Willi H. Lippert

Willi Horsa Lippert (also Willi H. Lippert ; born November 12, 1898 in Rathenow ; † November 13, 1981 in Brunsbüttel ) was a German sculptor , graphic artist , painter , numismatist and heraldist .

Live and act

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Born in Rathenow as the son of the metal lathe operator Otto Lippert and Helene Lippert, b. Hannemann, he spent his childhood in Rathenow, started school at Easter 1905 and later attended the grammar school on Schulplatz. He joined the Wandervogel movement at an early age, was active and won a large circle of friends who called him Horsa. Since he liked the name, he later signed almost all of his works with “WHLippert” , the “H” standing exclusively for Horsa and not, as erroneously reported, for Horst. But there is also the signature "WHLipphart" , which can be clearly assigned to him.

Having just turned 16, he followed the patriotic calls of his time during the First World War and, after passing the secondary school leaving certificate and almost ten years of schooling, joined the Imperial Army on January 1, 1915. He received a radio operator training here with the Navy .

After the end of the war he returned to Rathenow with the desire to take up a degree in fine arts . The first pen drawings from this period have been preserved, which also testify to his pronounced love for nature. A folder of pen drawings from the Märkische Waldrand and one about old town motifs by Rathenow did not appear in print until 1924. As early as 1920 he took part in a joint exhibition in the grammar school on the Schulplatz alongside other artists, such as the well-known painter Georg Penning.

His intended study, which he wanted to begin in 1919 at the Hochschule für Kunst in Berlin - he had registered there for the summer semester - he could not begin at that time. There is also a report of a stay with Count Schaffgotsch in Silesia in 1920 , for whom Lippert is said to have worked out designs for equipment for a hunting lodge in Schreiberhau .

Drafts for the Rathenow emergency notes of the optics and hussar series, which were printed after the war because of the lack of change, were made at this time. The drafts were made by WHLippert in A4 size . In the years up to the end of 1922, drafts of emergency money followed for ten other cities in the Mark, Silesia and Pomerania with 17 series that have become known so far. Some of these bills were provided with bags or collecting bags and hardly ever got into circulation. In contrast, the numerous artistically designed inflation banknotes he designed became real means of payment for Rathenow and Silesian cities.

In 1922 he met his future wife, Alma Hertha Martha Lauer; With her and with the friends of the wandering bird, he moved through the local landscape.

In 1922 he created a whole series of portraits of optical professions in tempera painting , of which, however, only six of a total of 16 images have so far been proven. These are exclusively signed with Lipphart. In 1924 he was able to complete his own studio on his parents' property, which enabled him to carry out larger works and especially sculptures. In addition to studies with Arthur Kampf (history, allegory, landscape and portrait painting) and Hugo Lederer (sculpture) in Berlin, numerous sculptures such as busts, a sandstone fountain figure for the backyard building of the AOK, W .-Külz-Straße 7, grave monuments and also a girl figure, for which his girlfriend Alma Lauer was the model, as well as large-format pictures. Hiking enthusiasts were also models for his figurative work. The bronze statue of a girl, which he called the “Great Standing Woman”, was bought by the city of Rathenow in 1928 and was displayed in front of the Rathenow hospital on June 12, 1929, after being shown in an exhibition by the “Rathenow Artists”, which Lippert next well-known Rathenow artists, such as Georg Penning, Emil Heinsdorff and others since 1926, had caused a sensation.

In the sculptural works from the mid-twenties onwards he found support from the later sculptor Karl Mertens , who referred to him as his friend and teacher.

An oil painting painted in the Impressionist style, which shows his girlfriend "Bärle" in the door to the studio with a fruit bowl, caused a sensation and recognition as a distinguished painter who tried his hand at many styles at the Berlin art exhibition in 1928. Numerous portraits of friends or personalities from Rathenow were created between 1928 and 1934.

