Wilhelm Freiherr von Rechenberg

Wilhelm Freiherr von Rechenberg

Wilhelm Eduard Anton Freiherr von Rechenberg (born September 21, 1903 in Slawitz near Opole , Upper Silesia , † March 19, 1968 in Tübingen ) was a German sculptor .

Life

Sculptor Wilhelm Freiherr von Rechenberg

Wilhelm von Rechenberg was born as the first of 3 siblings in the Upper Silesian Slawitz (Polish: Sławice ), today a district of Opole (Polish: Oppole ). His father, Friedrich Anton Georg Heinrich Freiherr von Rechenberg (* August 27, 1860, † December 11, 1933) was an estate manager in Slawitz and later a teacher at the agricultural school in Königsberg in East Prussia . His mother Karoline Eleonore Freifrau von Rechenberg (* March 22, 1879, † November 25, 1945), née Rodde , comes from a Lübeck merchant family.

Wilhelm von Rechenberg first attended the humanistic grammar school, but after graduating from the lower secondary school, he did an apprenticeship with a Königsberg stonemason instead of switching to the Prussian cadet institute , and in 1924 he joined Karl Killer in the sculpture class at the municipal trade school in Munich . He took the way to Munich on foot. When Killer was appointed professor for church sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1926 , his pupil followed him into the local sculpture class. When he arrived here, the master student took advantage of the opportunity to study general at the neighboring Ludwig Maximilians University . Last but not least, the budding church artist gained his deeper understanding of the imagery of biblical narratives.

The architect German Bestelmeyer , professor at the Technical University of Munich and President of the Munich Art Academy, became aware of the young artist. He helped him to get his first public contracts in church building. Wilhelm von Rechenberg had thus made a promising start to the profession of freelance sculptor. In 1932 he married Marianne Perutz, daughter of the Munich-based Jewish doctor Felix Perutz and thus granddaughter of the chemist and photo plate manufacturer Otto Perutz . The young family settled in the Borstei district of Munich .

With the progressive enforcement of the so-called Nuremberg Race Laws of September 1935, Wilhelm von Rechenberg found himself "Jewishly misled" through his marriage to a half- Jewish woman, but soon excluded from further public commissions. Only in the event of a divorce from his wife would he have become “worthy of the assignment” again. However, he rejected this request. This also meant that he lost his support from Bestelmeyer, who had become a member of the NSDAP and in 1935 had risen to become a "Reichskultursenator". When in 1938 the opportunity arose to retreat to rural seclusion through relationships, he and his family moved, the woman was pregnant with the fourth of eight children, to Obernau near Rottenburg a. Neckar . After the end of the Nazi regime, he was no longer able to find his way back to Munich, although members of the Munich Art Academy tried to smooth the way back for him.

Years of privation followed in Obernau. Wilhelm von Rechenberg tried to keep himself afloat with small jobs. For his “half-Jewish” wife, even in rural seclusion, there was an immediate danger emanating from the Nazi regime. Wilhelm von Rechenberg was drafted into the Russian campaign . However, when the military discovered that he was “unworthy of military service ” because of his association with a half-Jewish woman, he was dishonorably discharged from the Wehrmacht and had to make his way home from the field on his own; he came back to Obernau somewhat unharmed, but traumatized. He was able to evade another position order - for the Volkssturm shortly before the end of the war.

After the end of the war in 1945 , Wilhelm von Rechenberg, who came from a Protestant line and had come close to Pietism , but breathed Catholic air in Obernau and Rottenburg, converted to the Roman Catholic faith together with the whole family. As a thank you for the happy end of the terrible years, he vowed to take over the artistic part for the chapel on the edge of the forest of the Seltenbach valley ("Rommelstal") planned by the municipality of Obernau with the same motif. However, the chapel was only built in 2010, when an initiative came back to the old municipal council resolution, long after Rechenberg's death and after the Madonna in his hand, which had been ready for the chapel, was long lost. The chapel can be found at the entrance to the idyllic valley.

