Willi Hahn (sculptor, 1920)

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Willi Hahn (born February 7, 1920 in Saarbrücken ; † September 18, 1995 in Trier ) was a German sculptor .

life and work

Origin and education

Willi Hahn was born on February 7, 1920 in Saarbrücken as the oldest of five children. His father Wilhelm came from Simmern and was a railroad worker, his mother Maria (née Müller) had moved from Frankfurt am Main to Saarbrücken. Her great-grandmother came from a paper mill in the Dhrontal . Hahn first attended elementary school in Saarbrücken and at the age of ten came to be educated by the Salesians in the Sauerland . Here Hahn's artistic talent was noticed in art class. The teachers then advised that Willi Hahn should be trained as a craftsman. Hahn began an apprenticeship as a painter in Saarbrücken at the age of 14. When Hahn's father Wilhelm was transferred to Konz in 1936, the son had to break off his apprenticeship. In addition, Hahn suffered severe lead poisoning. Hahn's parents then sent their son to the master school for German craftsmanship in Trier, where he passed the entrance exam. The painter and art teacher Martin Mendgen became Hahn's role model and his sponsor. Mendgen made Hahn familiar with the works of Ernst Barlach during his training . Hahn's special interest was soon in plastic art, which his teacher Paul Siegert imparted to him. During his apprenticeship Hahn was involved in the restoration work on the Trier Simeonstift , where he, under the guidance of the Trier city architect HH ​​Müller, reworked parts of rosettes and keystones. Hahn also worked on the excavation work for the Treverer cellar.

Second World War

After Willi Hahn had finished his art education with distinction, he was immediately drafted into military service and posted to Paris after completing his basic training. Here in Paris he made charcoal drawings in his spare time and sold them at a small stall on the Seine. With the beginning of the Russian campaign, Hahn was assigned to a military unit that fought its way to Smolensk via Poland and the Baltic States. Here, too, Hahn drew landscapes and people from the conquered areas. Hahn's younger brother was killed in fighting during the Russian campaign. Hahn himself suffered a serious gunshot wound on May 2, 1942, which resulted in a hospital stay of several months. He was transferred from Vitebsk to Vienna and finally came to Luxembourg in a convalescent company. Here Willi Hahn met his future wife in the summer of 1942.

In early 1943 he was assigned to the Trier Guard Battalion, which was transferred to Paris via Bordeaux and Tours. As during his first stay in Paris, Hahn was fascinated by the sculptural work of the medieval architecture of the Seine metropolis. In the middle of 1944 Hahn came to the military administration in Metz. After Hahn was assigned to a new company in April 1945, which had to surrender in Großgerau, he was taken prisoner by the French. He was transported via Strasbourg to Marseille, where he spent a long time in an open air camp. After Hahn's artistic ability became known there, he came to an artist camp, where he painted portraits of American and French guards and also created plastic works. On May 2, 1946, Willi Hahn was released to Offenbach am Main. After a three-day stay in a French reception center in Bretzenheim, he met his parents again in the Drohntal, who had found shelter here with relatives since they had been bombed in Konz in the last year of the war in 1945.

After the war

Brunenstele concert doctor

At first Hahn worked as a farmhand on a farm. In Drohn, Willi Hahn came into contact with the architect Heinrich Otto Vogel , who asked him to help rebuild the St. Gangolf Church in Trier . Hahn then worked on the reconstruction of the cloister of the Trier Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias , where he had his own studio and lived with his family of three. Hahn developed the themes of the sculptures together with the Benedictine Father Maurus Münch, who influenced him theologically and artistically. Hahn also made friends with the architects Peter van Stipelen and Alfons Leitl and the director of the Trier diocesan museum Theodor Konrad Kempf .

The sculpting work at the Matthias Monastery in Trier opened up further orders for Hahn to restore and equip new churches and community centers. In 1952 Hahn and his family moved to the Grünerberg in Trier , while the work on the cloister of St. Matthias dragged on until 1954. At the same time, small sculptures were created that Hahn showed at art exhibitions in Trier and Düsseldorf.

Parallel to the work in the cloister in Trier, Hahn made four tympanum reliefs for the Marienkirche in Neunkirchen (Saar) , as well as church portals in Monschau, the Marian column in Illingen, the altars in Hellenthal. Hahn was supported in his work by the sculptors Theo Kronewirth and Johann Plützer.

In 1962 Hahn restored the collegiate church in Pfalzel. For this purpose he made choir cheeks, confessionals and the font. On the baptismal font Hahn presented for the first time the motif of a fight between a little devil and a little angel, which he often used later.

The locust fountain in Trier

Hahn developed the parish church of Oberemmel together with the architect Peter van Stipelen and the painter Werner Persy .

His sons Peter and Joachim and Thomas Föhr have been supporting the artist since 1974. In the same year Willi Hahn received the order for the Trier Bishop Franz Rudolf Bornewasser to design and to have water poured. The casting was done by the art foundry Plein from Speicher, with whom Hahn also manufactured the two portals of the Wallerfanger Katharinenkirche and the portals of the Trier cathedral .

In the 1970s Hahn created numerous popular works of art in public space as part of town and village renovations, such as the Trier Heuschreckbrunnen at the entrance or exit of Fleischstrasse / in the direction of Karl-Marx-Haus in 1977, the Christophorus figure for the bridge in Schweich or the Konzer -Doktor-Brunnen (1983). Occasionally Hahn portrayed himself in his sculptural work, for example as a refuge with the Neunkircher Schutzmantelmadonna or at the base of the Trier Locust Fountain, with which the Trier city originals Fischer Maathes, Koorscht un Kneisjen, Krons Ton and Wichshänschen were erected.

