Wilhelm Achtermann

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Wilhelm Achtermann, self-portrait around 1880
Wilhelm Achtermann
Wilhelm Achtermann, Descent from the Cross in Münster Cathedral, destroyed in World War II

Wilhelm Theodor Achtermann (born August 15, 1799 in Münster ; † May 26, 1884 in Rome , ± Campo Santo Teutonico ) was a German sculptor and honorary citizen of the city of Münster . He is considered one of the main representatives of the Nazarenes among the sculptors.

life and work

The son of a master carpenter worked as a servant on his aunt's farm until he was 28 years old. At the same time he practiced wood carving. His work was admired for its delicacy and led the Westphalian President Ludwig von Vincke to find him a scholarship at the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

At Ernst Rietschel's request , he was accepted into Christian Daniel Rauch's studio. He later worked as a student at the academy under Christian Friedrich Tieck and Johann Gottfried Schadow . In 1837 he renewed the relief scenes by Georg Franz Ebenhech on the portico of St. Hedwig's Cathedral and created a model for the gable relief depicting the Adoration of the Magi , which, however, was only executed in neo-baroque forms by Nikolaus Geiger in 1897 . Achtermann finally obtained the means to travel to Italy by selling small pieces of work . At the age of 41 he settled with the German Romans in Rome for the rest of his life around 1839 .

In Rome in 1849 he made a Pietà , which was in the St. Paulus Cathedral in Münster and is common in smaller replicas by other sculptors, of which he also made copies himself. It was largely destroyed in the Second World War, as was his most extensive work, a Descent from the Cross made of Carrara marble consisting of five larger-than-life figures , which was erected in Münster Cathedral in 1858. Fragments of both works, mainly the heads, are now on display on the upper floor of the cathedral chamber . A replica of the Pietà is in the north tower chapel of the cathedral. The last copy of the Pietà made in marble by himself in 1875 is in a specially built Marienkapelle in Lenhausen (municipality of Finnentrop , Sauerland ). The Erling memorial chapel for the fallen of the First World War, which was added to the St. John's Church in Bremen's old town in 1919 , also contained a Pietà by Achtermann. It is not known where it remained after the chapel was demolished in the 1960s.

On September 29, 1842, Wilhelm Achtermann joined the Roman-German Campo Santo brotherhood . At times he worked there as a board member. In 1857 he donated a bronze cross for the center of their cemetery and a copy of his plaster Pietà. It was decorated by the painter August Wilhelm Julius Ahlborn for the Mother of God Altar in the Campo Santo Church, but was on the high altar from 1884 until it was removed in the 1970s. Achtermann refused to create a marble variant because of its advanced age. In 1879 he sold a resurrection relief to the Arch Brotherhood of Campo Santo at a considerable discount, which was placed in the Swiss chapel of the church. In addition, in 1859 he created the gravestone for Michael Knegten , former tutor of statesman Franz von Thun and Hohenstein, in the German Vatican cemetery .

His last major work was a Gothic altar with three reliefs from the life of Christ for the Prague Cathedral (erected in 1873).

Wilhelm Achtermann died on May 26, 1884 and was buried on May 28, 1884 in the Campo Santo Teutonico in Rome. He had designed the inscription on the tombstone himself.

The Westphalian writer Ferdinande von Brackel immortalized Wilhelm Achtermann's life in 1887 in the novella “The Spinning Teacher from Carrara” .

literature

further reading

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  • Johann Hertkens: Wilhelm Achtermann, Westphalian artist life . Trier, Paulinus-Dr., 1895.
  • Dagmar Kaiser-Strohmann: Theodor Wilhelm Achtermann (1799–1884) and Carl Johann Steinhäuser (1813–1879), a contribution to problems of the Nazarene in 19th century German sculpture . Frankfurt a. M., Peter Lang, 1985. ISBN 3-8204-8184-2 .
  • Innocence. M. Strunk: Wilhelm Achtermann, a Westphalian artist's life . Vechta iO, Albertus-Magnus-Verl., 1931.
  • Harald Tesan: Thorvaldsen and his sculpture school in Rome . Böhlau, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-412-14197-6 .
  • Erika Wicher: Wilhelm Achtermann, 1799–1884: a Nazarene sculptor from Westphalia . Münster, Regensberg, 1993. ISBN 3-7923-0649-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ after Weiland; Müller speaks of 30 years of age
  2. ^ Greitemann, Alfons: Lenhausen. My home village past and present. Lenhausen 1968 p. 100 ff.
  3. ^ Friedrich Noack : The Germanness in Rome since the end of the Middle Ages . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1927, Volume 2, p. 54
  4. ↑ On the Achtermann relief in the Swiss Chapel of Campo Santo
  5. ↑ Weiland, p. 441 f.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Achtermann, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Achtermann, Theodor Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1799
PLACE OF BIRTH Muenster
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1884
Place of death Rome