Hermann Struck (6 March 1876 – 11 January 1944) was a German Jewish artist known for his etchings.

Biography

Hermann Struck (Chaim Aaron ben David) was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He studied at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. In 1904, he joined the modern art movement known as the

Berlin Secession The Berlin Secession was an art movement established in Germany on May 2, 1898. Formed in reaction to the Association of Berlin Artists, and the restrictions on contemporary art imposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65 artists "seceded," demonstrating ag ...

. In 1900, Struck met Jozef Israëls, a Dutch artist, who became his mentor. Both were recognized as leading artists of their time."Here and There" Smadar Sheffi, ''Haaretz Guide'', March 7, 2008, review of Herman Struck retrospective: Master Print Maker,Open Museum, Tefen Industrial Park, Israel In 1908, Struck published "Die Kunst des Radierens" ("The Art of Etching"), which became a seminal work on the subject. It was a textbook that offered both theory and practical instruction. Struck's students included Marc Chagall,

Lovis Corinth Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Sec ...

Jacob Steinhardt Jacob Steinhardt (1887–1968) ( he, יעקב שטיינהרדט) was a German-born Israeli painter and woodcut artist. Biography Jacob Steinhardt was born in Zerkow, German Empire (now Żerków, Poland). He attended the School of Art in Berli ...

, Lesser Ury and Max Liebermann. In 1899, upon completing his studies at the Berlin Academy, he was banned from teaching there because he was Jewish. He signed his work with his Hebrew name, Chaim Aaron ben David, and a Star of David. Struck did commission portraits of Ibsen,

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...

, Freud,

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

, Herzl, Oscar Wilde and other leading figures of the time. Struck was a fervent

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after '' Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

and Jewish activist. He visited the Land of Israel in 1903, displayed his art at the Fifth

Zionist Congress The Zionist Congress was established in 1897 by Theodor Herzl as the supreme organ of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its legislative authority. In 1960 the names were changed to World Zionist Congress ( he, הקונגרס הציוני העו ...

, and was a founder of the Mizrachi Religious Zionist movement. At the same time, he was a German patriot and volunteered for military service in World War I serving as a translator, liaison officer and military artist. He was awarded the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...

1st Class and promoted to an officer for bravery, in 1917 he became the referent for Jewish affairs at the German Eastern Front High Command Struck immigrated to Palestine in 1922, taught at Bezalel Academy and helped establish the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He visited Berlin every summer until the Nazis rose to power. He died in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

Collections

Struck Museum

Struck's home in Haifa has been open as the Hermann Struck Museum since 2013.

Other institutions

Besides the Hermann Struck Museum, Struck's work is held in the collections of several other institutions worldwide. These include the Brooklyn Museum, the Jewish Museum (Manhattan), the Haifa Museum of Art, the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

, the

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall ori ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Selected works

File:Land Israel by Hermann Struck (5058192938).jpg, Jaffa File:Hermann Struck Grafik JMBerlin GDR 87 2 0.jpg, Portrait of

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern po ...

File:Lithografie von Hermann Struck.jpg, Lithograph of a rabbi. In the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland. File:Eretz Israel Hermann Struck.png, Woodcut by Hermann Struck which reads "The land of Israel" in Hebrew. In the

Leo Baeck Institute The Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955, is an international research institute with centres in New York City, London, and Jerusalem that are devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. Baeck was its first intern ...

's collection.

References

External links

Figureworks.com/20th Century work
*Brows
''digitized art works by Hermann Struck''
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Struck, Hermann Jewish artists German etchers German Zionists Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design faculty German art educators 1876 births 1944 deaths German lithographers Jews in Ottoman Palestine Jews in Mandatory Palestine German Jewish military personnel of World War I Artists from Berlin German emigrants to Mandatory Palestine 20th-century lithographers