Peter Ludwigs (16 February 1888,

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

– 3 July 1943,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

) was a German sculptor and

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painter. He is primarily known for his later,

Anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

paintings.

Biography

He was born into an old family of manufacturers. Initially, he studied sculpture at the (a

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for the ...

) and the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...

in Brussels. In 1911, he moved to Düsseldorf and got married. From 1915 to 1918, he was a voluntary participant 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 ...

, an experience that left him opposed to militarism. A year after his return, he joined the left-wing ''Aktivistenbund 1919'' ("Neuen Gesellschaft für künstlerische Kultur"). He was also one of the co-founders of "

Young Rhineland Young Rhineland (Das Junge Rheinland) was an association of avant-garde artists formed in Düsseldorf on 24 February 1919. History The poet Herbert Eulenberg was one of the main instigators of the group, along with painter Arthur Kaufmann and ...

". During this time, he turned from sculpture to painting; with an emphasis on social commentary. In 1922, he became a member of the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

(KPD). Two years later, he was one of the co-founders of the satirical journal ''Die Peitsche'' (the whip). Together with and Gert Heinrich Wollheim, he published cartoons and graphics in opposition to militarism and supporting "class justice". He and several other left-leaning German painters also participated in the "First General Art Exhibition" in Moscow (1924). After "Young Rhineland" broke up, he became a board member of its successor, the "Rhenish Secession". In 1929 he, Schwesig, , , Julo Levin, and the actor/director Wolfgang Langhoff created the

Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists The Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists of Germany (German: ''Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands'', or ARBKD) was an organization of artists who were members of the Communist Party of Germany (''Kommunistische Part ...

(known in German as ASSO). After

Hitler's rise to power The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He quickly rose t ...

in 1933, his paintings were classified as " degenerate art" and banned from being shown in public. Cut off from his livelihood and increasingly impoverished, he joined the Resistance and distributed illegal Communist pamphlets. He also became part of a group of Anti-fascist artists in Düsseldorf, who offered each other mutual financial support and protection, centered around the painter,

Otto Pankok Otto Pankok (6 June 1893 – 10 October 1966) was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Biography Pankok was born in Mülheim on the Ruhr. In 1912 he began his formal training as an artist at the Art Academies in Düsseldorf and Weima ...

. His activities put him under constant surveillance by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

and he was arrested in 1937, on suspicion of

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its d ...

, but released in 1938. In February, 1943, he was arrested again and sent to , where he was assigned to a labor gang doing heavy road-clearing work. A combination of exhaustion and

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...

deprivation (he was

diabetic Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

) caused his death in July. In 1962, a monument was erected in the , commemorating Ludwigs, Julo Levin and

Franz Monjau Franz Monjau (30 January 1903, Cologne - 28 February 1945, KZ Buchenwald) was a German Expressionist painter and art teacher. Biography His father, Max Monjau, was a manufacturer from Barmen. His mother Paula, née Meyer, was the daughter of a ...

. A

stolperstein A (; plural ) is a concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. Literal translation, Literally, it means 'stumbling stone' and metaphorically 'stumbling block'. ...

was later placed at his residence in Düsseldorf. Thirty of his paintings are on display at the

Museum Kunstpalast The Kunstpalast, formerly Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf is an art museum in Düsseldorf. History The roots of the museum go back around 300 years. In 1932, the collection of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Art) was housed in the Kunstmus ...

."Von Künstlern, die im Rheinland aktiv waren, besitzt die Sammlung nicht selten größere Konvolute – in der Kunst vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg beispielsweise gut 30 Gemälde von Peter Ludwigs" (PDF)
auf rak-bonn.de, in ''Zum Werknachlass des Malers

Walter Ophey Walter Hugo Ophey (25 March 1882 – 11 January 1930) was a German painter and graphic designer, known for Rhenish Expressionism. He was a member of the Sonderbund group and Young Rhineland art groups. Biography Walter Hugo Ophey was born o ...

(1882–1930) im Museum Kunstpalast'', retrieved 10 May 2016.

Selected paintings

Ludwigs-Table.jpg, Working Family at the Table (Mealtime) Ludwigs-War.jpg, The War Ludwigs-Widows.jpg, War Widows Ludwigs-Mother.jpg, Mother B. (at Düsseldorf Prison)

References

External links

''Peter Ludwigs''
Data at RKD (

Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

)
Gerda Kaltwasser: ''Peter Ludwigs – ein verfolgter Künstler''. Rheinische Post, Düsseldorfer Stadtpost, 23 January 1982
from Frauen-Kultur-Archiv
"Peter Ludwigs, Robert Pudlich, Luzie Uptmoor im Eingang der Galerie"

Johanna Ey Johanna Ey (4 March 1864 – 27 August 1947) was a German art dealer during the 1920s. She became known as ''Mutter Ey'' (Mother Ey) for the nurturing support she provided to her artists, who included Max Ernst and Otto Dix. Biography Ey was ...

in the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf
Peter Ludwigs, Life and work
@ Memoriart {{DEFAULTSORT:Ludwigs, Peter 1888 births 1943 deaths 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German Expressionist painters German anti-fascists German communists Deaths from diabetes in Germany Artists from Aachen Painters from North Rhine-Westphalia German people who died in the Holocaust German military personnel of World War I