Hermann Fechenbach (1897-1986) - 1922 Woodcut The Judaic Creation

Description

A intensely bold and graphic woodcut showing a paneled story of the Creation of Earth, the sky, sea, animals and man and woman. The two larger characters in the top panels are a farmer and a Jewish Elder wearing a tefillin. This is an accomplished print shown by the intensity and evenness of the ink and the crisp lines throughout.


The artist has signed and dated to the bottom right corner.


On wove. On wove.

Condition

The condition is typical for a picture of this age including some discolouration. There are crease to the top left and right corners and a crease to the upper left corner.

Size

30.4 x 41.5cm (12" x 16.3")
Sheet: 35.9 x 47.5cm (14.1" x 18.7")

Artist Biography

Felix Fechenbach (28 January 1894 - 7 August 1933) was a German-Jewish journalist, poet and political activist.
He was born in Mergentheim as the son of a baker. In 1911 he worked in Frankfurt but got fired because of a strike he led against unpaid work.From 1912 until 1914 he was a party secretary of the SPD in Munich. He served in World War I, was wounded, became a pacifist, later becoming state secretary (1918-1919). During World War I he was a pacifist and served as Private Secretary for Kurt Eisner, the prime minister of Bavaria, shortly after the war.
He was jailed in 1922 for publishing an alleged secret diplomatic telegram while Staats Secretary under Eisner, before the Münchner Räterepublik. He was pardoned in 1924. He thereafter travelled to Berlin and worked for Kinderfreunde and criticised the SPD in his children's stories while still a member of the party.
In 1929, he became the editor in chief of the SPD newspaper Volksblatt in Detmold. On 11 March 1933 he was jailed by the new Nazi government for his anti-fascist activities, and was shot on 7 August by members of the SS and SA in a forest between Detmold and Warburg while being transported to the Dachau concentration camp.

There are two schools named after Fechenbach: the Felix-Fechenbach Gesamtschule in Leopoldshöhe and the Felix-Fechenbach Berufskolleg in Detmold. a A street in Detmold and in Oerlinghausen was also named after him.