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Heinz Kiwitz

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Heinz Kiwitz
BornSeptember 4, 1910
Duisburg,Germany
Died1938
Spain
NationalityGerman
EducationFolkwangschule
Known forwoodcut illustration
MovementGerman Expressionism
Websitewww.heinzkiwitz.de

Heinz Kiwitz(September 4, 1910 – 1938) was a German artist. Hiswoodcutswere in theGerman Expressioniststyle. An anti-fascist, he was arrested following the Nazis' seizure of power. He survived imprisonment inKemnaandBörgermoor concentration campsand was released in 1934. He went into exile in 1937, first living in Denmark, then in France, where he again began to fight Nazism. In 1938, he went to Spain to fight in theSpanish Civil War,where he apparently perished.

Early years

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Kiwitz was born the son of a book printer and was exposed to the graphic arts from an early age.[1]He had an older sister, Änne, and a younger sister, Gertrude, called Trudel.[2]From early on, he loved to draw, but was not good in math. At the age of 10, he drew his older sister's art assignments and she received top grades. When he was 17 and stood 1.92 meters (6.3 ft), he joined a bo xing club and trained at home, causing the furniture to shake when he jumped rope inside.[2]

In 1927, he began studying art withKarl Rössingat theFolkwang University of the ArtsinEssen.[1]His long-time friend,Günther Struppalso attended the school[3]and was a student of Rössing's. He was a member of theAssociation of Revolutionary Visual Artistsduring this period.[4]

Work and anti-fascist resistance

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In art school, he preferred to createwood engravings,but after finishing, Kiwitz began working more with woodcuts, which entailed a process more suited to his temperament.[5]He and Strupp went toColognefor a few months and later, he went toBerlinto pursue work and further study. In April 1932, his woodcut illustrations for a satirical poem byErich Weinertwere published along with the poem inMagazin für Alle.[6]He also made a woodcut decrying theNazi book burningsand one that featurescaricaturesofHitler,GoebbelsandGöring(see illustration).[7]In early 1933, after the Nazisseized power,Kiwitz' studio was ransacked by theSturmabteilung(SA) and he left Berlin, returning to his parents' home.[1]He also visited his girlfriend, who as a Communist and political enemy of the Nazis, had been arrested and thrown in prison.[1]

1933 woodcut with caricatures ofHermann Göring,Joseph GoebbelsandAdolf Hitler

Shortly after, in summer 1933, he also was arrested and thrown in Kemna concentration camp[1]for "antifascist activity" and having produced "work critical of society". From Kemna, he was later transferred to Börgermoor concentration camp. After his release in June 1934, he sought to protect himself from further arrest by destroying the majority of his political artwork and confining his illustrations to literary themes.[1]He described himself as a "Nazi-coerced-towards-harmless-themes-political-journalist."[5]He returned to Berlin in 1935, where he worked for the publisherErnst Rowohlt.He designed covers for books byWilliam Faulknerand created illustrations for a novel byHans Fallada;he also made woodcuts illustratingDon Quixote,[1][5]andEduard Mörike's "Die Historie von der schönen Lau", among others.[8]

As asocialist,Kiwitz saw little future and only danger for himself in Germany. In 1937, with help from Rowohlt, he managed to flee toCopenhagen,Denmark, where he metBertolt Brecht.[1]His residence permit, just three months, was not renewed, forcing him to leave. He then went to Paris,[9]where he again began to fight fascism. An organization of exiled German artists, theUnion des Artistes Allemands Libres,was founded in autumn 1937[10]and Kiwitz became an early member.[note 1]The group organized an exhibit called "Five Years of Hitler Dictatorship", (Fünf Jahre Hitler-Diktatur) held at a local union hall.[1]He worked on the exhibition[11]and contributed to the exhibition brochure,Cinq Ans de Dictateure Hitlerienne,cutting out a piece oflinoleumflooring from under his bed and makinglinocutsdepicting torture, courtroom trials andforced laborin theThird Reich.Also while in Paris, he made a woodcut about theBombing of Guernicaand other alleged war crimes.[7]

Letters to his parents during this time do not mention his political activities, but a request for a sum of money (10Reichsmark) indicates his financial status was precarious.[1]Kiwitz worked for the emigrant press while in Paris and on August 27, 1937, published hisAbsage eines deutschen Künstlers an Hitler( "Renunciation of Hitler by a German Artist" ) in a Paris newspaper. In 1938, he went to Spain to fight againstFrancisco Francoin theInternational Brigades.He is known to have participated in theBattle of the Ebro,but then all trace of him vanishes. He is presumed to have been killed there.[12]

Open letter to Hitler

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The text of Kiwitz' 1937 open letter of renunciation to Hitler printed below was printed in a German-language exile newspaper in Paris.[13][note 2]

One who does not want to be praised in thebrownpress

A young German artist, Heinz Kiwitz, presents to the public the following findings:

The Berlin art exhibition at the Haus der Kunst on Königsplatz was proclaimed by the Nazi Party and the "Reich Commissioner for Artistic Design"Schweitzer – Mjölniras paving the way.

