Peter Dohmen Studios

Peter W. Dohmen
Nationality	German
Known for	Stained Glass, Mosaic, Fresco, Monumental Art

Peter W. Dohmen (1904–1977) was a German liturgical artist who immigrated to the United States with his family after the Second World War.

Dohmen was born on May 28, 1904 near Cologne, Germany. At an early age, he showed his talent for art. As a young student he painted some beautiful, religious oil paintings with traditional religious themes. He was eager to learn more from the best art professors of Europe and applied for scholarships to some of the leading art academies. His efforts paid off when he received a scholarship from the German government. He then attended some of the most prominent art academies of Europe, including: Cologne, Düsseldorf, Aachen, and the Higher Institute of the Royal Art Academy in Antwerp, Belgium.

He studied under some of the most noteworthy and prominent professors of art at the time, such as Professor Johan Thorn Prikker, Dominikus Boehm, and the Baron Professor Isidore Obsomer, Director of the Royal Art Academy in Antwerp.

After completing his studies, Dohmen served briefly as an art professor at the Institute for Christian Art in Dortmund before becoming the manager of a highly regarded art studio in Austria, where he worked in fresco murals, mosaic murals, and stained glass windows. In 1936 he returned to Germany to establish his own art studio in Cologne.

Dohmen became well known as an artist in Germany during the 1930s for his monumental art works, including stained glass windows, large frescoes on major public buildings, and Byzantine glass mosaics.

In 1937 he made an exciting, historic discovery in the dome of an ancient church in Cologne, Germany, the Ursula Kirche: he found that underneath the paint of the vaulted ceilings were beautiful religious paintings dating back to the 13th century. The Minister of Culture commissioned him to restore and save the very valuable frescoes.

Later, the government also commissioned him with the execution of historic fresco murals (3000 sq. ft.) in the Knights Hall of a medieval citadel in Juelich, Germany.

In 1938 he was offered a professorship at the State Art Academy in Koenigsberg, Germany. However, a few weeks before taking this position, a law was passed requiring that those teaching at a state school had to be members of the Nazi party. Given his dislike of the Nazis, he declined. He wanted to leave Germany, but the government had already made it difficult to leave. Finally, the exits slammed shut and no German could leave the country.

During the war, the Dohmen family lost their homes twice from Allied bombs. They and most Germans lived in their basements for months to be protected from the constant bombings, at night by the English, during the day by Americans. They had to flee several times with just the clothes to could carry in backpacks, to escape the battle front and once to escape the Nazis. He had helped four of his school friends, who were Jewish to escape across the border out of Germany. Eventually he was blackballed by the government because of his outspoken opposition toward the Nazi party.

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Wikipedia