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Andreas Paul Weber (1 November 1893 – 9 November 1980) was a German lithographer and painter.


Early life

Weber grew up in
Arnstadt Arnstadt () is a town in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, on the river Gera (river), Gera about south of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. Arnstadt is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia, and has a well-preserved historic centre with a partially ...
, where his father was a rail assistant. Encouraged by his mother and grandfather, he briefly attended the Kunstgewerbeschule Erfurt (School for decorative and applied arts) before joining the Jungwandervogel, a movement of Germans who wanted to start a new lifestyle closer to nature, in 1908. Weber served in the Jungwandervogel until 1914, when he was drafted in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. He was conscripted to fight on the Eastern Front, before working as a
caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Abril Lamarque (1904–1999) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfre ...
for an army magazine. He began to come into his own when it came to art and lithography, as he had his work published in such journals as the ''Magazine for National Revolutionary Politics.''


Family

In 1920, Weber married Toni Klander, with whom he had five children. He and his son Christian started a design press in 1925, where they produced
logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
s,
bookplate An , also known as a bookplate (or book-plate, as it was commonly styled until the early 20th century), is a printed or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front endpaper, to indicate ownership. Simple typographical bookplates are ...
s and advertising graphics.


Work

Weber left behind an extensive graphic and lithographic body of work. Among other things, he dealt with the topics of
Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
,
politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
, the environment and medicine. He also designed commercial graphics and a number of book illustrations. Other series of images are ''The Chess Players'', portrait caricatures,
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
/
allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...
representations of animals and drawings for the magazine '' Resistance'' published by
Ernst Niekisch Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and political theorist. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASP), he later became a prominent exponent of th ...
. ''Journal of National Revolutionary Politics''; the best known is probably the lithograph ''Das Gerücht'' (''The Rumor''). The series ''British Pictures'' (1941) and ''Leviathan, was'' later criticized as war propaganda.


Ideological background

Weber was openly
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
, and worked in illustration for many antisemitic publications. He also became a member of a
National Bolshevik National Bolshevism, whose supporters are known as National Bolsheviks and colloquially as Nazbols, is a syncretic political movement committed to combining ultranationalism and Bolshevik communism. History and origins In Germany Nation ...
group when
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
rose to power in Germany. As a result, he was imprisoned by the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
in 1937 and sent to
Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp is an urban quarter in the north of Hamburg, Germany in the Hamburg-Nord district. It is known as the site of Hamburg's international airport, and as the location of a prison which served as a concentration camp in the Nazi system of repression. ...
however was released shortly after.


Later life

Weber's relationship to the Nazi regime was ambivalent. Due to his work with a National Bolshevik resistance movement, headed by
Ernst Niekisch Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and political theorist. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASP), he later became a prominent exponent of th ...
, against the regime, he was sent to the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp on 2 July 1937. He later spent time in regular prisons until December 15. Some of his nationalist and anti-Communist works came in to the liking of the
Reich Ministry of Propaganda The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (, RMVP), also known simply as the Ministry of Propaganda (), controlled the content of the press, literature, visual arts, film, theater, music and radio in Nazi Germany. The ministr ...
and published during wartime. During the final months of the war, Weber was enrolled in to the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
and served in the Eastern Front. After 1945, Weber lived in Großschretstaken near Mölln. In 1951, the ''A. Paul Weber Circle was founded in the'' Hamburg Griffelkunst Association – for which Weber had been working from 1940. From then on he received financial support from the Griffelkunst Association. In 1955 he was awarded the Art Prize of the State of Schleswig-Holstein and in 1963 the Hans Thoma Medal. In 1971 he received an honorary professorship from the state of Schleswig-Holstein "in appreciation of his complete work as a graphic artist.  Weber was also awarded the
Great Cross of Merit Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (bo ...
in 1971 by the then Federal President
Gustav Heinemann Gustav Walter Heinemann (; 23 July 1899 – 7 July 1976) was a German politician who was President of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He served as mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, and Mini ...
. Heinemann was one of his great admirers and it was also the one who opened the ''A. Paul Weber Museum on the cathedral peninsula in'' Ratzeburg in 1973 on the occasion of Weber's 80th birthday.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Andreas Paul 1893 births 1980 deaths German lithographers German Army personnel of World War I German Army personnel of World War II German fascists German prisoners and detainees National Bolsheviks 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists 20th-century lithographers Prisoners of Nazi concentration camps