{"id":5135,"date":"2024-08-08T16:26:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T14:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/?post_type=avada_portfolio&p=5135"},"modified":"2025-01-07T17:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T16:01:06","slug":"hess","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/kunst-raub-rueckgabe.de\/en\/biografie\/hess\/","title":{"rendered":"A Firework of the Avant-garde"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fairytale World of Art<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Colour<\/span>
A wooden toy town made by Lyonel Feininger.<\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons \ud83d\udd0d Hover over image to enlarge <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

As a young boy, Hans received wooden toys as gifts from a friend of his parents. The toys, which were carved and painted by hand, included houses, towers and bridges, churches and fountains, and figures wearing large hats. Hans\u2019s collection grew with every birthday and Christmas.<\/p>\n

Hans used the wooden toys to create villages that looked like they were from another world. This was no surprise as the wooden toys were made by the artist Lyonel Feininger.<\/p>\n

Many years later Hans recalled: \u201cEverything that Feininger touched became a testimony to his vision and mindset. The magical multi-gabled houses had the fairytale appeal of his pictures, and the accompanying figures with their pipes and their large-checked jackets resembled American visitors to a small German town: foreign, curious, comical .\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Drawing,<\/span>
In the Hess family\u2019s guest book: Paul Klee, Kollidierende V\u00f6gel (Colliding Birds) (1925).<\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

H<\/span>ans grew up in a somewhat unconventional household. His parents\u2019 home in Erfurt was a haunt for the artistic avant-garde of the time. The family\u2019s guest book reads like a who\u2019s who of expressionism. Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Wassilij Kandinsky, and Christian Rohlfs \u2013 to name but a few \u2013 recorded their visits with sayings and sketches. <\/span>Some guests wrote just a few words, while others dedicated themselves to creating little artworks. Paul Klee, for example, brought his sieves and spray-painting equipment specially to create the Kollidierende V\u00f6gel (Colliding Birds) in the guest book. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Erfurt \u2013 city of art and industry<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
Keen tennis players: Tekla Hess, n\u00e9e Pauson, with her husband Alfred and their 20-year-old son Hans, summer 1928.<\/div>

Erfurt city archive, public domain<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Erfurt is a very special city. As a major industrial location, it suffered from the global economic crisis and political unrest during the Weimar Republic. But at the same time, Erfurt is in close exchange with the nearby Bauhaus. It develops into a center of Expressionism. And that has a lot to do with the parents of Hans, Alfred and Tekla Hess.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/span>
One of the shoe factories the Hess family owned, located in Moltkestra\u00dfe (today's Th\u00e4lmannstra\u00dfe) in Erfurt, 1929.<\/div>

Erfurt City Archive From 4_0_E 343 d 40<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/span>
Some buildings of the factories are still standing, amongst them the corner of the former production halls.<\/div>

Bayerischer Rundfunk<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Alfred Hess came from a family of shoe manufacturers. With four factories, \u201cMaier & Louis Hess\u201d was one of the main businesses in the city.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Colour<\/span>
Shoes from the Hess shoe factory on show in the \u201cKleine Synagoge\u201d (Small Synagogue) in Erfurt.<\/div>

Bayerischer Rundfunk<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Hess shoes from Erfurt were sold throughout Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The enduring impact of war<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
On March 29, 1908 proud parents Alfred and Tekla announced the birth of their son. <\/div>

Erfurter Allgemeiner Anzeiger, vol. 59, no. 89, Sunday, March 29, 1908<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h4>\n

Alfred built a spacious villa for his young family \u2013 his wife Tekla and their son Hans, born in 1908.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black\"Colour
<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Hess Villa around 1920, and today.<\/p>\n

Erfurt City Archive, fonds 6-0\/ 05 (new), public domain - Bayerischer Rundfunk<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h3><\/div>

