Willy Knabe

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Willy Knabe (born  July 7, 1896 in Eisleben , †  March 20, 1967 in Magdeburg ) was a German painter , graphic artist and ex-libris artist . In 1934 he designed the bookplate for Adolf Hitler . Knabe mainly worked in the techniques of woodcut and wood engraving .

Bookplate by Willy Knabe for himself. It shows a four-headed shaft or hook surrounded by three small shields in the coat of arms . As a sign holder , a gripper . Obviously all symbols of artists and printers .

Live and act

Knabe was born in 1896 as the eighth child of a master shoemaker . After finishing school, Knabe did a three-year apprenticeship as a painter, which he completed with a journeyman's examination. From 1914 to 1916 he took part in the First World War as a soldier and lost a leg from a serious wound . From 1916 to 1920 he studied at the arts and crafts school in Berlin-Charlottenburg . Afterwards, Knabe worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist in Berlin . His work appeared regularly in the Illustrirten Zeitung ( Leipzig ), of which he worked. He also designed designs for industries such as AEG , Borsig and Sunlicht . On May 22, 1925, his wife Ottilie (Otti) Knabe gave birth to their daughter Ursula. During the time of National Socialism , he was appointed as a graphic teacher at the arts and crafts school in Magdeburg in 1941 . Many works by Knabe, some of them clearly propagandistic and anti-Semitic, appeared in magazines and books, such as the “German House Book” published by the Nazi Party ’s Reich Propaganda Management in 1943. He also designed several small posters for the “ Weekly Saying of the NSDAP ”, which included quotations from Nazi Party leaders. Sizes were provided. After the Second World War , he was freelance again from 1945. At the beginning of the 1950s, Knabe lived in the house at Leipziger Straße 7, in what is now Magdeburg's Leipziger Straße district . Knabe designed several wall paintings in Magdeburg , such as the one in the ticket hall of Magdeburg's main train station in 1960 (not preserved) and the one in the prehistoric department of the Museum of Cultural History; next to it sgraffitos in schools. By the early 1960s at the latest, he had a serious lung disease . His wife was able to make a living as a technical draftsman .

Works

In 1934 Knabe designed the bookplate for Adolf Hitler . In 1936 he designed the poster for the German Book Week in Weimar that same year . Knabe created u. a. Follows on the Magdeburg cityscape, such as the woodcuts "Der Dom zu Magdeburg" (1943), "The new Magdeburg is created" (around 1960) and the wood engravings "Old Stock Exchange in Magdeburg" (around 1943), "Alte Strombrücke mit Johanniskirche" (around 1943), "Punkthaus Weinarkaden" (around 1960). In addition, works on the world of work as well as versatile illustrations and bookplates. Many of his works can be found in the Magdeburg Cultural History Museum .

National Socialist

Pen drawings from Magdeburg

literature

  • Eberhard Hölschen: Willy Knabe . In: Journal for Book Art and Applied Graphics . 1934, p. 42-47 .
  • Walter von Zur Westen: Zu Knabe's Ex-libris Adolf Hitler . In: Exlibris: Book Art and Applied Graphics . 1934, p. 32 .
  • Artist's Comradeship Gau Magdeburg-Anhalt eV (Hrsg.): Art exhibition of the Gaues Magdeburg-Anhalt . Magdeburg Drummers Verlag, 1942.
  • Willy Knabe . In: Leaves for book art: ex-libris and graphic art . No. 5 , 1965, pp. 130–132 (list of bookplates).
  • S. Biel: artist portrait . In: Magdeburg newspaper on the weekend . No. 27 , 1966.
  • Norbert Eisold: The arts and crafts school Magdeburg 1793-1963 . Cat. Magdeburg, 1993, p. 55, 140, 157 .
  • Matthias Puhle (ed.): Magdeburg in pictures from 1492 to the 20th century . Magdeburg 1997, p. 241 f .
  • Yearbook of the German Ex-Libris Society . 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter von Zur Westen: Zu Knabe's Exlibris Adolf Hitler . In: Exlibris: Book Art and Applied Graphics . 1934, p. 32 .
  2. ↑ Willy Knabe: With satirical depictions of the happiness of marriage and children, artistically designed birth announcement. Retrieved on December 25, 2019 (autographed linocut): “We are a / girl / born / on May 22 / Ursula / A lot of joy / How masculine is known / For man and woman the holy marital status! / Otti & Willy Knabe / 1925 "
  3. ^ Main cultural office in the Reich Propagandaleitung of the NSDAP / Winterhilfswerk (Hrsg.): Das Deutsche Hausbuch . Franz Eher Nachf., Berlin 1943.
  4. ^ Magdeburg address book 1950/51, part I, page 291
personal data
SURNAME Boy, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist and bookplate artist
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisleben
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1967
Place of death Magdeburg