably retired from the Düsseldorf Art Academy. By the time he retired, he had trained 408 set designers. His chair was taken over by Teo Otto , whose appointment Hans Schwippert had pursued against Wecus' interest in continuing his teaching post. On Wecus' 75th birthday, a retrospective of his life's work was exhibited in Düsseldorf. On his 100th birthday, an exhibition at the Theater Museum in Düsseldorf dealt with his work on stage design.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Civil status of the Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf. Born. The 8th Bernh. Karl Wilh. Walther, S. d. Kfm. Walther von Wecus, Florastr. In the Düsseldorfer Volksblatt. 1871-1904 (No. 187) of July 13, 1893 ( ub.uni-duesseldorf.de )
  2. ↑ Art Chronicle and Art Market , year 1919, p. 274
  3. ^ IV. And V exhibition 1920, Galerie Flechtheim , website in the portal kataloge.uni-hamburg.de , accessed on December 7, 2014
  4. ↑ Juan Gris , website in the portal alfredflechtheim.com , accessed on December 7, 2014
  5. ↑ Thomas Dietzel, Hans-Otto Hügel: German literary magazines 1880-1945 . KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10645-9 , p. 699 ( online )
  6. ↑ The history of the Church of St. Margareta Stieldorf ( Memento of the original from October 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website in the portal kirche-am-oelberg.de , accessed on December 8, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kirche-am-oelberg.de
  7. ^ Walter von Wecus: The large light fountain at the imperial exhibition "Schaffendes Volk" . In: Siemens-Zeitschrift, 8/1937, p. 401 ff.
  8. ↑ Illustration of a "light fountain"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website in the portal schaffendesvolk.sellerie.de , accessed on May 1, 2015@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / schaffendesvolk.sellerie.de  
  9. ↑ Illustration of one of the “main light carriers” ( memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website in the portal schaffendesvolk.sellerie.de , accessed on May 1, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / schaffendesvolk.sellerie.de
  10. ↑ Supplement to " Baumeister " , monthly booklet for building culture and building practice, issue 9, September 1937, p. 201 ff. ( PDF )
  11. ↑ Michael Matzigkeit: "... so that the gate of the imagination stays open ..." - Teo Otto as a teacher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy 1959–1968 . Reprint from: Antje Johanning, Dietmar Lieser (eds.), Jens Knipp (collaboration): StadtLandFluß. Urbanity and regionality in modern times . Festschrift for Gertrude Cepl-Kaufmann on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, Ahasvera Verlag, Neuss 2002, ISBN 3-927720-10-0 , p. 465 ff., Footnote 1 ( PDF )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wecus, Walter von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wecus, Bernhard Karl Wilhelm Walther von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist, set designer and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH 15th December 1977
Place of death Neuss