Wolfgang Sellinger

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Wolfgang Sellinger (born February 15, 1949 in Eichstätt ) is a German conceptual artist and gallery owner . He gained notoriety through the Galerie der Kirchenkritik , a public showroom in Eichstätt that has been in existence since 2010. Here the visitors are confronted with bold picture boards, on which Sellinger's own statements critical of the church and quotes from well-known atheists should stimulate reflection.

biography

Childhood, youth and military service

Sellinger was born on February 15, 1949 in the cathedral city of Eichstätt. After primary school, he first attended the Rebdorf boys' secondary school, a boarding school run by the Sacred Heart Missionaries . Sellinger's experiences there shaped his later attitude towards the Church. The students are said to have experienced physical abuse during Sellinger's school days in the boarding school. Some of the priests are said to have hit him with the cords of their robes in the event of real or alleged misconduct , and they also hit him in the face. The worst thing for Sellinger, however, was not the pain itself, but the humiliating experience of the clergy laughing at the chastisement. Sellinger cannot remember any similar disciplinary measures taken by the secular teachers who taught at the school at the time. Because of these experiences, he switched to the non-denominational secondary school in Brannenburg in 1963 , where he obtained his secondary school leaving certificate in 1965 . He then completed an apprenticeship as a wholesale and foreign trade clerk in the shoe industry. Commercial activities followed.

In 1969 he was called up for 18-month basic military service in the German Armed Forces , where his authority-critical attitude quickly led to an admission to the mental hospital of the University of Munich and then to early discharge. Since then, Sellinger has been active in anti-military campaigns. In the years from 1970 Sellinger worked in the commercial sector in wholesale and retail as well as a sales representative. In 1987 he switched to property management, more precisely to renting and leasing.

Personal and political development

In 1989 Sellinger applied for citizenship of the then GDR . This was granted to him on August 6, 1990. Since 1999 Sellinger has had massive disputes with the administration of the city of Eichstätt. This began with an unconventional advertising campaign Sell Ingers for the tanning salon his partner Ingrid Schnell. The city administration did not want to accept this type of advertising. On February 6, 2001, he married his long-time partner Schnell.

Sellinger is also involved in horse keeping and the discipline of endurance riding . In the mid-1990s he built a horse stable on the Bergèr estate on the Jura heights of Eichstätts, which was awarded five stars by the LAG (Laufstall-Arbeits-Gemeinschaft eV for species-appropriate horse-keeping) in 2000. Sellingers Stall took first place out of more than 370 applicants. The German champion in endurance riding, Belinda Hitzler, described the stable in her book “Challenge Endurance Riding” as an “exemplary open stable”.

In 2011 Sellinger called for the sexual abuse scandals of the Catholic Church to be dealt with and for a “clear separation between church and state”. At the age of 67, Sellinger gradually withdrew from active professional life in order to devote himself primarily to the task of his gallery of church criticism, which he set up in his wife's former tanning studio. He is a member of various secular organizations such as the Federation for Freedom of the Spirit , the International Federation of Non-Denominational and Atheists and the Giordano Bruno Foundation and is now a gallery owner.

Works

Gallery of Church Criticism

In the spring of 2010, Wolfgang Sellinger opened the Gallery of Church Criticism in Fuchsbräugasse 1 in Eichstätt. In the gallery's showroom, the visitor is confronted with posters and sculptures that deal in a provocative manner with the Christian identity of faith . In addition to his own statements, Sellinger often uses quotations from well-known church-critical authors such as Friedrich Nietzsche , Kurt Tucholsky , Richard Dawkins and Karlheinz Deschner on his display boards . Representative exhibits include, for example, a crucified, stuffed rabbit as an allusion to the Christian Easter festival or the "nun comforter", a crucifix with a dildo attached to the base as a comment on Catholic sexual morality . As Eichstätt, as a bishopric city, is predominantly Catholic , the gallery met with mixed public reactions, from ironic and funny from tourists to horror from locals, who sometimes reported charges.

According to his own statements, Wolfgang Sellinger does not primarily want to provoke. It is important to him to “contribute to ensuring that freedom of art , freedom of speech and freedom of the press remain the great goods that characterize a democracy , regardless of person, origin or belief”.

First exhibition in the Johanniskirche

On August 2, 2013, Wolfgang Sellinger opened a two-week special exhibition with selected own exhibits as well as works by other artists in the secularized Johanniskirche in Eichstätt as an extension of his gallery. Sellinger consciously understood the proximity of the exhibition space to the Eichstätter Dom as an additional provocation. About 2600 visitors came within the two weeks.

