Fritz Koelle

Fritz Koelle ( born March 10, 1895 in Augsburg, † August 4, 1953 in Probstzella ( in interzonal Munich-Berlin ) ) was a German sculptor.

Life

Characteristic of Koelles early works are his working-class sculptures, including " The miners before entering ", " The block Waltz " or " blast furnace workers."

Because of its " Bolshevik conception of art ' imprisonment in the concentration camp at Dachau is requested in 1934. A previously asked at the Munich Academy Professor in view is rejected by the state. After a few days Gestapo interrogation of the artist is finally released from prison and even receive government contracts, such as the contract to manufacture a Horst- Wessel - bust. He also participates in the GDK, so in 1937 the Saar coal miner with miner's lamp and 1942 with the stone crusher.

Immediately after the war Koelles artistic creation in the Nazi state is condemned in some media. Even now fail his attempts to obtain a professorship. To conform and adapt to the understanding of art of the Nazi regime were his works have been so loud the voices of his critics.

1946 Koelle is then recognized as a political refugee. In 1950, finally, the artist received a professorship at the Academy of Applied Arts in Berlin- Weissensee.

Particularly impressive and shocking is the 1946 proposed as a memorial to the Dachau concentration camp memorial sculpture " Inferno", but considered too cruel representation and was therefore rejected. Koelle made ​​then another plastic " concentration camp ", which was erected in front of the crematorium of Dachau concentration camp.

In Augsburg, the Fritz Koelle Street is named after him.

Works (selection)

Discount

Written estate is located in the archives of Fine Art in the Germanic National Museum.