Willi Wolfradt

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Willi Wolfradt (born June 19, 1892 in Berlin ; died September 30, 1988 in Hamburg ) was a German art writer and critic, editor and lecturer.

origin

Willi Wolfradt was born on June 19, 1892 to Jewish parents in Berlin. Aaron Heinrich Wolfradt and his wife Gisela had their son baptized on October 6, 1892 in the Protestant congregation of the New Church .

Studies and cultural-historical work

Wolfradt studied art history. During the First World War he had to interrupt his studies. In 1922 Wolfradt received his doctorate magna cum laude from the University of Freiburg. In 1924 his dissertation was published as a book by Mauritius-Verlag Berlin. “Caspar David Friedrich and the Romantic Landscape” is still one of the best and most ingenious works about the painter. As early as 1921, the first monograph on George Grosz appeared in the “Junge Kunst” series published by Klinkhardt & Biermann Leipzig . Since then, the two men have enjoyed a lifelong friendship. In 1924 there was a monograph on Otto Dix , whom Wolfradt was unable to get to know personally, followed by a monograph on Lyonel Feininger . From 1923 Wolfradt was editor of the art magazine Cicerone in Berlin. At the same time he worked as an art critic for the Kunstblatt directed by Paul Westheim and the Weltbühne .

Flight and Exile

As a politically and racially persecuted person, Wolfradt emigrated to France in April 1933. He had to leave behind his extensive art history library and all his belongings. With the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939, he was immediately imprisoned because of his German origin and held in the camps of Les Milles, Gurs, Rivesaltes and again in Gurs. After the German occupation of France, he was destined for deportation several times, but was always liberated at the last moment by forces of the Protestant underground movement in France. From April to May 1943 he lived illegally until he managed to escape across the Swiss border . In 1946 Wolfradt moved to the United States and worked as a critic in New York.

New beginning

In 1951 he returned to the Federal Republic of Germany because, according to his own admission, he felt strongly connected to Europe. From 1953 to 1961 he worked as head editor at Rowohlt-Verlag in Reinbek near Hamburg, translating texts by Jean-Paul Sartre, among others. His wish to publish a selection of his texts with Rowohlt did not come true.

Willi Wolfradt died almost blind on September 30, 1988 at the age of 96 in Hamburg.

Fonts (selection)

  • Willi Wolfradt: Between cultures. In: The new Rundschau. XXXth year of the Free Stage. Tenth booklet. October 1919. Berlin S. Fischer Verlag.
  • Willi Wolfradt: The new sculpture. Tribune of art and time. Editor: Kasimir Edschmid. Ulrich Reiss Verlag Berlin 1920.
  • Willi Wolfradt: Young Art. George grosz. Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1921.
  • Willi Wolfradt: Otto Dix. In: Young Art. Volume 41, Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1924, pp. 5-15.
  • Willi Wolfradt: Young Art. Lyonel Feininger. Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig 1924.
  • Willi Wolfradt: Caspar David Friedrich and the landscape of romanticism. Mauritius Verlag Berlin 1924.
  • Willi Wolfradt: One Hundred Years of Berlin Art. In: The Cicerone. Half-monthly publication for artists, art lovers and collectors. Issue 12, year 21. Second June issue 1929. Klinkhardt & Biermann Verlag Leipzig Berlin, p. 348 ff.
  • Willi Wolfradt: clown pictures. In: Art of Time. Journal of artists' self-help. Issue B. Issue No. 4. 1st volume, January 1930, p. 73 ff.
  • Willi Wolfradt: Rails in the Landscape. In: Art of Time. Issue B. Double issue No. 10/11. 1st year, July August 1930, pp. 228–232.
  • Willi Wolfradt (translator) and Susanne Lepsius: Jean-Paul Sartre. Nekrasov. 1st edition, 1956. Rowohlt Verlag Hamburg.

literature

  • Wolfradt, Willi , in: Ulrike Wendland: Biographical Handbook of German-Speaking Art Historians in Exile. Life and work of the scientists persecuted and expelled under National Socialism . Munich: Saur, 1999, ISBN 3-598-11339-0 , pp. 802f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wolfradt, Willi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art writer and critic, editor and lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1988
Place of death Hamburg