Egon Tschirch (

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

, 22 June 1889–5 February 1948) was a German painter and illustrator. In the 1920s, he was regarded as one of the most important artists of

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

.''Egon Tschirch: Leben und Werk'' (Monograph), Kulturhistorische Gesellschaft Rostock e.V. (ed.), Rostock: Hinstorff Verlag GmbH, 2020, After the 1930s, Tschirch was viewed with skepticism due to his affiliation with

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

and being a member of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

. In 2015, the rediscovery of a major work of his, his '' Song of Songs'' picture cycle, initiated discussion and re-evaluation of the artist and his work.''Egon Tschirch in Art Museum Ahrenshoop''. https://kunstmuseum-ahrenshoop.de/ausstellungen/rueckschau/tschirch/ Website Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop. Retrieved July 22, 2022.

Early years in the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

From 1907 to 1912, Egon Tschirch attended three prestigious art academies in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Among his teachers were

Bruno Paul Bruno Paul (19 January 1874 – 17 August 1968) was a German architect, illustrator, interior designer, and furniture designer. Trained as a painter in the royal academy just as the Munich Secession developed against academic art, he first ca ...

and Anton von Werner. In 1914, a study trip to

Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

awakened his preference for vibrant colours. Tschirch fought in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After being injured, he worked at the Imperial army press office in Berlin, producing posters for the department of pictorial propaganda from 1916 to the end of the war. These posters featured darkly colored war targets with corresponding text and messages encouraging wartime perseverance. He returned to Rostock after the war.

Artistic breakthrough in the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

His most important creative period lasted from 1919 to the late 1920s. His productivity and willingness to experiment made him a fitful, yet successful, artist in

during the early

Golden Twenties The Golden Twenties ( also known as the Happy Twenties (german: Glückliche Zwanziger Jahre), was a five-year time period within the decade of the 1920s in Germany. The era began in 1924 after the end of the hyperinflation following on World War ...

. Some prominent examples of his work during this time were ''Boats with Fishermen'' (1922) at the Rostock Museum of Cultural History and ''Warnow Fishermen'' (1923) at Rostock Art Gallery. In 1923, Tschirch created his

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

cycle of paintings centered around the biblical '' Song of Songs''. They were rediscovered in 2015 after being lost for more than 90 years. Tschirch was also considered a master of

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

art who was adept at capturing the character and traits of his clients. Several members of Mecklenburg's

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

were portrayed by him. Examples of this are the portrait '' Max Samuel'' (1920) and the series of twenty ''Heads'' (1921), the latter of which was only labeled with numbers.

Affiliation with Nazism

Beginning in the early

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central United States become dry a ...

, there was little significant artistic development in Tschirch's work. His art consisted of objective and realistic themes. In the emerging era of

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

, Egon Tschirch identified with national socialist views. In 1931 he joined the Nazi Party. He produced several works on commission in the service of the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

as well as commissions from private individuals that enabled him to live a comfortable life until the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. When the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, the genocide of Jews by Nazi Germany, began and his hometown was destroyed in 1942, Tschirch began to criticise the Nazi regime. One of his paintings from this time hangs in St. Mary's Church in Rostock, depicting the church surrounded by the city’s ruins. In 1948, Egon Tschirch died childless in Rostock at the age of 58.

Reception

In the summer of 1937, there were discussions about whether some of his works from the early 1920s should be classified as

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

and removed from the State Museum Schwerin. The intervention of advocates on his behalf prevented this. Tschirch was treated with caution and largely forgotten in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

.''Ingrid Möller: Das mecklenburgische Reutergeld von 1921.'' Pekrul & Sohn GbR, Edition digital 2015, p. 379, The first monograph on his life and work was published in 2020.

Selected images

Egon Tschirch - Sommertag (1919).jpg, ''Sommertag, Summer day'' (1919) Egon Tschirch - Bassin Kairouan (1914).jpg, ''Bassins des Aglabites, Kairouan (Tunisia) (1914)'' Propaganda im Ersten Weltkrieg - Was der Feind will II (1918).jpg, ''Was der Feind will, What the enemy wants (1917/18)'' Max Samuel Portrait with suede brush.jpg, '' Max Samuel (1920),(Portrait with suede brush)'' Egon Tschirch - Line Ristow (Köpfe, 1921).jpg, ''Köpfe, Heads (1921), (Portrait Line Ristow)'' Egon Tschirch - Die zerstörte Stadt - 1942.jpg, ''Die zerstörte Stadt, The destroyed town (

)''(1942) Egon Tschirch - Signatur.jpg, Egon Tschirch´s signature

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tschirch, Egon German male painters 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German Expressionist painters 1889 births 1948 deaths People from Rostock Artists from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania