Otto Nagel (27 September 1894 – 12 July 1967) was a German painter, graphic designer and long-time head of the
Berlin Academy of Arts who was one of the most prolific artists of
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 ...
.
Life
Born at
Berlin-Wedding
Wedding (german: der Wedding; ) is a locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany and was a separate borough in the north-western inner city until it was fused with Tiergarten and Mitte in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. At the same ti ...
, Nagel was the son of a carpenter and social democrat. After completing his basic schooling he briefly entered into an apprenticeship with a
stained glass painter, but soon broke this off. In 1912 he joined the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
. He was a
conscientious objector during the First World War, and was imprisoned for refusing to serve. After the war he first began to paint after being exposed to the work of
August Macke. He gradually became a staunch communist, joining the
Communist Party of Germany in 1920. Throughout the 1920s he was very active in the Berlin art scene, becoming acquainted with
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ' ...
,
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
, and many other notables. He became secretary of the
Workers International Relief
The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...
, and in 1922 he co-founded the "Artist's Relief" division thereof with
Erwin Piscator
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was a German theatre director and producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content o ...
. In 1924, Nagel joined the Red Group in Berlin and
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-38870-0003, Berlin, Otto Nagel, Otto Grotewohl, Kim Ir Sen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-38870-0003%2C_Berlin%2C_Otto_Nagel%2C_Otto_Grotewohl%2C_Kim_Ir_Sen.jpg)
accompanied an exhibition of young artists to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
. He was close friends with
Heinrich Zille
Rudolf Heinrich Zille (10 January 1858 – 9 August 1929) was a German illustrator, caricaturist, lithographer and photographer.
Childhood and education
Zille was born in Radeburg near Dresden, son of watchmaker Johann Traugott Zill (''Zille'' ...
and
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ' ...
, whose estate he later handled. Through Nagel, numerous writings about her work have been published. In 1925 he married the Russian singer-actress Valentina ("Walli") Nikitina.
From 1928 to 1931, he joined the
November Group and was a co-founder of the
Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists The Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists of Germany (German: ''Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands'', or ARBKD) was an organization of artists who were members of the Communist Party of Germany (''Kommunistische Parte ...
. From 1928 to 1932, he was publisher and editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine ''
Eulenspiegel''.
In 1933, Nagel was elected chairman of the
National Association of Visual Artists of Germany, but the election was annulled by the Nazis the next day. When the
Nazi
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 ...
s
seized power, much of Nagel's work was declared
degenerate
Degeneracy, degenerate, or degeneration may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Degenerate (album), ''Degenerate'' (album), a 2010 album by the British band Trigger the Bloodshed
* Degenerate art, a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party i ...
. He was forbidden to paint, and from 1936 to 1937 he was incarcerated in various
Nazi concentration camps, including
Sachsenhausen
Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...
.
After the end 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 opposi ...
, Nagel lived and worked in
Bergholz-Rehbrücke in
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...
,
Brandenburg
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...
, later part of
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 ...
. In 1945, he was one of the co-founders of the
Cultural Association of the GDR
The Cultural Association of the GDR (german: Kulturbund der DDR, KB) was a federation of local clubs in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It formed part of the Socialist Unity Party-led National Front, and sent representatives to the Volksk ...
. In 1952, he moved to
Berlin-Biesdorf. From 1956 to 1962, he was the president of the DDR
Academy of Arts, Berlin
The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany.
The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...
. He died at Berlin-Biesdorf in 1967 and was interred in the
Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde
The Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery (german: Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde) is a cemetery in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. It was the cemetery used for many of Berlin's Socialists, Communists, and anti-fascist fighters.
History
W ...
. In 1970, he was posthumously made an
honorary citizen of Berlin.
There is a
secondary school named for Nagel in Berlin-Biesdorf.
Otto-Nagel-Gymnasium
official website. Retrieved 24 January 2012
Sources
* Erhard Frommhold: ''Otto Nagel. Zeit, Leben, Werk'', Berlin, 1974
* Wolfgang Hütt: ''Welt der Kunst – Otto Nagel'', Henschelverlag. Kunst und Gesellschaft, Berlin, 1984
* Sepp Kern.
Nagel, Otto
" In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed 31 December 2011; subscription required).
* Heinz Lüdecke: ''Künstler der Gegenwart 1 – Otto Nagel'', VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden, 1959
* Gerhard Pommeranz-Liedtke: ''Otto Nagel und Berlin'', VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden, 1964
References
External links
*
*
Entry for Otto Nagel
in the Union List of Artist Names
The Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) is a free online database of the Getty Research Institute using a controlled vocabulary
Control may refer to:
Basic meanings Economics and business
* Control (management), an element of management
* Cont ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagel, Otto
1894 births
1967 deaths
People from Mitte
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
Communist Party of Germany members
Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Provisional Volkskammer
Members of the 1st Volkskammer
Cultural Association of the GDR members
East German artists
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
German male painters
Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors
Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold
Artists from Berlin