In the 1950s, Wilhelm von Rechenberg reached new horizons and reached another high point in his work. Initially, he switched to ceramic small sculptures, rich in form and expressive, similar to the mature sculptures of the 1930s. In quick succession, however, a number of larger sculptural works of a new style emerged, still characterized by expressive encodings, but in a formally reduced visual language that increasingly set itself apart from his early works. The ways of the cross in Bad Buchau am Federsee and Neuhausen auf den Fildern as well as the works for the St. Eberhard Cathedral in Stuttgart and for the Rottenburg Cathedral are mentioned for this change . In the second half of the decade, however, he had to give up sculptural work due to a heart disease. Now he devoted himself to paper cutting and the further development of his drawing art. The result was a remarkable work of mature graphic nudes and portraits and astonishing silhouettes. His late work was shown at exhibitions by the Tübingen artist group "Ellipse", of which he became a member in 1958.

Wilhelm Freiherr von Rechenberg died at the age of 65 on March 19, 1968 in Tübingen .

Works (examples)

• 1931 Protestant Church of the Resurrection in Munich : baptismal font with heavy bronze dome
• 1933 old Protestant St. Matthew's Church in Munich (demolished in 1938 due to a Nazi dictate): two praying cherubs at the corners of the altar canopy - wooden sculptures (lost)
• 1934 Protestant Church of the Redeemer in Bamberg : design of the altar consoles - two angels carrying bread and wine
• 1935 Protestant church in Seeshaupt am Starnberger See: Altar triptych - wooden relief (removed from the church in 1941 due to objection, moved to the Friedenskirche Gaimersheim in 1957 )
• 1937 Protestant St. Mark's Church in Munich : St. Mark's Lion
• 1937 Tomb for the Jewish Haarburger family, Reutlingen cemetery Unter den Linden
• 1938 Protestant Stephanuskirche Munich : Altarpiece with crucifix and 4 angels holding candlesticks - wooden sculptures
• 1939/40 Evangelical Trinity Church in Düsseldorf : baptismal font and fountain stele
• 1953 Catholic Church Christ the King of Peace in Kirchentellinsfurt (profaned in 1982/83): Volto-Santo-Crucifixus in a sleeve tunic and with a royal crown above the high altar - wooden sculpture (removed from the church after 1957 and replaced by a tapestry; lost)
• 1953 Bad Buchau am Federsee: Figures of the Way of the Cross made of clay (destroyed by vandalism in 1954)
• 1953/54 Neuhausen on the Fildern, Stations of the Cross - steles
• 1954 Gut-Betha house in Rottenburg a. Neckar: ceramic altar base and altar wall design (destroyed in 1972 when it was converted or in 1983 when it was demolished)
• 1955 St. Eberhard Cathedral in Stuttgart: Relief on the pulpit - Christ the Sower (replaced by an ambo in 1990/91 when the church interior was redesigned)
• 1955/56 Cathedral of St. Martin Rottenburg a. Neckar: ceramic baptismal font and wall design (in 1977/78 the baptismal font and in 2003 the wall design were destroyed in the course of the respective redesign of the church interior)

• 

  Altar of the Stephanuskirche in Munich

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  Way of the Cross in Neuhausen auf den Fildern, Station I "Jesus is condemned to death"

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  Way of the Cross in Neuhausen auf den Fildern, XI station "Jesus is nailed to the cross"

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  Way of the Cross in Neuhausen auf den Fildern, XII.Station "Jesus dies on the cross"

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  "Christ the Sower", St. Eberhard, Stuttgart

literature

• Wolfgang Funken: Ars Publica Düsseldorf. History of works of art and cultural symbols in public space , 3 volumes. Klartext, Essen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8375-0775-1 .
• Barbara Lipps-Kant (ed.): The artists of the ellipse. An exhibition in the Stadtmuseum Tübingen and in the Ugge-Bärtle-Haus (= Tübingen catalogs, vol. 60 ). Stadtmuseum Tübingen, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-910090-45-1 .
• Church and Art , born in 1934 No. 2: The redesign of the Matthäuskirche in Munich .
• Church and Art , born in 1935 No. 2: The Church of the Redeemer in Bamberg and from the workshop of Wilhelm von Rechenberg .
• Church and Art , born 1937 No. 2: Tool of Baptism .
• German Society for Christian Art : 42nd annual portfolio (1934).