Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 09:07, 12 June 2010 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) (Expulsion of Germans after World War II moved to Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50)) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''Sigmar Polke''' (February 13, 1941 – June 10, 2010) was a [[Germany|German]] [[Painting|painter]] and [[photographer]]. | ||
| - | ==Life and works== | + | The later stages of [[World War II]], and the period after the end of that war, saw the flight and forced migration of millions of German nationals ([[Reichsdeutsche]]) and ethnic Germans ([[Volksdeutsche]]) from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become [[Allied-occupied Germany|post-war Germany]] and [[Allied-occupied Austria|post-war Austria]]. These areas included [[former eastern territories of Germany|pre-war German provinces]] which were transferred to [[People's Republic of Poland|Poland]] and the [[Soviet Union]] after the war, as well as areas which [[Nazi Germany]] had annexed or occupied in pre-war [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]], northern [[Yugoslavia]] and other states of [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]. |
| - | Polke was born in [[Oleśnica|Oelsnitz]] in [[Lower Silesia]]. He fled with his family to [[Thuringia]] in 1945 during the [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II]]. His family escaped from the [[Communism|Communist]] regime in [[East Germany]] in 1953, traveling first to [[West Berlin]] and then to [[Düsseldorf]]. | + | |
| - | Upon his arrival in [[West Germany]], in [[Wittich]], Polke began to spend time in galleries and museums and worked as an apprentice in a [[stained glass]] factory called Dusseldorf Kaiserswerth, before entering the [[Kunstakademie Düsseldorf]] (Art School) at age twenty. From 1961-1967 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under [[Karl Otto Götz]] and [[Gerhard Hoehme]] and began his creative output during a time of enormous social, cultural, and artistic changes in Germany and elsewhere. During the 1960s,Düsseldorf, in particular, was a prosperous, commercial city and an important centre of artistic activity. | + | The movement of Germans involved a total of at least 12 million people, with some sources putting the figure at 14 million, and was the largest movement or transfer of any single ethnic population in [[Modern Era|modern history]]. The largest numbers came from the former eastern territories of Germany acquired by Poland and the Soviet Union (about 7 million) and from Czechoslovakia (about 3 million). It was also the largest among all the [[World War II evacuation and expulsion|post-war expulsions]] in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]], which displaced more than twenty million people in total. The events have been variously described as [[population transfer]], [[ethnic cleansing]] or [[democide]]. |
| - | In 1963 Polke founded “Kapitalistischen Realismus” (Capitalistic Realism), a painting movement with [[Gerhard Richter]] and [[Konrad Lueg]] (later called [[Konrad Fischer]]). It is an anti-style of art, appropriating the pictorial short-hand of advertising. This title also referred to the realist style of art known as ‘[[Socialist Realism]]’, then the official art doctrine of the [[Soviet Union]] (from which he had fled with his family), but it also commented upon the consumer-driven art ‘doctrine’ of western [[capitalism]]. He also participated in “Demonstrative Ausstellung”, a store-front exhibition in Düsseldorf with Kuttner, Lueg, and Richter. | + | Many deaths were attributable to the flight and expulsions, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 2.0 million, where the higher figures include deaths from famine and disease as well as from violent acts. Many German civilians were also sent to internment and labor camps. |
| - | Polke's creative output during this time of enormous social, cultural, and artistic changes in Germany and elsewhere, demonstrate most vividly his imagination, sardonic wit, and subversive approach in his drawings, watercolors, and gouaches produced during the 1960s and 1970's. Embedded in these images are incisive and parodic commentaries on consumer society, the postwar political scene in Germany, and classic artistic conventions. | + | The policy was part of the geopolitical and ethnic reconfiguration of [[Aftermath of World War II|postwar Europe]], and in part retribution for [[Nazi Germany]]'s initiation of the war and subsequent atrocities and ethnic cleansings in [[Nazi-occupied Europe]]. |
| - | + | ||