The villa initially had a conventional interior, with Art Nouveau paintings alongside traditional living room furniture. However, then World War One broke out and Alfred served as a volunteer. His experiences on the front and the societal upheaval after 1918 changed him, his view of the world, and his aesthetic and political mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many, he had been torn away from everything he had taken for granted and he had to ask himself new questions and find new answers\u201d, recalled Hans. \u201cHis response was to live in the new era and to understand and assist the new developments in art.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Lyonel Feininger (1871\u20131956), German-American painter, illustrator, and caricaturist: cover of the magazine Bauhaus \u2013 Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Gestaltung (Bauhaus \u2013 Magazine for Design) , 1928.<\/div>

Author:in unknown, CC BY 3.0, via WikimediaCommons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Tekla and Alfred adapted themselves to the new era. This was evident in their home furnishings. The living-room furniture and bourgeois ornamental wall art disappeared from the villa. \u201cThis is how the new paintings by the German expressionists and new friends came into the house\u201d, recounted their son. The Hess family\u2019s love of art sealed friendships with the artists who produced it.<\/p>\n

Hans summed up the atmosphere at his parents\u2019 house: \u201cMy mother\u2019s hospitality and her delight at meeting new people enabled guests to feel at home rather than like \u2018visitors\u2019\u201d. The villa was a hub for artists and their families. Among them were Lyonel and Julia Feininger and their three sons. This is how Hans obtained his special wooden toys.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Bartolom\u00e9<\/span>
From Alfred and Tekla Hess\u2019s guest book.<\/div>

Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin Inv. Nr. 3622\ud83d\udd0d Hover over the image with the mouse to enlarge <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

T<\/span>\n

his was also how several elaborate, witty drawings by Feininger ended up in the family\u2019s guest book. One of them is reproduced here: the \u201cgood-natured little ghost\u201d, which Feininger drew \u201con the shortest day\u201d in 1922.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Hans Hess\u2019s bedroom with the painting by Feininger above the bed.<\/div>

Photo from: Walter M\u00fcller-Wulckow: Die deutsche Wohnung der Gegenwart. Leipzig 1930, S. 87. <\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

One of the artist\u2019s paintings, Regenklarheit (Rain Clarity) also hung in Hans\u2019s bedroom. In each and every room, it was evident that the family lived and breathed art.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
The art patron and businessman Alfred Hess, 1928.<\/div>

Leicester's German Expressionist Collection, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Angermuseum in Erfurt also benefited from Hess\u2019s passion for modern art. The businessman donated and loaned works to the museum.<\/p>\n

However, the Weimar Republic was in a state of tension. Because they were Jewish, the Hess family were targeted by antisemites. Their support for the avant-garde made them even more hated. They were reviled as \u201cJewish-Bolshevist agents\u201d. Moreover, business was bad as a result of the global economic crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Colour<\/span>
The grave of Alfred Hess and his parents in the cemetery of the Jewish Community of the State of Thuringia in Erfurt.<\/div>

Bayerischer Rundfunk<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Fate then dealt the family a severe blow. Alfred Hess died in 1931 at the age of just 52 due to complications following surgery.<\/p>\n

His widow Tekla and the couple\u2019s 23-year-old son Hans managed to save the company from bankruptcy. However, they both left Erfurt. Hans now lived in Berlin and Tekla moved back to her home town of Lichtenfels in the southern German region of Franconia. She took the art collection with her.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Escape to England<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black\"Colour
<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Residential and business address of the Pauson wicker products manufacturer in Lichtenfels, Upper Franconia, in the 1910s and today.<\/p>\n

Private archive Hess - public domain\/Bayerischer Rundfunk<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

<\/h3><\/div>

Then the National Socialists came to power. Hans Hess fled to England, but Tekla hesitated. She did not want to leave her mother and so for the time being remained in Lichtenfels. She knew that the art collection was at risk as the National Socialists classed it as \u201cdegenerate art\u201d. Requests from Switzerland for exhibition loans came just at the right moment. Paintings from the Hess collection went on display in Basel and in Z\u00fcrich. However, plans to keep the artworks in safety in Switzerland came to nothing:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\u201cLate one evening in 1936, two Gestapo officials from Nuremberg appeared and threatened me into agreeing to have the paintings from the Hess collection, at the time in safekeeping at the Kunsthaus Z\u00fcrich, brought back to Germany without delay. Although I was well aware that this threat could result in the loss of the entire collection, I had no option but to yield to the pressure of this all-powerful instrument of the state, in the hope that my own life, and that of my family, would not be endangered further.\u201d<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div>

