Wilhelm Hack

This article deals with the German art collector. For the German physician, see Wilhelm Hack (Mediziner) .

Wilhelm Hack (* 1899 in Koblenz ; † 1985 ) was a German art collector.

Hack ran an import and export company in Cologne after the First World War. After the Second World War he worked in nylon processing.

Gondorf grave find

Entrance area of ​​the Wilhelm Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen

Facade of the Wilhelm Hack Museum

Collecting

When he started his art collection he concentrated on medieval art - especially Rhenish panel paintings and also acquired the Gondorfer grave find, a Franconian grave find that he was able to acquire after the Second World War. After the Second World War, Hack turned to modernity. He collected works of abstract art, especially works of geometric abstraction. He acquired Kasimir Malewitsch's Black Rectangle and Red Square from 1915 and paintings by Piet Mondrian , Wassily Kandinsky and Robert Delaunay .

At the end of the 1960s, Wilhelm Hack decided to open his private art collection to the public. He presented them for the first time in an exhibition in 1969 and at the same time announced that he wanted to donate his property as the cornerstone of a museum. In search of a place for his collection, he came to Ludwigshafen am Rhein in 1971 , and its Lord Mayor Werner Ludwig contacted him.

Hack chose Ludwigshafen from numerous cities because the city promised him an appropriate new museum building and because he believed that he could realize his vision of a cultural spark in the industrial city . This collection was the basis for the famous Wilhelm Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen. For this museum, Hack had an entire exterior wall designed by the Catalan artist Joan Miró, who he knew personally . The museum was inaugurated in 1979. As idealistic as Wilhelm Hack's ideas were, they were initially rejected by parts of the Ludwigshafen population. The city made him honorary citizen in 1975.

Individual evidence

1. ^ City archive of the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein (ed.): History of the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Volume 2: From the end of the First World War to the present. Ludwigshafen 2003, ISBN 3-924667-35-7 , p. 982.