Werner Müller (wood sculptor)

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Werner Müller (* May 24, 1923 in Stecklenberg ; † December 2, 2006 ibid) was a German wood sculptor and draftsman in addition to his job as a precision mechanic and designer .

Life

From 1929 to 1937 Werner Müller attended elementary school in Stecklenberg. Already during this time his artistic talents became apparent. He learned to play the cello at an early age , not least to take part in the family's weekly house music. At the age of eleven he began to build his own violin in his grandfather's orphaned workshop with a workbench and some tools.

After completing primary school, he completed an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic in Quedlinburg . Only active for a short time, he was drafted into military service in 1941 at the age of eighteen. He initially served as an aircraft mechanic for a fighter squadron in North Africa. Finally he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in Czechoslovakia in 1945 .

Returning to Stecklenberg from captivity in 1946, he founded a small sawmill which he operated until 1956 and for which he built a horizontal and a vertical creel himself. From 1956 to 1978 he worked for various companies as a designer for equipment . Subsequently, until he retired in 1988, he made cases for mechanical clocks for the VEB Harzer Uhren in Gernrode, hand-decorated by wood carving .

Over the years Werner Müller pursued his hobbies, wood carving and drawing, in addition to his professional activity. He was not allowed to exhibit his work during the GDR period , as he could not become a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR without an artistic technical or university degree and other paths were blocked even without membership of the SED . He cared for his wife, who had suffered a stroke in 1988, until her death in 1996.

In 1997 he received well-deserved recognition for his artistic work by being awarded the Federal Cross of Merit "for sculptural works of high artistic content". He donated his works to the Werner Müller Foundation Ballenstedt, some of which can be viewed in a permanent exhibition at Ballenstedt Castle .

plant

Werner Müller's artistic work mainly includes sculptures made of wood and colored pencil drawings. The metal works include a functioning miniature lathe (22 cm long) and a comrade's head made of 2 mm aluminum sheet metal.

Müller built two playable violins, only instructed by a booklet on violin making from the 19th century. The other woodworks range from small sculptural groups from rural life to carved relief representations, such as The attack or rolling mill based on the painting The Iron Rolling Mill by Adolph von Menzel, to larger groups of people such as grandfather with grandchildren . The highlight of his work is the group Hausmusik , four large oak sculptures depicting the Müller family making music, Werner Müller himself on the cello.

While his early drawings showed landscapes, animals and the like, in his old age he made a large cycle of pictures of his life as a drawn autobiography.

literature

  • Werner Müller Foundation (ed.): Art and Technology - The Werner Müller Foundation Ballenstedt . Flyer (digitized version)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Stecklenberger received the Federal Order of Merit. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, December 22, 1997. Retrieved October 8, 2018 .
  2. August Riechers : The violin and its construction . Franz Wunder, Göttingen 1893