Looking back after the war, this is how Tekla Hess recalled her dilemma. She had 70 artworks sent to the Cologne Kunstverein (Cologne Art Association). A number of artworks went missing there through theft, others were lost as a result of war damage. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner\u2019s painting Berliner Stra\u00dfenszene (Berlin Street Scene) was sold to the Frankfurt collector Carl Hagemann under unexplained circumstances. However, Tekla also managed to send a number of works to her son in England.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

New beginnings in Leicester<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Black<\/span>
Trevor Thomas, curator of Leicester Museum.<\/div>

Leicester Museum and Art Gallery<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

With the outbreak of war in 1939, Tekla also decided to flee to England. She joined her son Hans in Leicester. There they met Trevor Thomas, the curator of Leicester Museum. He had already heard of the renowned Hess collection. They struck up a friendship, which in turn led to plans to put on an exhibition on German expressionism. Their dream became reality: in February 1944 Leicester Museum exhibited works by Franz Marc, Max Pechstein, Wassilij Kandinsky, Erich Heckel, and Lyonel Feininger.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Colour<\/span>
Rote Frau (Red Woman) by Franz Marc. On the right: museum curator Mark A. Simmons.<\/div>

Bayerischer Rundfunk<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

After the exhibition the museum purchased four works including Rote Frau (Red Woman) by Franz Marc. The proceeds were very useful for the Hess family \u2013 Hans had just got married and was about to become a father. More importantly, Trevor Thomas offered him a post as curator. For Hans Hess this was the start of a career as an art historian. Moreover, Leicester Museum had laid the foundations for a significant collection of German Expressionist art.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Black<\/span>
Sobib\u00f3r extermination camp, summer 1943.<\/div>

USHMM collection, gift of Bildungswerk Stanislaw-Hantz | Accession Number: 2020.8.1<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

However, the Hess family struggled with the loss of their once renowned collection. Again and again, Hans and Tekla had to sell artworks to support themselves. Additional works were lost in the chaos of war. What distressed them even more was that many of their relatives did not survive the Holocaust. The manufacturer Geor Hess, who was Alfred Hess\u2019s uncle, was for example murdered in Sobib\u00f3r extermination camp. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Painting<\/span>
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Berliner Stra\u00dfenszene (1913).<\/div>

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Tekla Hess died in 1968 and Hans Hess died in 1975. Three decades later Hans Hess\u2019s daughter, Anita Halpin, contacted the Br\u00fccke-Museum in Berlin. She issued a claim for the restitution of the painting Berliner Stra\u00dfenszene. The state of Berlin had purchased it in 1980. The restitution in 2006 was contested and the so-called Causa Kirchner (Kircher case) provoked heated debate. Today the Stra\u00dfenszene is on display at the Neue Galerie art museum in New York.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Paintings,<\/span>
Jacoba van Heemskerck, Still Life (1914).<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections) also owns a work from the Hess collection \u2013 a still life by Jacoba van Heemskerck, which has the name Alfred Hess marked on the back of the canvas. Due to suspicion that the artwork had been looted, its provenance was investigated thoroughly. However, in this case the painting was not obtained as a result of persecution because Tekla Hess sold it in 1956 via an auction house in Stuttgart.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"Colour<\/span>
Hans Hess, Dank in Farben (A Colorful Thank You).<\/div>

Bayerische Staatsgem\u00e4ldesammlungen<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

The Hess collection, a unique collection of Expressionist art, was broken up and the works scattered across many locations. Nonetheless, upon the publication of the Hess family\u2019s guest book in 1957, Hans, the son of collectors Alfred and Tekla, stated: \u201cIf this book from the 1920s can appear in Germany today, with its colorful pages, its drawings and captions by many of those who once found their way to the house and whose names have gone down in cultural history, it is proof that the prevailing values of art survive the worst of times and do not relinquish their right to a place in history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Film by Bayerischer Rundfunk on Alfred, Tekla and Hans Hess<\/h2><\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>