Willy Meller

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Willy Meller (born March 4, 1887 in Cologne , † February 12, 1974 in Rodenkirchen-Weiß ; full name: Jakob Wilhelm Meller ) was a German sculptor . He gained fame through his work with the architect Clemens Klotz at the time of National Socialism , among others for the Olympic Stadium in Berlin , the NS-Ordensburg Vogelsang and the NS-Ordensburg Krössinsee .

education

After attending elementary school, Meller did an apprenticeship in Hugo Rothe's sculptor workshop in Cologne, which he completed in 1905. Meller worked on construction for two years until he went to the Cologne School of Applied Arts in 1907 , where he became a student of the sculptor Georg Grasegger .

After he had left the arts and crafts school, Meller took part in a competition for the Cologne Roman fountain in 1910, in which he received the second prize in 1911. His design was not carried out, but he received a grant from the city of Cologne for a three-year study at the Munich Art Academy . Meller entered the sculpture class led by Erwin Kurz , a student of Adolf von Hildebrand . The training conveyed hardly any new tendencies in modern abstract sculpture and had an influence on Meller's development insofar as he remained with representational and figurative sculpture throughout his life. This is shown by two sculptures that Meller created during this time in Munich: a female torso designed as a tomb and a seated female nude.

Willy Meller completed his studies in Munich in 1914 after having completed a fountain in Cologne the year before. In 1914 he returned to Cologne, took part in the Cologne Werkbund exhibition in the same year and received the order for the sculptural design of a garden house in the then still independent city of Mülheim am Rhein (today Cologne-Mülheim). The outbreak of the First World War initially prevented further orders . Meller was drafted on July 17, 1915 and came to the Western Front. He experienced the end of the war in the civil administration in Belgium, where he was used to design military cemeteries.

After the First World War

female reclining figure (1925/1926)

After the end of the war, Willy Meller returned to Cologne as a freelance artist. Here he worked with the architect Paul Bonatz , among others . Mainly, however, he created sculptural works for buildings that his childhood friend, the architect Clemens Klotz , had designed. “In all of his sculptural works in the 1920s, Meller's sculptural work was mostly limited to a few figurative or ornamental elements that served to highlight representative areas, such as the entrance areas. The connection to the architecture was made primarily through application to the components to be accentuated. For Meller, the decisive factor in the formal design of the sculpture was always the harmonious connection with the architecture. "

In addition to his sculptural work, Meller made handicrafts. Outside of Cologne, he also created a number of war memorials , mostly together with architect friends , in Lüdenscheid , Bochum and Dülken . These monuments recommended Meller to the National Socialists in their statement and in their formal language .

Figure of the warrior memorial in Lüdenscheid

Awakening (1935), memorial in Lüdenscheid

A sculpture that is characteristic of Willy Meller's development in the 1920s and 1930s is the sculpture of the war memorial in Lüdenscheid , which has been modified several times . On May 15, 1922, the warrior association of the town and country community of Lüdenscheid made the decision to become the municipal authorities of the town of Lüdenscheid to call for a memorial stone to be erected in a suitable place for those who died in World War 1914–1918. Due to political unrest after the assassination of the German Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau on June 24, 1922, the project was initially discontinued; it was not until 1924 that the monument issue was discussed in public again for the first time. In October 1924 a working committee was set up to erect a memorial in honor of the fallen soldiers of the city of Lüdenscheid . In January 1925, the city park terrace was designated as the site of the monument to be erected. After several years of disputes, which brought the project to a standstill, particularly due to a lack of funds, a three-month competition was held on June 13, 1927, in which sculptors and architects could submit suitable designs. Out of 18 submitted drafts, it was the joint draft "Pro Patria" by architect Fritz Fuß and sculptor Willy Meller that received the first prize endowed with 600 Reichsmarks.

