Wilhelm Dachauer (5 April 1881 – 26 February 1951) was an Austrian painter. He studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna from 1899 to 1907 and was a professor at the academy from 1928 to 1944.

Life

Dachauer was in Ried im Innkreis on 5 April 1881 into a family of clockmakers. He was intended to continue his father's business but after some struggle, he was allowed to move to Vienna, where he had a time full of privations. He started an apprenticeship as decoration painter and in the nighttime he prepared for the Academy of Applied Arts. In 1899, 17-year-old Dachauer began his studies under the supervision of Professor Griepenkerl. In 1913, he had his first arguably successful exhibition at the Secession. He was appointed to an honored professorship of the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna in 1928, a position that he occupied until 1944. Temporarily, he was rector of the institution. Among his students were

Hildegard Joos Hildegard Joos (7 May 1909 in Sieghartskirchen, Lower Austria – 17 January 2005 in Vienna) was an Austrian painter and is known as the "Grande Dame" of geometric abstraction and constructivism (art), constructivism in Austria. Life Hildegard ...

, Maria Lassnig, Adalbert Pilch, and Peppino Wieternik (1919–1979). He was one of the founders and leaders of the Federation of German Painters, Austrian branch (Bund Deutscher Maler Österreichs), which from 1937 sought to bring together painters with National Socialist sympathies. Dachauer joined the Nazi party in July 1938. A Committee of Inquiry after the end of World War 2 found him not guilty of serving the Nazis through his work, however he was never reinstated to his post at the Academy of Fine Arts. Dachauer died in Vienna on 26 February 1951.

Opus

Dachauer was initially influenced by the art of the Secession and later developed a form of realism that was strongly dedicated to rural and regional arts. This style fitted well to the "official" taste of the Ständestaat and the National Socialist regime, so his work became somewhat disreputable after 1945. He was rather unconsciously known to the public by the design of some

stamp Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

series than for his other paintings. Among his stamp designs are the well-known set of the

Nibelungen The term Nibelung (German) or Niflungr (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root ''nebel'', meaning mist. The te ...

motifs and the

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

set; other motifs are:

Stille Nacht Stille may refer to: Geography *Stille (river), a river near Schmalkalden, Thuringia, Germany * Stille Musel, a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany Science *Stille reaction History * Stille Omgang, a religious procession in the Netherlands * Sti ...

and Johann Strauß. In 1926, Dachauer was awarded the Thomson medal for the most beautiful stamp in the world for the second stamp of the before mentioned

set. The design of this stamp has the title ''"Gunters Drachenschiff auf dem Weg nach Island"'' (Gunter's Dragon Boat on the Way to Iceland). This stamp has a nominal value of 8+2 g ( Groschen). After the

annexation Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

of Austria to the German Reich and the occupation of Poland, Dachauer designed several other stamps of the so-called Generalgouvernement and a few of the German Reich. He also made the designs for several Austrian stamps after World War II, among them the so-called ''Homecomer series''. Ten glass windows and one altarpiece of the Franziskaner hospital chapel in Ried 1928 are designs of Dachauer. More conserved works are the portraits of

Julius Wagner-Jauregg Julius Wagner-Jauregg (; 7 March 1857 – 27 September 1940) was an Austrian physician, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1927, and is the first psychiatrist to have done so. His Nobel award was "for his discovery of the therapeu ...

and Viktor Kaplan. Nowadays a street—the ''Wilhelm-Dachauer Straße'' in Essling, the 22nd borough of Vienna—is named after Dachauer.

References

Literature

Wilhelm Dachauer, ''Gemälde und Briefmarken'', Österr. Bundesverlag, Vienna 1963.

External links

* http://www.archiv-verlag.at/inhalte/loseblatt/oberoearchiv1.html (in German) * http://www.artnet.com/artist/659675/wilhelm-dachauer.html

Nibelungen drawing, Wilhelm Dachauer Centenary, Austria 1981 issue {{DEFAULTSORT:Dachauer, Wilhelm 1881 births 1951 deaths 20th-century Austrian painters Austrian male painters Austrian stamp designers Art Nouveau painters Art Nouveau illustrators People from Ried im Innkreis District Nazi Party members 20th-century Austrian male artists