August-Macke-Haus
The August Macke House ( the official name ) is a museum in Bonn, which is decorated in a formerly inhabited by the Expressionist painter August Macke house. Besides the permanent exhibition of the studio Macke's also special to Expressionism, Rhenish Expressionism and / or the Rhenish painting. The August- Macke-Haus stands as a monument historical monument.
History
On October 5, 1909 August Macke married his longtime girlfriend, Elisabeth Gerhardt. The couple first lived at Tegernsee, then again in Bonn. Macke painted more and more, increasingly found its direction and desperately needed a studio. This was set up in a house of his mother- Bonner, Sophie Gerhardt, Bornheimer Straße 88 (now 96) in the attic. Their husband, the entrepreneur Carl Heinrich Gerhardt, had bought the house in 1884 as an archive of his company and set up according to purposes. He died in 1907. Macke In February 1911 moved with his wife and son Walter in this house. The studio was Macke's first and only. The few years that he was able to work there, were his most productive. Most of his works originated there. He often painted his surroundings, the view from the house, the streets and the garden. Macke had relatively made for that time and many long journeys to get to know modern painting, innovative artists and new environments. Now he had a place to receive his friends: The Bonn Student Max Ernst, Guillaume Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay, Gabriele Münter, Paul Klee and Franz Marc came to visit. With the latter, Macke painted 1912, the large mural " paradise " on the studio wall. It was demolished in 1980 and is now in the Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History in Münster.
1914 Macke fell shortly after the war began in France at age 27. After two years, his widow married a friend of her husband, Lothar Erdmann, and lived with him and the two sons Macke (later two more children by Erdmann were added ) in the same house until 1925, when she moved to Berlin. The house was rented out for it, but not the studio. Her second husband died in 1939 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Elisabeth returned in 1948 in the house and established himself in the studio, where she lived until 1975, and then move back to Berlin, where she died in 1978.
It was not known in Bonn that August Macke had lived and worked in the city. Two students, Gerhard Pfafferott and Arn Strohmeyer, knew about it in 1972 and wrote a letter to Elisabeth Erdmann - Macke, that they wanted to donate a blackboard on which the residence of the painter should be noted in the city. The bronze plaque, reminiscent of August Macke, was affixed in the presence of the students and Ms. Erdmann - Macke at the house and hangs there today.
That does not stand up to this point is a listed building acquired by the translocation of the aforementioned mural a Berlin building contractor, who wanted to remove the seeds and convert the house into a restaurant. Margaret Jochimsen, chairman of the Bonner Kunstverein, founded a citizens' initiative to make the house a national monument and thus prevent the conversion. In 1989, the club " August Macke House " was founded, which is responsible for the artistic program of the museum. In the same year the house was bought by the state of North Rhine -Westphalia and the sponsor and contractor Herbert Hillebrand to be properly restored, to be recovered only studio Macke and to be made available to the public.
On September 26, 1991, the August- Macke-Haus, was inaugurated in the presence of the Minister President of North Rhine -Westphalia, Johannes Rau. The financial wearer of the house, the " Foundation August Macke Haus der Sparkasse Bonn ", was founded in 1994.
Facility
In August - Macke-Haus is the studio Macke - restored - even with furniture from his Tegernsee time. A basic archive of the Rhenish Expressionism is present in addition to a reference library. Regular exhibitions are held in this memorial and research center.