Willy Kurth

Willy Kurth ( Wilhelm Carl Albert Kurth ) (born November 21, 1881 in Berlin , † December 28, 1963 in Oberhof ) was a German art historian and professor of art history.

Life

Willy Kurth was the son of an official. He attended the Sophien-Realgymnasium in Berlin from 1887 to 1897 . From 1901 to 1903 he studied painting at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts . Later he passed the Abitur at the humanistic Leibniz Gymnasium. From 1908 to 1912 he studied art history, archeology and history at the Berlin Friedrich Wilhelms University . He received his doctorate in 1912. From 1913 to 1946 he was department head of the Berlin State Museums . He was appointed curator in the Kupferstichkabinett in 1924 and professor in 1930.

In 1945 Kurth joined the SPD . Later he was a member of the SED and confidante of Wilhelm Pieck . From 1946 to 1963 he was director (from 1956 director general) of the State Palaces and Gardens of Potsdam-Sanssouci .

From 1946 until his death he also taught art history at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Since Wolfgang Sörrensen's departure in 1950, he has also taught the history of garden art at the local Institute for Garden Art and Landscape Design (from 1951: Institute for Garden and Regional Culture). He described himself as a " propaedeutic of garden art".

In 1953 he received the National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class. In 1955 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Potsdam. On his 75th birthday in 1956, Kurth was appointed General Manager. In 1956 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver. Kurth died at the age of 82 while on vacation in Oberhof and was buried in the cemetery in Potsdam-Bornstedt .

Services

Willy Kurth had made a name for himself as the author and editor of numerous books on important artists from the 18th to 20th centuries. He devoted himself to the life's work of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow and wrote, among other things, about the work The Tomb of Count von der Mark in Der Kunstbrief . He wrote about Ernst Barlach , Vincent van Gogh , Max Liebermann , Otto Nagel , Paul Hans Ohmert , Adolph von Menzel and Friedrich II.

Kurth's endeavor was not only to spread historical factual material, but to lead the reader to a real understanding of art and to discover its significance for the present. He also wrote a lot about the palaces and gardens of Sanssouci in Potsdam , about the art of pen drawing, about old German woodcut art and about fables of the eighteenth century. His listeners praised his vivid presentation, which always aimed to present overarching contexts. His fame is overshadowed by the fact that he is accused of embezzling works of art in the institutions under his control.

Works

• The tomb of the Count von der Mark / Gottfried Schadow . Mann, Berlin [1943]
• Sanssouci. A contribution to the art of the German Rococo . Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1962.
• Eighteenth Century Fables . With 24 coppers by Daniel Chodowiecki . Introduced and edited by Willy Kurth. Eigenbrödler-Verlag, Berlin 1923.

literature

• Friedrich Beck and Eckart Henning (eds.) In connection with Kurt Adamy, Peter Bahl and Detlef Kotsch: Brandenburgisches Biographisches Lexikon. Potsdam 2002
• Obituary. In: Bulletin of the State Historical Association for the Mark Brandenburg e. V. No. 46, 1964, p. 372
• H. Sachs (editor), G. Strauss (ed.): Anschauung und Deutung. Willy Kurth on his 80th birthday . Akademie-Verlag, 1964.
• Archive of the Humboldt University Berlin: Willy Kurth estate.
• Kurt Junghans: On the death of Prof. Dr. Willy Kurth . In: German architecture. Issue 2, year 1964, p. 125.
• Short biography for:  Kurth, Willy . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Willy Kurth in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death report in Neues Deutschland from January 1, 1964, page 4