| - | The anarchistic element of the work Polke developed, was largely engendered by his mercurial approach. His irreverence for traditional painting techniques and materials and his lack of allegiance to any one mode of representation has established his now-respected reputation as a visual revolutionary. It was not unusual for Polke to combine household materials and paint, lacquers, pigments, screen print and transparent sheeting in one piece. A complicated "narrative" is often implicit in the multi-layered picture, giving the effect of witnessing the projection of a hallucination or dream through a series of veils. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Polke embarked on a series of world travels throughout the 1970s, photographing in [[Pakistan]], [[Paris]], [[New York]], [[Afghanistan]], and [[Brazil]]. From 1977-1991 he was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, [[Hamburg]]. He settled in [[Cologne]], where he continued to live and work until his death in June of 2010 after a long battle with cancer. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In 2007, Vienna's Museum Moderner Kunst held an exhibition of Polke's work entitled, "Sigmar Polke: Retrospektive" that spanned his career from his appropriations of Pop imagery and continuing through decades of perplexing compositions and clever critiques to arrive at current works that employ a haze of chemicals, minerals, and paints. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Polke died on June 10, 2010, in [[Cologne, Germany]], due to complications of cancer. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Recognition== | + | |
| - | *1964: “Neodada Pop Decollage Kapitalistischer Realismus”, Galerie René Block, Berlin; Awarded the Young Germans award in [[Baden-Baden]] with [[Klaus Geldmacher]] and [[Dieter Krieg]] | + | |
| - | *1975: Awarded the prize for painting at the XIII [[São Paulo Art Biennial|Bienal de São Paulo]] | + | |
| - | *1986: Awarded a “Golden Lion” at the XLII [[Biennale di Venezia]] | + | |
| - | *1988: Awarded the 1988 [[Baden-Württemberg]] International Prize for Painting | + | |
| - | *1994: Awarded the Erasmus Prize (Amsterdam) | + | |
| - | *1995: Carnegie Award at the Carnegie International, [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh]], [[Pennsylvania]] | + | |
| - | *1998: International Center of Photography, Infinity Award for Art; [[P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center]], New York | + | |
| - | *2000: Awarded the Kaiser Ring, Goslar, Germany | + | |
| - | *2002: "[[Praemium Imperiale]]" awarded by the Japan Art Association, Tokyo | + | |
| - | *2007: Awarded the Rubens Prize (Siegen, Germany) | + | |
| - | *2008: Foreign Honorary Member in the Field of Visual Arts, American Academy of Arts and Sciences | + | |
| - | *2009: Honorary Member in the American Academy of Arts and Letters | + | |
| - | *2010: Awarded the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, Zurich | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | *[[The Portrait Now]] | + | |
| + | The displacements occurred in three somewhat overlapping phases, the first of which was the [[Flight and evacuation of German civilians during the end of World War II|spontaneous flight and evacuation of Germans]] in the face of the advancing [[Red Army]] from mid-1944 to 1945, the second a disorganized expulsion of Germans immediately following the German defeat, and the third a more organized expulsion following the [[Potsdam Agreement]], which redrew national borders and approved "orderly" and "humane" expulsions of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The major expulsions were complete by 1950, when the total number of ethnic Germans still living in Eastern Europe was approximately 2.6 million, about 12% of the pre-war total. | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the flight and forced migration of millions of German nationals (Reichsdeutsche) and ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria. These areas included pre-war German provinces which were transferred to Poland and the Soviet Union after the war, as well as areas which Nazi Germany had annexed or occupied in pre-war Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, northern Yugoslavia and other states of Central and Eastern Europe.
The movement of Germans involved a total of at least 12 million people, with some sources putting the figure at 14 million, and was the largest movement or transfer of any single ethnic population in modern history. The largest numbers came from the former eastern territories of Germany acquired by Poland and the Soviet Union (about 7 million) and from Czechoslovakia (about 3 million). It was also the largest among all the post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe, which displaced more than twenty million people in total. The events have been variously described as population transfer, ethnic cleansing or democide.
Many deaths were attributable to the flight and expulsions, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 2.0 million, where the higher figures include deaths from famine and disease as well as from violent acts. Many German civilians were also sent to internment and labor camps.
The policy was part of the geopolitical and ethnic reconfiguration of postwar Europe, and in part retribution for Nazi Germany's initiation of the war and subsequent atrocities and ethnic cleansings in Nazi-occupied Europe.
The displacements occurred in three somewhat overlapping phases, the first of which was the spontaneous flight and evacuation of Germans in the face of the advancing Red Army from mid-1944 to 1945, the second a disorganized expulsion of Germans immediately following the German defeat, and the third a more organized expulsion following the Potsdam Agreement, which redrew national borders and approved "orderly" and "humane" expulsions of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The major expulsions were complete by 1950, when the total number of ethnic Germans still living in Eastern Europe was approximately 2.6 million, about 12% of the pre-war total.
