Wilhelm Eidam

Wilhelm Eidam (born May 23, 1908 in Gelnhausen (Hesse), † July 10, 1993 ibid) was a German painter and art teacher.

Life

Wilhelm Eidam grew up in Gelnhausen. After graduating from high school in 1927, he studied at the State Art Academy in Kassel from 1928 to 1931 and - after its closure as part of the centralization of training - at the Academy of Arts in Berlin from 1931 to 1933 , there with Max Liebermann among others . During this time Eidam went on study trips to Italy, Istria, France and Holland.

Shortly after his state examination in 1933, Eidam was banned from practicing as a student of the Jewish painter Liebermann. Until his military service, Eidam earned his living, among other things, as a copyist at the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt am Main and as a career advisor in Wetzlar . In 1939 he married Else Bödicker (born May 6, 1914). In 1941 his first son, Gerd , was born.

The following year, Eidam had to start his military service. After several injuries in the war against the Soviet Union , he was brought to the monastery of Sankt Ottilien am Ammersee. Recovered, Eidam was first deployed to the Mediterranean in the border area between France and Spain, after which his unit was to be relocated to Normandy. In the attack by British aircraft on the transport train in Brittany south of the Nantes - Angers line on July 9, 1944, Eidam lost his right arm and his right foot. The original right-handed man began to write, draw and paint with his left hand in the hospital. During his stay in the hospital and the ensuing captivity, he portrayed 89 people - doctors, nurses, nurses, pastors and overseers - and exchanged the pictures for cigarettes and food for his fellow prisoners.

When Hanau was destroyed by British bombing raids in 1945, Eidam's parents-in-law and sister-in-law Klare were killed. A large part of his own works from the pre-war and wartime periods as well as sketches that his teacher Max Liebermann had given him during his studies were burned with them.

After his return from French captivity, Eidam worked from 1947 as an art teacher at the Grimmelshausenschule (high school) in Gelnhausen. In the same year his second son, Ulrich, was born. Until his retirement, Eidam undertook study trips to Italy, Spain, North Africa, France, Holland and Belgium, among others. His paintings have been presented in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad.

Eidam died on July 10, 1993 in his parents' house in Gelnhausen.

plant

Eidam's work includes more than 1,000 paintings and watercolors.

Literature / sources

• Leonhard Tomczyk: Fine arts in the Spessart. CoCon-Verlag, Hanau 2009. ISBN 978-3-937774-66-4 .
• Gerd Eidam: Wilhelm Eidam, man and painter in Gelnhausen. Kürle-Verlag, Gelnhausen 2014. ISBN 978-3-924417-54-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of August 26, 2008, p. 50.