Lea Grundig

Lea Grundig
Lea Grundig (1951)
Born	Lea Langer 23 March 1906 Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Died	10 October 1977(1977-10-10) (aged 71) while traveling, at sea (Mediterranean)
Nationality	German (GDR)
Occupation	painter Graphic artist
Political party	KPD SED
Spouse(s)	Hans Grundig (1901-1958)

Lea Grundig (Dresden, 23 March 1906 – 10 October 1977, at sea) was a German painter and Graphic artist.

Lea Langer was born in the of Dresden, where she grew up as part of the city's Jewish community. Her father was a joiner/furniture maker and her mother worked in garment manufacturing. Lea attended school locally between 1912 and 1922, while rejecting, even as a young girl, the family's religious orthodoxy. She went on to study at the city's before progressing, in 1924, to the prestigious Saxon Art Academy: here she was admitted into the Masterclass of where fellow participants included Otto Griebel, Wilhelm Lachnit und Hans Grundig. At the Academy she also got to know Otto Dix, whom she would come to regard as one of the most influential of her mentors. She remained at The Academy till 1926.

1926 was the year in which she joined the Communist Party (KPD). She was also a co-founder of the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists (ARBKD / Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands). In 1928 she left the Jewish community and, in further defiance of her father's will, married Hans Grundig.

In January 1933 the NSDAP (Nazi Party) took power and quickly set about creating a one party state. Membership of any party other than the Nazi party - and particularly of the Communist Party - became illegal. Grundig nevertheless remained an active participant in resistance to the regime, as part of a group that also included and Rudi Wetzel. The new government also lost no time in implementing racist ideas that had been a key theme of the Nazis in opposition: government policy in Germany became actively, and as time passed ever more violently, anti-semitic. In the mid-1930s Lea Grundig's own work, reflected themes of the new Nazi age, with her cycles "Harzburger Front", "Unterm Hakenkreuz" (1936), "Der Jude ist schuld!" (1935–38), "Krieg droht!"(1935–37), "Im Tal des Todes" (1942/43) and "Ghetto".