Diocesan architect Alois Peitz in particular obtained church commissions for the artist in his last years. On the occasion of his 75th birthday, an exhibition was held in the Abei St. Matthias in 1995. In the same year Willi Hahn died on September 18 after a serious illness in Trier.

Works in public space (selection)

Wallerfangen, Katharinenportal
Wallerfangen, Peter and Paul Portal
  • Altenwald-Sulzbach, parish church Herz Jesu, figure St. Barbara, wood, 1977
  • Bad Dürkheim, Evangelical Castle Church, building sculpture, 1981
  • Bärenbach, altar wall, Beuren, St. Wendelinus fountain, 1977
  • Beurig, St. Marien parish church, altar, sandstone, 1972, baptismal font, 1972
  • Bitburg, Liebfrauen parish church, Ambo, bronze, 1961
  • Bonn, Evangelical St. Luke Church, relief outer wall St. Luke, tuff, 1958
  • Buchholz, parish church St. Sebastian, sacrament stele, sandstone, 1975, figure St. Sebastian, sandstone, 1975
  • Hermeskeil, Evang. Parish church, altar plate, wood, crucifix, wood, 1959
  • Darscheid, Parish Church Raising the Cross, altar, limestone, 1970, sacrament house, limestone, 1970, figure of St. Cornelius
  • Eimersdorf, parish church St. Margarita, altar, 1980, ambo, 1980
  • Faid, parish church St. Stephan, altar, sandstone, 1973, building sculpture, 1973
  • Flussbach, branch church, altar, sandstone, 1972, sacrament stele, sandstone, 1972
  • Föhren, Meulenwaldbrunnen, Sandstein, 1980, Greimerath, Brunnen, Sandstein, 1983
  • Grünberg, Parish Church of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, sacramental stele, sandstone, 1980, altar, sandstone, 1980, baptismal font, sandstone, 1980, Way of the Cross, sandstone, 1980
  • Hellenthal, parish church St. Anna, altar, sandstone, 1954, Way of the Cross, sandstone, 1954, figure Anna-Selbdritt, sandstone, 1954
  • Hermeskeil, Evangel. Parish church, altar plate, wood, 1959, crucifix, wood, 1959
  • Hinzert-Pölert village fountain, sandstone 1991
  • Hedgehog, fountain, sandstone, 1974
  • Igel-Liersberg, Brunnen, Sandstone, 1983
  • Illingen, Mariensäule, sandstone, 1954
  • Kerpen, Filialkirche, building sculpture 1974
  • Klüsserath, "Rudemsmännchen" fountain, sandstone 1985
  • Koblenz, parish church Herz Jesu, sacrament stele, limestone 1978
  • Konz, "Doktorbrunnen", sandstone 1983
  • Konz-Kommlingen "wedding fountain" or "Donatus fountain", sandstone 1988
  • Leisel-Heiligenbösch, Evang. Parish church, tombstones, building sculpture, pelican fountain 1963, baptismal font 1964
  • Lippstadt, Evang, St. Marien parish church, door, bronze 1982
  • Longuich-Kirsch, fountain, sandstone 1978,
  • Luxemburg-Limpertsberg, parish church St. Joseph, altar, sacrament stele, ambo made of limestone; Bronze baptismal font and candlestick 1976
  • Mersch: Deanery church, altar, sacrament stele and ambo made of limestone, 1979
  • Neunkirchen (Saar), Parish Church of St. Marien, Four Tympana made of sandstone 1954
  • Oberemmel, parish church St. Pius, sacrament stele, altar, baptism and foundation stone made of limestone, 1967
  • Oppenheim, Evangelical Parish Church of St. Katharina, building sculpture 1958
  • Reinsfeld, Parish Church of St. Remigius, wooden nativity figures, 1961 and 1992
  • Saarbrücken-Rastpfuhl, St. Antonius monastery church, sandstone altar, 19 ??
  • Trier, St. Petrus Cathedral, tombstones of Bishop Bornewasser (1974) and Bishop Stein (1993)
  • Trier, St. Matthias Abbey Church, cloister, chapter house (1948–1953) and Pacellikreuz (1957)
  • Trier, grave chapel of the blessed Blandine Merten, building sculpture, 1990
  • Trier, Heuschreckbrunnen, sandstone, 1977
  • Tübingen, Evangelical Collegiate Church, gallery frieze, wood, 1964
  • Wadrill, Geschichtsbrunnen, Sandstein, 1993
  • Wallerfangen, parish church St. Katharina, altar, ambo, sacrament stele (1980) and two bronze doors (1988)
  • Weiskirchen, Parish Church of the Assumption of Mary, altar, sacramental stele, ambo, 1969

literature

  • Willi Hahn, catalog for the exhibition from September 1 to 13, 1995 in the Abei St. Matthias, Trier , ed. from the Diocese of Trier, Trier 1995.
  • Volker Hochdörffer: Willi Hahn (1920-1995), portrait of a sculptor from Trier . In: New Trierisches Jahrbuch . Trierisch Association, 1995, ISSN  0077-7765 , p. 261-268 .

Web links

Commons : Willi Hahn  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerd Meiser: The model and the baby Jesus. Saarbrücker Zeitung . October 12, 2010, accessed September 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ Volker Hochdörffer: Willi Hahn - An attempt at a biography, in: Willi Hahn, catalog for the exhibition from September 1 to 13, 1995 in the Abei St. Matthias, Trier, ed. from the Diocese of Trier, Trier 1995, pp. 9-25.
personal data
SURNAME Hahn, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1995
Place of death trier