THE ERNST BARLACH FOUNDATION IN GÜSTROW
Journal Title: Muzealnictwo - Year 2015, Vol 56, Issue
Abstract
It is rather unusual that as many as four German museums within the remit of three independent institutions are devoted to one artist – Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), a representative of modernist art, sculptor, graphic artist and writer, whose life and work significantly influenced 20th-century art history. His life and works have been commemorated in four places, two of which are museums in Wedel (the artist’s birthplace) and in Ratzenburg (where he spent his youth), managed by the Ernst Barlach Association in Hamburg. Meanwhile, the Ernst Barlach House in Hamburg preserves the collection once created by the manufacturer Hermann F. Reemtsma (1892–1961), which is exhibited in a museum in Jenisch Park (Hamburg– Nienstedten) designed by the architect Werner Kallmorgen (1902–1979). The Ernst Barlach Foundation stores the artist’s legacy, the world’s most comprehensive set of his works from the years 1888–1938, in Güstrow in Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania. The creation of the Foundation immortalised the artist’s history and creative development. He died in Rostock in September 1938 and Nikolaus Barlach (1906–2001), his son and only heir, inherited not only the artist’s estate but also his legacy. The son preserved the collection with the help of experts on Barlach’s work. He managed to keep it undamaged even during the Nazi period. After 1945, he delegated the task of preserving his father’s legacy to Friedrich Schult (1889–1978), a drawing teacher from Güstrow, whose major achievement was publishing the first catalogues of Barlach’s works between 1958 and 1971. However, in the East Germany formed in 1949, Barlach’s works were widely controversial. Once both German states had been united in 1990, the political order changed and after some negotiations, the whole legacy preserved in Güstrow together with the house–workshop was sold by the heirs to trustees from the Foundation of Culture of Federal States in 1993, who recommended at the same time that the goods form part of a foundation for the public benefit. The Federal Republic of Germany, the Foundation of Culture and the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were deeply involved in this purchase. The Foundation deals with Barlach’s life and work, but its main field of activity are museum works: storing, collecting, preserving, researching and promoting the artist’s output. It also functions as a research centre for Barlach’s work, arranges international cooperation in its projects with other museums and institutions, organises exhibitions and issues various publications.
Authors and Affiliations
Volker Probst
Keywords
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