Wilhelm Weber (art historian)

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Wilhelm Weber (born June 20, 1918 in Limbach (Kirkel) , † December 30, 1999 in Mainz ) was a German art historian and visual artist .

Wilhelm Weber (1994)

Life

Wilhelm Weber was a great-great-grandson of the Limbacher Müller family Weber-Cron, which later became the founder of the Homburger Karlsberg Brewery , Christian Weber. Weber spent his childhood and youth in the Limbacher Mühle , which at that time was still in full operation. In 1937 he passed his Abitur and then received a scholarship from the Study Aid of the German People . However, he could not begin his studies because he was drafted into military service, where he was in military service from 1939 to 1943. After a serious illness ( tropical disease ) he was released from military service and started studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden . There he survived the bombing of the city on February 13, 1945 .

After the end of the war Weber resumed his studies in art history, from 1947 in Paris ( Académie des Beaux-Arts ) and from 1949 in Rome . He returned from abroad in 1950 and continued his studies in the subjects of art history , classical archeology and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg . In 1953 Weber moved to Saarland University in Saarbrücken . In 1960 he was appointed curator of the Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern , then in 1965 its director. In 1978 he took over the management of the Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum in Mainz , which he held until his retirement in 1983.

In addition to his full-time work as a director, Weber was appointed honorary professor at the University of Kaiserslautern in 1978 , and in this capacity received a teaching position for art history. Some time later he received a teaching position for museum studies from the University of Mainz . Weber made a name for himself in numerous cases as an appraiser in questions of authenticity checking of works of art. He also worked as a freelancer for numerous regional and national newspapers and specialist magazines, including Die Zeit and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung .

Wilhelm Weber was married to Ursula Weber (nee Karius). The marriage had three children: Eva-Maria, Andreas and Christine. Wilhelm Weber lived in Limbach for a short time after the war, then with the family in Homburg and later in Kaiserslautern and Mainz. He was buried in the main cemetery in Mainz; a stone slab at the Weber family grave in Limbach reminds of him.

Scientific and museum activity

Over the years, Weber created an extensive network of contacts and connections in the national and international art world. As director of the Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern, he expanded its own holdings to include a considerable pool of masterpieces from German and French Classical Modernism and made the museum known outside the region with high-ranking exhibitions. Weber had a personal friendship with numerous artists, including Otto Dix and Hans Purrmann . He also maintained close connections with the collector couple Peter and Irene Ludwig as well as with Picasso's confidante Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler .

After moving to the Landesmuseum Mainz , he considerably expanded its range. He set up new departments and expanded them into prestigious presentation sites: Department for Roman Art, Department for Judica, Department for Medieval and Modern Times. By acquiring new important paintings, including those by Chagall and Picasso, he consolidated the museum's reputation. Weber paid particular attention to the life and work of the Saar-Palatinate artist Albert Weisgerber (1878–1915) from St. Ingbert . He brokered purchases of important Weisgerber paintings for the St. Ingbert Museum and contributed significantly to the positioning of the artist in art history through the publication of numerous academic writings.

Weber placed another focus of his work on the genre of lithography . He became aware of this topic in the context of his preoccupation with the Hambach Festival and its protagonist Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer , who was Land Commissar (predecessor of the official title District Administrator ) in Homburg ( Saarpfalz district ) for several years . Siebenpfeiffer was later one of the leading freedom fighters and for a time editor of the liberal newspapers Der Westbote and Rheinbayern . Weber published a history of lithography that has meanwhile become a standard work , which has also been translated into English and French.

Voluntary work

Carlsberg Palace: site plan

In the 1950s, Wilhelm Weber devoted himself to the promotion of culture, in particular to regional historical research in the Saar-Palatinate district town of Homburg . Until 1960 he was head of the local traffic association, head of the local museum and also chairman of the historical association. During this time Weber made a name for himself in the professional world by curating exhibitions by well-known artists, including an early Slevogt exhibition . In a special way he devoted himself to researching the Karlsberg Palace , which Duke Karl II August von Pfalz-Zweibrücken had built on the Buchenberg (today Karlsberg) near Homburg from 1778 to 1788. In 1993 he was awarded the Homburg Citizens' Medal (the highest award in the city of Homburg) for his commitment .

Another focus of his voluntary work was the research of Limbacher Theobald Hock , whose work not only as a writer, but also as a mediator between Protestants in the run-up to the Thirty Years' War Weber documented. From 1983 to 1999 Weber was the 1st chairman of the Palatinate Secession and chairman of the Association of Palatinate Friends of Art .

Artistic activity

Wilhelm Weber was a talented draftsman and painter. Even when he was still at school, he was making portraits of his classmates and sketching workers on the way to school on the train who were driving home from the night shift. In addition to portraits, his preferred subjects were historical and artistically designed buildings. In later years Weber also made copies of well-known paintings by high-ranking painters.

Works (selection)

  • Albert Weisgerber. Drawings. Edited by the Saarland Homeland and Culture Association for the 80th birthday of the painter, Verlag Die Mitte, Saarbrücken 1958, DNB 455434212 . (Series of publications by the Saarland Homeland and Culture Association; 2).
  • Saxa loquuntur - stones talk. History of lithography . Verlag Heinz Moos, Heidelberg 1961, DNB 455397376 .
  • Rabanus Maurus in his time. 780-1980. Exhibition catalog, publisher: Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum Mainz, overall editing: Wilhelm Weber, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1980, ISBN 3-8053-0478-1 .
  • From the Jewish Museum to the Judaica collection in the Middle Rhine State Museum in Mainz. In: Monumenta Judaica. Mainz 1983, pp. 3-25.
  • Karlsberg Palace - legend and reality. The Wittelsbach castle buildings in the Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken . Ermer, Homburg-Saarpfalz 1987, ISBN 3-924653-02-X .

literature

  • Gabi Weber: From desolate gray to colorful light. The complete artistic work of Wilhelm Weber. In: Palatine Merkur. June 20, 2001
  • Ursula Giessler: Wilhelm Weber, a restless art man . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. January 4, 2000
  • Sigrid Feeser: Museum man as a total work of art. For the 80th birthday of Wilhelm Weber. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. June 19, 1998

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see works: Schloss Karlsberg - legend and reality
  2. ↑ An art expert with ties to his homeland In: Saarbrücker Zeitung . August 5, 2011, accessed November 19, 201.
  3. ^ Homepage of the Palatinate Secession
  4. ↑ Gerd Imbsweiler: An art expert with ties to home. ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Saarbrücker Zeitung. (Edition Homburg), 6./7. August 2011, p. C5, accessed June 10, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Weber, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Limbach (Kirkel)
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1999
Place of death Mainz