Karl Völker (17 October 1889 – 28 December 1962) was a German architect and painter associated with the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...

movement. He was born in

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt Halle (Saale), or simply Halle (; from the 15th to the 17th century: ''Hall in Sachsen''; until the beginning of the 20th century: ''Halle an der Saale'' ; from 1965 to 1995: ''Halle/Saale'') is the largest city of the German state of Saxony-Anh ...

. After an apprenticeship as an interior decorator from 1904 to 1910, he studied from1912–1913 at the

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

School of Arts and Crafts where

Richard Guhr Richard Guhr (30 September 1873 – 27 September 1956) was a German sculptor and painter. He became also known as one of the most important teachers of Otto Dix. Biography Guhr was born in Schwerin in 1873. At an age of 17 he came to Dresden, th ...

was his teacher. His first solo exhibition was in 1918 at the Halle Kunstverein. Völker was the director of the Halle Artists Group, founded in 1919 and associated with the Berlin November Group.Crockett, 141. In the early years of 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 ...

he contributed many articles and prints to newspapers of the KPD (

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

). He joined the Berlin "Red Group" in 1924 and was a contributor to the journal ''Das Wort''.Michalski, 219. His early paintings, such as ''Industriebild'' (''Industrial Picture'', 1923) are in a constructivist style.Schmied, 15. His painting ''Railroad Station'' (1924) celebrates both the station—newly built by Halle's KPD government—and the unity of the mass workers descending the stairs. He worked as an architect until 1933, when

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

took power. Declared a

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, ...

ist by 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, he was forced to support himself from 1933 to 1943 performing architectural conservation work. After military service in

World War II 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 ...

he resumed working as an architect and painter. In 1949 he had a retrospective exhibition at the Moritzburgmuseum in Halle. He died in Halle in 1962.

Notes

References

* Crockett, Dennis (1999). ''German Post-expressionism: the Art of the Great Disorder, 1918-1924''. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press. * Michalski, Sergiusz (1994). ''New Objectivity''. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. * Schmied, Wieland (1978). ''Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties''. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. 1889 births 1962 deaths 20th-century German architects People from Halle (Saale) People from the Province of Saxony Conservation architects German contemporary artists {{Germany-artist-stub