User:Eli185/Ugi Battenberg

Ugi Battenberg (born March 11, 1879 in Alzey; died June 12, 1957 in Bad Nauheim) was a German painter and Nazi party member.

Life and work

Ugi Battenberg was the eldest son of the teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Battenberg and his wife Mathilde. His parents gave him the first name Heinrich Rudolf Hermann; the short name Ugi goes back to the early neologism of his sister Mathilde Battenberg, who was one year older. The family moved to Frankfurt in 1884. Battenberg attended a Frankfurt grammar school and was admitted to the Städel Art School at the age of 17, initially in Christoph Hausmann's sculpture class. He met his future wife, Fridel Carl (1880-1965), as a 15-year-old, whose wealthy family was reluctant to marry him, but finally relented in 1897 and agreed to the engagement two years later; eight years later, in 1907, the marriage took place.

After completing his military service (1898), Battenberg continued his studies, albeit, contrary to the usual conventions, with a female painter: Ottilie W. Roederstein, his sister Mathilde's teacher, stayed in Barbizon in 1900 - a great stroke of luck for him -, studied in Paris with Gustave Courtois and from 1902 with Max Thedy in Weimar, where he met Max Beckmann, a meeting that had far-reaching consequences for both of them. Max Beckmann would depict him and his wife in many of his paintings, for example in The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main, 1919 and vice versa (Frankfurter Mainufer, 1921). Battenberg attracted attention on the art scene in 1905 with a solo exhibition in Frankfurt. Further exhibitions and commissions followed. He achieved public recognition with his portraits, nudes, still lifes, landscapes and interiors.

He created religious paintings for St. Peter's Church in Frankfurt, where his father had been a priest since 1884. Battenberg was soon “despite criticism of his paintings and a lack of protection ... one of the most interesting and promising talents of the younger Frankfurt artistic tradition”[3]

In 1908, the couple Ugi and Fridel Battenberg moved into an apartment with a studio (attic) in the house of their parents-in-law Carl in Schweizer Straße. His wife's fortune gave Ugi Battenberg a free hand to develop his art of painting. The Battenbergs took their friend Max Beckmann into their home in 1915, initially to care for him;[4] Battenberg gave Beckmann his studio, which he used as an apartment and - after the sale of the house in 1919, the Battenbergs moved - as a studio until 1932.

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Thanks to his connections, Battenberg managed to avoid being sent to the front during the First World War and worked as an inspector for Frankfurt's military hospitals. After the war, he was a member of the Frankfurt Painters' Committee, distanced himself from the conservative Frankfurt Painters' Guild and supported the redesign and modernization of Frankfurt's cultural life. After the First World War, the couple first moved to the right bank of the Main[5] (picture: Frankfurter Mainufer), then in 1932, when the economic situation had developed to their disadvantage, to a more modest new city apartment. During the National Socialist era, Battenberg tried in vain to gain advantages for his promotion by joining the NSDAP party; he was accused of hostility to the state and contacts with Jewish painters. After a bombing raid in 1943 - the studio in Kaiserstrasse was destroyed, but the paintings there were saved - the Battenbergs moved to Bad Nauheim to live with the painter Milli Langebartels. Battenberg received an honorary pension from the city of Frankfurt until his death.

Achievements

Together with his wife Fridel (pianist) and his sister Mathilde (painter), Ugi Battenberg was one of the artists who significantly revitalized Frankfurt's culture between the wars. Battenberg developed late Impressionist ideas and had a decisive influence on artists such as Max Beckmann. After the Second World War, works by Beckmann were acquired from the Battenberg Collection, thus closing gaps torn by the Nazi state: Beckmann's art was deemed unworthy of protection from 1937 onwards and was destroyed if necessary.[6]

Publications (selection)

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• Stillleben (1903/4)
• Damenbildnis (1905)
• Jacob Emden (1905; Porträt)
• Theodor Neubürger (1907; Porträt)
• Stillleben mit Rosen, Früchten und Flasche (um 1910)
• Rosenstillleben (um 1920)
• Frankfurter Mainufer (1921)
• Maria und Johannes auf Golgatha (1927)
• Frankfurtansicht mit Regenbogen (nach 1929)
• Selbstbildnisse (1933; 1941; 1942)
• Bildnis Susi Veit (1941)
• Damenbildnis Helene L. (1944/5)

Literatur

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• Esther Walldorf: Der Maler Ugi Battenberg – Biografie und Einblick in sein künstlerisches Werk. In: Hg. v. 1822-Stiftung der Frankfurter Sparkasse: Die Künstlerfamilie Battenberg. Schüler O. W. Roedersteins und Freunde Max Beckmanns. Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 40–74 (Walldorf wertet zahlreiche Ausstellungskataloge und verstreute Belege, auch in den Briefen von Max Beckmann aus.)
• Esther Walldorf: Von Weimar in die Schweizer Straße 3. Max Beckmann und die lieben Ugis. In: Hg. v. 1822-Stiftung der Frankfurter Sparkasse: Die Künstlerfamilie Battenberg. Schüler O. W. Roedersteins und Freunde Max Beckmanns. Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 75–84

Weblinks

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• Bildnis Fridel Battenbergs, Städel Museum Frankfurt am Main.
• Städel Museum Frankfurt am Main.
• Battenberg, Ugi. Hessische Biografie. (Stand: 6. März 2023). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).