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In the summer of 1937, she met and befriended
When Paul Leo died suddenly in 1958, Eva Leo took over his Theological German students, reading
Eva Leo (2 December 1901 in
Geschichte Harjes Page 5, 2nd Photo
/ref> a metal sculptor in Burgdam. She spent a few months studying art with Wilhelm Groß (de), a wood sculptor in Eden nearAlsterdorf
Alsterdorf () is a quarter in the Hamburg-Nord borough of the Hamburg, Germany. The name derives from the river Alster and its artificial lakes Außenalster and Binnenalster in the centre of Hamburg. In 2020 the population was 15,227.
History
Arou ...
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Dittrich Eva 1938 1 Palmarum StNicolaus.jpg, Palm Sunday
Dittrich Eva 1938 2 Weihnachten StNicolaus.jpg, Christmas
Dittrich Eva 1938 3 Ostern StNicolaus.jpg, Easter
Dittrich Eva 1938 4 Himmelfahrt StNicolaus.jpg, Ascension
Dittrich Eva 1938 5 Pfingsten StNicolaus.jpg, Pentecost
Diepholz
Diepholz (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Deefholt'') is a town and capital of the district of Diepholz in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the rivers Hunte and Lohne, approximately 45 km northeast of Osnabrück, and 60 km southwest of ...
– 10 April 1998 in Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...
) was a German Master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
Metal Sculptor, the youngest child of Johannes Dittrich and his wife, Elisabeth Borchers Dittrich. She had three brothers and six sisters.
Education and profession
After finishing high school inBremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
and spending a year as an au pair in the household of her oldest sister, she enrolled in the University of the Arts Bremen
The University of the Arts Bremen (German: Hochschule für Künste Bremen, HfK Bremen) is a public university in Bremen, Germany. It is one of the most successful arts institutions, and its origins date back to 1873. The University of the Arts Br ...
to learn the art of China painting
China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porcel ...
. Her parents lived nearby in Lesum, where her father was the regional bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church. After finishing her studies in Bremen, she completed an apprenticeship with Friedrich Harjes,/ref> a metal sculptor in Burgdam. She spent a few months studying art with Wilhelm Groß (de), a wood sculptor in Eden near
Oranienburg
Oranienburg () is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.
Geography
Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.
Division of the town
Oranienburg ...
.
In 1932 she completed her Master’s examination in Hildesheim
Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the Lei ...
and became the first female Master Metal Sculptor in Germany. Without financial assistance, she outfitted a workshop in Hildesheim and established herself as a freelance sculptor. She built her reputation filling commissions for churches and church architects such as Rudolf Jäger, creating baptismal fonts, Communion services, crucifixes, candlesticks, lamps, and relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s depicting Biblical motifs.
In the summer of 1937, she met and befriended Paul Leo
Paul Leo (9 January 1893 in Göttingen – 10 February 1958 in Dubuque, Iowa) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. Of Jewish heritage, he advocated for endangered Jews during the Nazi era. After a brief imprisonment in Buchenwald conc ...
in an exhibit of religious art in the Neustädter Church in Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. They stayed in touch, exchanging letters and meeting from time to time. In November 1938, Leo was incarcerated in Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
because of his Jewish ancestry. He was released two months later with the requirement that he leave Germany within two months.
Voluntary emigration
Dittrich decided to resettle in the US together with Paul Leo and left Germany on August 30, 1939 (one day before the war started) with two suitcases and a round trip ticket toAmsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
, for a “weekend trip” so as not to arouse suspicion. They discovered that they would not be allowed to marry in Holland because of its status as a neutral country and the fact that their marriage would be illegal in Germany. As a refugee, Leo qualified for visas for himself and his daughter. Since Eva Dittrich was a non-Jewish German citizen, she was not in danger and not eligible for a visa. Together with Paul’s brother Ulrich Leo, his wife Helene, and their two sons, she traveled to Venezuela. In the summer of 1940, Paul Leo traveled to Venezuela and the two married in Caracas. On August 5, 1940, the family became US residents.
Until 1943, Paul and Eva Leo lived in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, Pennsylvania. In 1943 they moved to Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
where Paul ministered to congregations consisting of third and fourth generation German immigrants, first in Karnes City
Karnes City is a city in and county seat of Karnes County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,111 at the 2020 census, up from 3,042 at the 2010 census. The town was named after Henry Karnes of the Texas Revolution. Karnes is sout ...
and later in Cave Creek and Crabapple
''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries.
The genus is native plant, native to the temper ...
. In 1950, the family moved to Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Il ...
, where Paul became a professor of Greek and New Testament (along with Theological German) at Wartburg Theological Seminary
Wartburg Theological Seminary is a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Dubuque, Iowa. It offers three graduate-level degrees (MA, MA Diaconal Ministry, and M.Div.), a Theological Education for Emerging Ministries certificat ...
.
When Paul Leo died suddenly in 1958, Eva Leo took over his Theological German students, reading Karl Barth
Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Calvinist theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declara ...
and other theologians in the original German. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Theology by Wartburg Seminary for her contributions to the upcoming generation of theologians.
In 1960 she resumed her work as a metal sculptor, first by creating her husband’s grave marker. From 1960 until her death in 1998, her art consisted of reliefs for doors, altars, processional crosses, grave markers, and wall decorations. Eva Leo has two biological children and a stepdaughter: Anne Leo Ellis (1931, children’s writer); Christopher Leo (1941, political scientist) and Monica Leo (1944, puppeteer).
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leo, Eva German women sculptors American women sculptors 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century American sculptors 1901 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American women artists 20th-century German women artists German emigrants to the United States