Without asking me or obtaining my consent, woodcuts of mine were put on exhibit. A portion of thecoordinatedBerlin press dedicated much space to me in the arts section, which now, instead of offering art criticism, treads lock-step. They have held me up as one of the most important artists of the "new Germany".

In addition, is this fact: I went into exile from Germany in January 1937. I do not wish to be recognized by those who rule Germany today, who lock up art in military barracks and have it kicked into shape by combat boots. Everything in me rebels against the violent abuse of art which is to mask the hideous face of war.

If of necessity the fascist newspapers are forced to admit that I am an artist of the people, it is not a compliment for me, rather it is to be judged as an admission of the bankruptcy of little Goebbels' art factories. For I myself deliberately and always have repudiated the un-German destruction of art, which chases and hunts the true artist abroad, declares every house painter a genius if only he has had the Party membership in his pocket long enough andkowtowsbefore the dictator. It is precisely this adulteration from above from which the authentic, great German art arose as protest, fromRiemenschneidertoSchiller'sDon CarlostoLehmbruckandBarlach.My populism makes me belong withNoldeand Barlach, against whom theSchwarze Korpsis leading a brutal campaign, whose works they remove from galleries and whose exhibitions were closed by the Gestapo because they unswervingly carry on the tradition in the path ofAlbrecht DürerandMatthias Grünewald.

At the cradle of German art stood a sculptor,Tilmann Riemenschneider,who, because his heart beat with the hunted, rebelling peasants, was so harmed in torture by the rich tyrants, that by the end of his life, he could no longer wield a chisel.

The German artist Wilhelm Lehmbruck, in 1914, as asocialist,refused the same militarists his service in war, who today have declared total war on free art.

Guernica,concentration campsand war against religion – what can German art create with this dance of death of human culture, other than to swing thescourgeagainst this forced march into barbarism? Desperately, they search their Partycard filefor a small talent and cannot find it. They are prepared to pay any price, believe they can buy Serious Geniuses for money just like they acquire mansions and cars. True art grows from love of life, human kindness and fruitful unfoldment. Art always goes against tyranny and with liberty. Death, hate and deprivation are the negative fundamental values of fascism. They have proclaimed theFührerprinzipand eradicated freedom of thought, declared the people to be "disciple" minors without rights, tributary masses.

But German art grows out of the people, with the people, for the people, and against coercion, amateurish capriciousness and dictators. The genuine artist only wants to be recognized by that Germany which the greatest German artists long for, a true democratic people's republic of Germany. Because for us, that means freedom of thought, creative freedom, artistic freedom.

Heinz Kiwitz

Pariser Tageszeitung,August 27, 1937

Recognition

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Street sign for Heinz Kiwitz Straße

Kiwitz is grouped withWilhelm LehmbruckandAugust Krausas one of the most important 20th-century artists from Duisburg.[12]In 1962, the Städtisches Kunstmuseum (City Art Museum) in Duisburg had an exhibit of Kiwitz' work and in 1992, theLehmbruck Museumin Duisburg had an exhibit called "Heinz Kiwitz Druckgraphik".[14]From April 1983 to April 1984, there was a traveling exhibit of Kiwitz' work. Called "Heinz Kiwitz: Holzschnitte, Linolschnitte und Zeichnungen", the exhibit started inLüdenscheid,then moved toTelgte,then to the Städtisches Museum inGelsenkirchenand then finished at the Galerie im Theater inGütersloh.[15]There is a street in Duisburg named Heinz-Kiwitz-Strasse[16]in his honor in 2005. In 2010, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Brennender Dornbusch Foundation organized an exhibit of Kiwitz' work at the Liebfrauenkirche in Duisburg.[8]His younger sister, Trudel Siepmann, attended the opening.[8]

Works (selected)