In this first competition design, the figure for the memorial gave the impression of a dying person “who tries to stand up one last time in agony. The posture implies that the represented figure will fall back in the next moment. This impression is confirmed by the suffering expression on the face. His body is overall slim in its proportions, the individual muscle groups are shown, but do not appear excessively pronounced. The body surface is modeled lively. All in all, it is a largely true-to-life depiction that shows a dying young man in pathetic gestures. "

Due to a lack of financial resources, the memorial was not carried out at first. In the course of a donation campaign in which a picture of Meller's figure was shown in the city, revanchist interpretations emerged in addition to the interpretation as a symbol of the victim's death . In it, the figure was seen as an expression that Germany would rise up against the shame of defeat in World War I. An article in the local newspaper from 1929 saw the figure as "the idea of ​​struggle and sacrificial death" . The plans were not implemented during this period either. When the National Socialists came to power , the situation changed. The local leaders worked hard to build the monument, and Meller moved too. In 1933 he submitted a new design for the figure, while leaving the architectural staging in its original form. “Here Meller formally created the figure of a young, male and well-trained hero, the prototype of the monumental sculpture that was to establish itself in National Socialist sculpture. The 'fallen' had become an 'awakening'. "

The ceremonial inauguration of the memorial took place on March 17, 1935. An appreciation of the monument from 1936 saw the importance of Meller's sculpture in "no longer being victims of war, no longer handing over his suffering and misery to posterity, but rather expressing the hope (wanting) that on this great A test of fate a resurrection of our people must follow. "

After the end of the “ Third Reich ”, the memorial was used as a memorial for the fallen, only the National Socialist emblems were removed in 1946. On June 2, 2003 it was entered in the list of monuments of the city of Lüdenscheid under the serial number 148 .

National Socialism

After the National Socialists came to power, Meller continued his collaboration with Klotz, who quickly became one of the most important Nazi architects. As early as 1933, the National Socialists appointed him the architect commissioned by the Reich leadership to build the training buildings for the NSDAP and the German Labor Front (DAF) . Meller created building sculptures for buildings that Klotz planned and executed for DAF. These include the Ordensburg Vogelsang and the Ordensburg Crössinsee . The orders became so extensive during this time that Meller set up studios in these two locations and in Berlin in addition to his Cologne studio.

The highest state recognition that sculptors could get in the “Third Reich” was achieved by awarding two works to him for the Olympic Stadium in Berlin . For this he received the German Olympic Medal of Honor, 2nd class, on March 22, 1937 . Meller had been a member of the NSDAP since the end of 1937 , and on April 20, 1939, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, Adolf Hitler appointed him professor. During the war, his inclusion in the list of artists drawn up by Joseph Goebbels helped him to be released from service in the Wehrmacht and from work in armaments factories.

From 1940 to 1944, Meller was represented with seven works at the Great German Art Exhibition in the House of German Art in Munich. These included, for example, the relief “Festlicher Zug” (1943) and the portrait busts of Clemens Klotz and “Der Jagdflieger Joachim Müncheberg ” (1944).

German Nike (1935), behind it Olympiastadion Berlin
Torch bearer (1936–1938), NS-Ordensburg Vogelsang
Eagle sculpture in Erwitte (1938, swastika removed)
Bull tamer (1938/39), intended for the Prora seaside resort , now in Ochsenfurt

Working for the Olympiastadion Berlin

In March 1935, Meller submitted two designs for the part of the Reichssportfeld at Berlin's Olympic Stadium that is only accessible to athletes . The first provided for the pillar to be crowned with a lion, the second for the pillar itself to be worked through with a flagpole crowning it. The responsible committee decided on the second option. In this design, the jury wanted the strict cube of the pillar to be retained and the reliefs to be as flat as possible. The national emblem of the eagle with an oak wreath in its claws was originally provided with a swastika .

In contrast to the other sculptures in the stadium, a theme was given for the transition from the publicly accessible part of the stadium to the practice facilities of the “Reichssportfeld”: the representation of a “German Nike ”. First, Georg Müller from Munich and Stanislaus Cauer from Königsberg were asked to submit drafts. After the art committee rejected these proposals, Willy Meller, Hans Bleeker and Hans Schmidt were asked for further designs in July 1935. In December 1935 Meller received his second order for the Reichssportfeld. The robe of the "German Nike" was executed by him based on ancient Greece , the oak leaves in his hand are a traditional German symbol of victory. The work is in the tradition of the Victoria and Germania statues of the national and war memorials of the 19th century. Already in the previous building of the Olympic Stadium, the German Stadium from 1913, there was an indication - in the form of a victory column imitation - that “sport for the benefit of the fatherland” should take place. The depicted trampling of the “evil serpent” , a motif taken from the Bible , is a threat to the enemies of the “Third Reich” according to Nazi ideology.

