Hedwig Bollhagen
| Hedwig Bollhagen | |
|---|---|
Hedwig Bollhagen
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| Born |
10 November 1907 Hanover, Germany |
| Died | 8 June 2001 (aged 93) Oberkrämer, Germany |
| Known for | Ceramic pots |
| Website | hedwig-bollhagen |
Hedwig Bollhagen (10 November 1907 – 8 June 2001) was a leading German ceramicist influenced by the Bauhaus. The company that she started is still in operation. A museum dedicated to her work has been opened near Berlin.
Bollhagen was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1907. Whilst she was still at school, she was inspired by pottery that she came across at markets and through a friend of the family. After she finished school, she worked at a small pottery before returning to a technical college. She was given an early responsibility in supervising 100 women painters at the Steingutfabriken ceramic works at Velten-Vordamm. Whilst she was there, she came under the influence of several Bauhaus-trained ceramicists who had been hired by the company.
In 1934 she took over the workshops of Margarete Heymann-Loebenstein (aka Grete Marks), a Jewish Bauhaus ceramicist, in what has been called "questionable circumstances" during the Nazi era in Germany. The successful business had been owned by Margarete, her husband Gustav, and his brother Daniel Loebenstein since 1923. The workshops had been purchased at a reduced price as a result of pressure applied to Heymann-Loebenstein by members of the Nazi party. Bollhagen was not a member of the party but her business partner, Heinrich Schild, was, and he was one of the leaders of the Gleichschaltung movement, a Nazi-aligned idea to standardise the nation's views.
The workshops were transferred to Bollhagen's management in the same year and she led an enterprise of over 30 employees. Bollhagen herself noted that she had gained an advantage at the expense of her fellow Jewish artist, but this was not an uncommon act in Nazi Germany. Bollhagen said, however, that the acquisition was due to serendipity rather than design. Bollhagen did work closely with Charles Crodel, who had been ejected from the Gleichschaltung organisation for creating "degenerate art". Crodel's friendship was important to Bollhagen and she never joined the Gleichschaltung group. Meanwhile, the former owner of the Haël Werkstätten moved to England to escape persecution. Her art was publicly derided as degenerate in Germany in 1936, although it is now considered her finest work.
After the war, Bollhagen continued her business within the German Democratic Republic, despite facing severe difficulties that forced her to use her own savings to pay the workshop's staff. Luckily, her work was still highly valued and it was traded on the black market at premium prices.
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