In the art exhibition of March 26, 1930, Lippert received a great deal of attention and admiration with his grave memorial, portraits and Märkische landscapes. "The play of light and colors in its hilly landscape is a poetry of the deepest inwardness," is reported. 1930/31 was created with the spinner, whom he commissioned the Schlesische Textilwerke Maethner u. Frahne in Landshut designed. The larger than life figure group of "men of three generations" was given by the housing cooperative building association Rathenower eGmbH in 1930 in order, but in 1933 just before the casting of young Nazis destroyed.

On December 24, 1932, Willy “Horsa” Lippert married his girlfriend “Bärle”.

In the years of the worst economic crisis, emergency ordinances and mass unemployment as well as the rise of National Socialism, Lippert and some of his friends found access to anti-nationalist circles and became socially active. After the National Socialists came to power , Lippert was arrested in the second wave of arrests according to the posting list of the local police on June 27, 1933, along with other Rathenow citizens close to him, and sent to the concentration camp in Oranienburg . In the concentration camp he was forced to draft the camp money . This was one of the most conspicuous and also most characteristic of all banknotes used in German concentration camps and ghettos . Obviously, he only needed a few days to prepare the drafts, as he was released from prison after his wife intervened in mid-July for alleged confusion and returned to Rathenow. The storage fee, however, was introduced in the same month.

In 1933 further portraits as well as pictures of buildings and landscapes were made in various techniques and styles. After admission to the Reich Chamber of Culture in 1936, he received many orders for the design of military-historical wall paintings in Rathenow barracks and for the Arado aircraft factory in Heidefeld. A sandstone figure “Man with a Pickelhaube ” created by him , which was set up in front of a barracks, became known. The later painted over wall design within the Rathenower Nordbahnhof over the course of the Brandenburg city railway as well as the stagecoach still known to the old Rathenowers over the door to the restaurant comes from him. Only the sgraffito station inscription on the east side of the building remained. The murals in the barracks were usually only after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1994 with the modification gutting destroyed the building.

When he was drafted into the Navy on February 25, 1940, his artistic activity in Rathenow ended. His wife, who survived the heavy fighting with her son in Rathenow shortly before the end of the war, decided in 1946 to join her husband in the then British occupation zone in Brunsbüttel and to give up her house. The city of Brunsbüttel became the family's second home.

After the war, Lippert designed, among other things, the casino rooms for the British occupying forces and entertained them with guitar playing and singing. For six years he worked without a permanent job at the Buje Middle School and elementary schools as a drawing teacher on a fee basis, became a co-founder of the Brunsbüttelkoog Adult Education Center and its busiest lecturer. However, he continued to work as a freelance artist and was soon considered a chronicler of his region. He created numerous book illustrations for “Das Schöne Brunsbüttel” and “Bauern, Handwerker und Seefahrer”, among others. Landscape pictures and pictures of people's struggle with nature are also created here.

With a large mural in the town hall of Brunsbüttel about the difficult canal construction, its builders received a lasting appreciation. Lippert was also known as a heraldist: he designed the officially recognized coat of arms and seal of the city, which led to great demand. He created a total of around 240 coats of arms for other cities and families. There was no continuation of his sculptural work in Brunsbüttel. His longstanding interest was also in oriental hieroglyphs and myths .

In 1956 he visited Rathenow and his former studio again at the invitation of Karl Mertens . Increasing blindness made artistic work more difficult and later hindered it to such an extent that he had to rely on his wife's help to carry it out. Finally he had to stop the work entirely.

Willy Lippert died on November 13, 1981, one day after his 83rd birthday.

Appreciation

Eleven years later, on November 22, 1992, the Brunsbüttel local history museum carried out a retrospective of his life and work on the initiative of the director at the time. A special appreciation of the artistic and life achievements was made by the gallery owner Jens Rusch, who complained about the lack of recognition and promotion of the artist by the city of Brunsbüttel.

Web links

Commons : Wappen von Willy Lippert  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Article about Willi Lippert on dithmarschen-wiki.de
• Article about Willi Lippert on the website of the city of Brunsbüttel
• Appreciation of the artist Willi H. Lippert on the website of the city of Rathenow

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lippert, Willi Horst - Dithmarschen-Wiki. Retrieved July 2, 2019 .