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  • Cover for German edition:William Faulkner,Light in August,Rowohlt Verlag Berlin (1935)
  • Cover and illustrations:Hans Fallada,Märchen vom Stadtschreiber, der aufs Land flog,Rowohlt Verlag Berlin (1935)
  • Enaks Geschichten,a story in woodcuts, foreword by Hans Fallada, Rowohlt Verlag Berlin (1936)
  • Cover illustration for German edition: William Faulkner,Pylon(German:Wendemarke), Verlag Berlin (1936)

Notes

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  1. ^Other members of the Union, calledFreier Künstlerbundin German, includedMax Ernst,Otto Freundlich,Hans Hartung,Anton Räderscheid,Heinz LohmarandGert Wollheim.[7]
  2. ^His letter mistakenly identifies theHaus der Kunstas being in Berlin. The exhibit was in Munich.[13]

References

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  1. ^abcdefghijSiegfried Gnichwitz,"Heinz Kiwitz: gekämpft · vertrieben · verschollen"Archived2012-11-20 at theWayback Machine(PDF) Stiftung Brennender Dornbusch. Folder from an exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of Kiwitz' birth. Liebfrauenkirche, Duisburg (November 7 – December 5, 2010), p. 2. Retrieved February 10, 2012(in German)
  2. ^abAnne Kiwitz,"Privates" 1930 photo and reminiscenceArchived2013-05-21 at theWayback MachineHeinz Kiwitz. Retrieved February 13, 2012(in German)
  3. ^Kiwitz, HeinzExil Archiv. Retrieved February 26, 2012(in German)
  4. ^Biografie: 1927–1931Archived2016-02-16 at theWayback MachineHeinz Kiwitz website. Click on list at left of frame, "Vita: Biografie" Retrieved February 11, 2012(in German)
  5. ^abcGnichwitz,p. 7Archived2012-11-20 at theWayback Machine(PDF)(in German)
  6. ^Gnichwitz,p. 3Archived2012-11-20 at theWayback Machine(PDF)(in German)
  7. ^abcGnichwitz,pp. 4–5Archived2012-11-20 at theWayback Machine(PDF)(in German)
  8. ^abc"Gekämpft, vertrieben, verschollen"Rheinische Post(November 6, 2010). Retrieved February 10, 2012(in German)
  9. ^Hélène Roussel,"Les Peintres Allemands Émigrés en France et L'Union des Artistes Libres"in: Gilbert Badia, Jean Baptiste Joly, Jean Philippe Mathieu, Jacque Omnes, Jean Michel Palmier, Hélène Roussel,Les Bannis de Hitler,Études et Documentation Internationales / Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, Paris (1984), p. 289.ISBN2-85139-074-0(EDI), 2-90 3981-19-1 (PUV). Retrieved February 27, 2012(in French)
  10. ^Jean Michel Palmier,Weimar in Exile: The Antifascist Emigration in Europe and AmericaTranslated by David Fernbach. Verso (2006), p. 216.ISBN1-84467-068-6Retrieved February 13, 2012
  11. ^Hélène Roussel (1984),p. 295(in French)
  12. ^abThomas Becker,"Willkommen im Club"Der Westen(October 7, 2008). Retrieved February 11, 2012(in German)
  13. ^abHeinz Kiwitz,"Absage an Hitler" and woodcuts from Paris (scroll down)Archived2016-02-14 at theWayback Machinereprinted fromPariser Tageszeitung,Vol. 2, No. 440 (August 27, 1937). Retrieved February 11, 2012(in German)
  14. ^Literatur (click on menu at left)Archived2013-05-21 at theWayback MachineHeinz Kiwitz. Retrieved February 13, 2012(in German)
  15. ^CatalogueWorldCat. Städtische Galerie Lüdenscheid (1983). Retrieved February 13, 2012
  16. ^Stadtplan – Duisburg – Heinz-Kiwitz-StrStadtplan Duisburg. Retrieved February 10, 2012(in German)

Further reading

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  • Heinz Kiwitz Zeichnungen und Holzschnitte,Catalogue, Städtisches Kunstmuseum, Duisburg (1962)(in German)
  • Paul Bender,Heinz Kiwitz – Holzschnitte,Carl Lange Verlag, Duisburg (1963)(in German)
  • Ulrich Krempel and B. Hess, "Was war denn da schon zum Lachen? Heinz Kiwitz 1910-38", in:Sammlung-Jahrbuch 2 für antifaschistische Literatur und Kunst,Frankfurt am Main (1979)
  • Martina Ewers-Schulz,Heinz Kiwitz Druckgraphik.Catalogue, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, (1992)(in German)
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