Joseph Carl Meffert (26 March 1903 in

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

, Germany – 27 December 1988 in

Sirnach Sirnach is a municipality in the district of Münchwilen in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. Geography Sirnach has an area, , of . Of this area, or 53.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 24.9% is forested. Of the rest of ...

, Switzerland), better known by his ''nom de plume'' Clément Moreau, was a politically and socially conscious graphic designer and artist. His best-known work is the

wordless novel The wordless novel is a narrative genre that uses sequences of captionless pictures to tell a story. As artists have often made such books using woodcut and other relief printing techniques, the terms woodcut novel or novel in woodcuts are a ...

''Night over Germany''.

Personal life

Josef Carl Meffert was born out-of-wedlock in

, Germany on 26 March 1903. After a difficult childhood, he spent 1914 to 1918 in two hospitals in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

. In 1927, he moved to Berlin, where he came into contact 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 ''T ...

Emil Orlik Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

Heinrich Vogeler Heinrich Vogeler (December 12, 1872 – June 14, 1942) was a German painter, designer, and architect, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Early life He was born in Bremen, and studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1 ...

Otto Nagel 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. Life Born at Berlin-Wedding, Nagel was the son ...

and

John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 20th century German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements ...

, among others. Thanks in part to their encouragement, Meffert produced his first graphic works, as well as book and magazine illustrations for the workers' press. A passionate relationship developed with Sonja Marchlewska, the wife of Heinrich Vogeler, who had referred the then drug addict to Käthe Kollwitz. He went into exile in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in 1935, where he worked at the

Argentinisches Tageblatt ''Argentinisches Tageblatt'' () is a German-language weekly newspaper published every Friday in Buenos Aires, Argentina. History The newspaper was founded by a Swiss immigrant from Bern, Johann Alemann, and his son, Moritz, in 1878. It was firs ...

newspaper.

References

* Jean-Michel Palmier, ''Weimar in exile: the antifascist emigration in Europe and America'', Verso, 2006 * Dietrich Grünewald: Bilder sprechen ohne Worte. Carl Meffert/Clement Moreau. In: Deutsche Comicforschung Jahrbuch 2011. Comic+-Verlag Sackmann und Hörndl, Hildesheim 2010, S. 64–76. * Werner Mittenzwei: Carl Meffert/Clement Moreau. Ein Leben auf der Suche nach der Brüderlichkeit des Menschen. Henschelverlag Berlin 1977 * Dorothea Peters: Moreau, Clément. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, , S. 94–96 (Digitalisat). * Widerstand statt Anpassung. Deutsche Kunst im Widerstand gegen den Faschismus 1933–1945. Hrsg. vom Badischen Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, in Zusammenarbeit mit Elefanten Press, Berlin. Berlin 1980 * Hermann Schnorbach: Clement Moreaus Zeitungskarikaturen als Vorbild für Hitler-Figuren von Bertolt Brecht. In: Viktoria Hertling, Wulf Koepke, Jörg Thunecke (Hrsg.): Hitler im Visier. Literarische Satiren und Karikaturen als Waffe gegen den Nationalsozialismus. ARCO Verlag, Wuppertal 2005, S. 175–192. * Hermann Schnorbach: Kinder flüchten vor Hitlers Weltkrieg. „Tim Tom und Mary“ - Eine Bilderfolge von Carl Meffert/Clement Moreau. Verlag Dietmar Fölbach, Koblenz 2011 * Rainer Zimmermann: Expressiver Realismus. Malerei der verschollenen Generation, Hirmer, München 1994, S. 418 Artists from Koblenz 1903 births 1988 deaths People from the Rhine Province {{Germany-artist-stub