Work for the NS-Ordensburg Vogelsang

The sculptures for the NS-Ordensburg Vogelsang , including the “athlete relief”, the “torch bearer” and “the German man”, are largely by Willy Meller. The somewhat larger than life figure “The German Man” was located in the former hall of honor in the tower of the Ordensburg and was a Nazi memorial: The figure was made of wood and disappeared after the war. On the wall to the left and right of her were the names of the so-called “martyrs”, the 16 National Socialists who were shot by the police in Munich during the Hitler putsch, the march on the Feldherrnhalle on November 9, 1923 . Meller's figure is not a junker of the order raising his hand in the Hitler salute, but, like the figure of the “torch-bearer”, the ideal image of the “German man” who is yet to be bred.

Prora seaside resort

The sculptures designed by Willy Meller for a huge swimming pool in the Prora seaside resort were not completed due to the cessation of construction work there when the war broke out. The bull tamer made by Wilhelm Ax and the head of a second statue, which was supposed to represent a woman on a horse, are on display in Ochsenfurt .

After the Second World War

Reclining woman with child (1950), Bonn

Willy Meller saw the end of World War II in Berchtesgaden . In the course of 1945 he returned to Cologne, where he earned his living doing odd jobs, mostly portrait busts.

Because of his work for the National Socialists, Meller did not receive any more orders from the city of Cologne after the liberation from National Socialism. Nevertheless, he was able to continue his work in public spaces. In the 1950s and even in the 1960s, sculptures and architecture-related sculptures were created again, the expression of which did not differ from his previous works. These include the concrete sculpture "Reclining woman with child" in Bonn (1950) and "The charioteer" on the main portal of the post office in Hagen . The 4.70 m by 6.80 m large Hagen sculpture was destroyed in 2002 after the building was given a new owner.

In the 1960s, Meller in Oberhausen was commissioned to build a memorial in memory of the women and men of the resistance against the Nazi dictatorship, whose artistic propagandist he had been for many years. As early as 1955 he had created a memorial for the victims of the Second World War at the Apostle Church in Gütersloh .

Willy Meller - grave site

Willy Meller was buried in the new Rodenkirchen cemetery on Sürther Strasse (hallway 1). His grave is adorned with a group of sculptures made up of three women. They are interpreted as Parzen : the first spins, the second measures and the third cuts the thread of life.

reception

In the more recent literature dealing with sculpture and architecture during the Nazi era, Meller appears as a sculptor of the “second set” behind Arno Breker and Josef Thorak . Ruth Schmitz-Ehmke dealt extensively with his works for the Ordensburg Vogelsang , Meller's life and his work up to 1945 are the subject of an unpublished master's thesis by Beate Eckstein. This work contains a detailed list of the works up to 1945. Studies of Meller's work after 1945 are still not available; Meller's estate in the Germanic National Museum is most likely to provide information about this .

Today's sympathizers

Meller's works from the time of National Socialism are still very popular today in right-wing extremist and fascist circles. Internet sites from Spain and Russia that document his works up to 1945 refer to this .

