Rolf-Dieter Herrmann Collection

Gerhard Marks (1889-1981)
Tree in Wind
Woodcut, n.d.
LFAC #2004:07:01

The Rolf-Dieter Herrmann Collection of ten woodcuts illustrating the Orpheus story by Gerhard Marcks was donated to the Luther College Fine Arts Collection by Jutta Fischer (Herrmann) Anderson in 2004. The portfolio was donated in memory of her late husband, Rolf-Dieter Herrmann. This portfolio, called the Series “A” portfolio, was commercially created in 150 copies in 1948.

Born in Germany, Jutta Anderson earned her Erstes Staatsexamen (M.A. equivalent) in Art History and Art Education at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. She served as an instructor of art at various universities in both Germany and the US before pursuing postgraduate studies in Art History, Psychology, and Theology after emigrating to the United States. She has taught and lectured on a wide variety of subjects but especially on art, art history, and art and theology during her career.

Rolf-Dieter Herrmann was born in 1934 in Dortmund, Germany. He studied philosophy and art history at universities in Cologne and Heidelberg, receiving his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1962 from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. His specialties were aesthetics, phenomenology, existentialism, and history of philosophy. Herrmann taught at the Paedagogische Hochschule in Dortmund, Germany, at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina, and was professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, from 1969 until his death in 1978. He was the author of several books and numerous articles and lectured at national and international conferences. He emigrated to the United States in 1968 and became an American citizen in 1973. Hermann was married to the former Jutta Ilse Fischer in 1964. They adopted infants Lars Gunnar (1970) and Niels Holger (1973).

Gerhard Marcks was born in Berlin in 1889. His life as a sculptor began in 1907 with an apprenticeship with Richard Sheibe. His achievements as an artist led to a teaching position at the Bauhaus school in Weimar from 1919-1925 and the Giebichenstein School in Halle from 1925-1933. During the rise of the Nazi government in the 1930s, which resulted in the harassment of many German artists, Marcks' works were judged unacceptable to officials. Marcks remained in Germany despite the harassment which included dismissal from his teaching position and confiscation of 24 of his sculptures in 1937. Most of his life's work was destroyed when his Berlin studio was bombed in 1943 and works he had hidden were plundered and mutilated. Following the war, Marcks taught four years in Hamburg and then moved to Cologne where he worked as a freelance sculptor. He was commissioned to create a number of memorials for soldiers and civilians who died during the war and his public works can be found in cities throughout Germany, including Cologne, Hamburg, Hanover, Mannheim and Frankfurt. While principally known for his many sculptures, his works also include a large number of woodcuts, drawings and lithographs. Marcks was married to Maria (Schmidtlein) and the father of six children. He died in 1981 at the age of ninety-two.

Marcks received countless honors for his work. He was awarded the Goethe Medal in 1949, and in 1952 he was elected Knight of the Order Pour le Merite. Three years later he was awarded a Prize of the City of Berlin, and in 1959 received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany. Late in life he was inducted as a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A postage stamp was issued by the German government to commemorate the centenary of his birth in 1989. Luther College also commemorated the centenary with a yearlong celebration including special exhibits, a catalog, and distinguished lecture.

Permanent records of his works and a collection of his art are maintained at the Gerhard Marcks Haus in Bremen. The Luther College Fine Arts Collection may be the largest repository of Gerhard Marcks works in the United States. The Luther College Archives contains a large Marcks archival collection while Preus Library holds many exhibit catalogs and books illustrated by and about Marcks.

Ref: Notes from Jutta Fischer Anderson; Orpheus; 10 Holzschnitte zu den Versen des Ovid. Hamburg: E. Hauswedell, 1948; Die Holzschnittfolge Orpheus von Gerhard Marcks. Bremen: Gerhard Macks-Stiftung, 1980; Gerhard Marcks – a Retrospective Exhibition Organized by the UCLA Art Galleries with the Participation of Portland Art Museum (and others), Intro. Werner Haftmann, Eugene N. Anderson, Los Angeles: University of California, 1969; Werner, Alfred, "Gerhard Marcks: The Form of Nature," American Artist, 35 (Dec. 1971). 32-37,71.

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Updated 01/09/2007