Second exhibition in the Johanniskirche

Despite the sometimes negative criticism in the press and public, Sellinger decided to have a second exhibition in the Johanniskirche in 2014. The large number of positive feedback that he received in the period that followed encouraged him to do this. In exchange for a new exhibition, the Eichstätter cathedral pastor Josef Blomenhofer and Father Michael Huber from the Order of the Sacred Heart Missionaries in Rebdorf Monastery together with Mrs. Margret Weindl collected over 2000 signatures, which they presented to the city administration. In repeated letters, Sellinger had asked the city of Eichstätt to rent the Johanniskirche again as an exhibition space since October 2013. After the inquiries remained unanswered, Sellinger initiated a lawsuit against the city administration for inaction. After a lawsuit at the Munich Administrative Court, a court hearing took place on October 7, 2015. The judge reaffirmed the legality of Sellinger's concerns to the city representative and stated that "a show should not simply be rejected" just because the city fears for its reputation. The legal dispute met with media coverage.

The artist's second exhibition opened in early August 2016.

Exhibitions at events

Wolfgang Sellinger regularly shows a selection of his works on Corso Leopold , on the Catholic Days in several German cities, on Christopher Street Day and at the Rebellious Music Festival in Truckenthal .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Salch: “Better bisexual than bigoted”. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . sueddeutsche.de, October 7, 2015, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Carsten Frerk : “The Sellinger”. In: YouTube . youtube.com, June 18, 2016, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Shameless Art. In: Der Spiegel . spiegel.de, January 26, 1970, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  4. ↑ On, on to the blessed death! In: Bund für Geistesfreiheit . bfg-muenchen.de, July 28, 2012, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Eva Chloupek: A bright yellow rickshaw armada is rolling towards the city . In: Eichstätter Kurier . November 5, 1999.
  6. ↑ 57 Rickshaws are about to roll over a city . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten . December 15, 1999.
  7. ↑ Belinda Hitzler: Challenge Endurance Riding . 1st edition. BLV Verlag , Munich 2001, ISBN 3-405-16111-8 , pp. 34-35 .
  8. ↑ Pope calls on Catholics to stand by their church. In: The world . welt.de, September 22, 2011, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  9. ↑ a b c Richard Auer , Gerhard von Kapff : 111 places in the Altmühltal and Ingolstadt that you have to see . 3. Edition. Emons Verlag , Cologne 2015, ISBN 3-95451-616-0 , p. 36-37 .
  10. ↑ nr: New elections at the Federation for Freedom of Mind In: Augsburger Allgemeine . augsburger-allgemeine.de, July 20, 2016, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  11. ↑ IBKA summer 2016 . IBKA, Berlin, court confirms exhibition critical of religion in Ex-Church, p. 29 .
  12. ^ Frank Nicolai: The sponsoring association with a new presidium. In: hdp.de. Humanist Press Service , July 27, 2015, accessed November 1, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Dieter Klug: “Courage to hat” - not just for women. In: Münchner Merkur . merkur.de, November 30, 2015, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  14. ↑ kno: Anti-clergy campaign: Reverend becomes physical . In: Donaukurier . May 21, 2010, p. 25 .
  15. ^ Wolfgang Sellinger: Photo gallery. In: Gallery of Church Criticism. galerie-der-kirchenkritik.de, archived from the original on October 2, 2016 ; accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Jürgen Knopp: Lawsuit against the city for “inactivity” . In: Donaukurier . January 29, 2015, p. 19 .
  17. ^ Church with church criticism. In: Atheist Info. atheisteninfo.at, accessed on November 1, 2016 .
  18. ↑ “Disturbs Peace”. In: Donaukurier . donaukurier.de, March 3, 2015, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Provocative, contemptuous, controversial. In: Sat.1 . sat1bayern.de, October 15, 2015, archived from the original on October 16, 2016 ; accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  20. ^ Susanne Pfaller: City flashes before the administrative court. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk . br.de, April 12, 2016, archived from the original on October 16, 2016 ; accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Karin Derstroff: The crusader. In: Donaukurier . donaukurier.de, August 8, 2016, accessed October 16, 2016 .
  22. ↑ jot: Fierce church dispute over religion critical comics. In: evening newspaper . Abendzeitung-muenchen.de, October 8, 2015, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  23. ^ Eva Chloupek: Religious Free Zone? In: Donaukurier . donaukurier.de, August 7, 2016, accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Wolfgang Görl: Greeks and gods . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich City) . June 11, 2012, p. R3 .
  25. Jump up ↑ Spaghetti Monsters and Menacing Gods. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk . br.de, May 31, 2014, accessed October 16, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Sellinger, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and gallery owner
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Eichstatt