Works

Building plastic

Monuments

  • Berlin-Schöneberg : Regimental monument 1914–1918 of the railway regiments 1 and 4, 1929–1930 in the Schöneberg city park (“Rudolph-Wilde-Park”) near Freiherr-vom-Stein-Strasse not far from the Schöneberg town hall - “in cooperation with the Essen architect Otto Siepenkothen ”- around 1942 dismantling of the bronze impeller; 1993 to the Monument Terrace mined for vandalism and the Kurmark barracks in Storkow (Mark) translocated
  • Bochum :
    • War memorial 1914–1918, so-called lion monument - erected in 1927 on the corner of Königsallee / Waldring, in front of the Schiller School
    • "Sword Monument" of the Bochumer Verein , Baarestraße / Bessemerstraße, in a green area in front of the boarding house (destroyed)
  • Korschenbroich-Glehn : War memorial 1914–1918, in front of the Catholic Church of St. Pankratius (preserved)
  • Gütersloh : Memorial for the victims of the Second World War, erected in 1955, at the Apostle Church
  • Neuss : War memorial 1914–1918, on the market, to the side of the entrance to the armory (preserved)
  • Waldniel : War memorial 1914–1918, erected in 1933, former church square at the transition from Markt to Niederstraße (preserved)
  • Viersen-Dülken : war memorial 1914–1918, erected in 1934 (preserved)
  • Remscheid : "Bergischer Löwe", Theodor-Heuss-Platz, built in 1939 (preserved)

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1920: Group exhibition with the Cologne Artists Working Group
  • 1949: Exhibition of the Düsseldorf artist group 1949 in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
  • 2014: Willy Meller. An artist between dictatorship and democracy. A holdings in the Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne , Art and Museum Library of the City of Cologne , June 27, 2014 to August 10, 2014

gallery

  • War memorial 1914–1918, Korschenbroich-Glehn

  • Lion Monument (1928), Bochum

  • Regimental memorial 1914–1918 for the fallen soldiers of the Prussian railway regiments 1 and 4 (1929–1930), today in Storkow (Mark)

  • Working person at the entrance of the administration building of Gebr. Eickhoff Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei , Bochum

  • Sports relief, Ordensburg Vogelsang

  • Adler, Ordensburg Vogelsang

  • Sower in the gate to Gut Rottland

  • Gänsebrunnen, Düsseldorf

  • The Sacrifice (1961), Frechen

  • Memorial sculpture “The Mourners” (1962) at Oberhausen Castle

literature

  • Beate Eckstein: The work of the sculptor Willy Meller until 1945. Unpublished master's thesis, University of Cologne 1998.
  • Ruth Schmitz-Ehmke: The Ordensburg Vogelsang. Architecture, building sculpture, equipment. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7927-1017-X .
  • Gunnar Schirrmacher: Approaching a monument in Dülken by Willy Meller from 1934. (= series of publications of the Association for Monument Preservation eV Viersen , Volume 24.) 2002, ISBN 3-9805339-6-4 .
  • Clemens Heinrichs, Pia Krumme: The mourner. Willi Meller at the memorial hall. In: Geschichtswerkstatt Oberhausen (ed.): Shift Change, The Journal for the History of Oberhausen , Issue 2/2007.

Web links

Commons : Willy Meller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Beate Eckstein: The work of the sculptor Willy Meller until 1945.
  2. ↑ Prussian Monument Institute - Association for Research on Prussian Monuments e. V. (Neuss): Register of war memorials 1914–1918 / W 3.198
  3. ↑ Dietmar Simon: The Naked and the Dead. The creation of the Lüdenscheider Memorial for those who fell in the First World War. In: Der Märker , 44th year 1995, issue 1, p. 24.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Finkbeiner: The memorial in Lüdenscheid and its history. In: Bauwelt , 27th year 1936, issue 17, p. 2. (quoted by Eckstein)
  5. ↑ Description panel “Deutsche Nike” Olympic site, file: Olympiagelaende Berlin Nike Tafel.jpg
  6. ↑ a b Gerhard Meissner : OCHSENFURT: Monument with history. Main-Post , April 16, 2009, accessed November 2, 2009 .
  7. ↑ a b page about the "Ochsenfurt bull figure" designed by Meller - with a photo of Meller in one of his studios
  8. ^ Günter Leitner: Cemeteries in Cologne. In the middle of life. Jürgen Fritsch Verlag, Neumarkt (Oberpfalz) 2003, p. 14.
  9. ^ Historical Archives of the City of Cologne , accessed on October 5, 2012
  10. ^ Announcement on the exhibition , accessed on August 5, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Meller, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meller, Jakob Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1974
Place of death Rodenkirchen white