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- Heinz Kiwitz (geboren 4. September 1910 in Duisburg; gestorben 1938 in Spanien) war ein deutscher Holzschneider des Expressionismus. Er starb im spanischen Bürgerkrieg. (de)
- Heinz Kiwitz (September 4, 1910 – 1938) was a German artist. His woodcuts were in the German Expressionist style. An anti-fascist, he was arrested following the Nazis' seizure of power. He survived imprisonment in Kemna and Börgermoor concentration camps and was released in 1934. He went into exile in 1937, first living in Denmark, then in France, where he again began to fight Nazism. In 1938, he went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he apparently perished. (en)
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- A young German artist, Heinz Kiwitz, presents to the public the following findings:
The Berlin art exhibition at the Haus der Kunst on Königsplatz was proclaimed by the Nazi Party and the "Reich Commissioner for Artistic Design" Schweitzer – Mjölnir as paving the way.
Without asking me or obtaining my consent, woodcuts of mine were put on exhibit. A portion of the coordinated Berlin press dedicated much space to me in the arts section, which now, instead of offering art criticism, treads lock-step. They have held me up as one of the most important artists of the "new Germany".
In addition, is this fact: I went into exile from Germany in January 1937. I do not wish to be recognized by those who rule Germany today, who lock up art in military barracks and have it kicked into shape by combat boots. Everything in me rebels against the violent abuse of art which is to mask the hideous face of war.
If of necessity the fascist newspapers are forced to admit that I am an artist of the people, it is not a compliment for me, rather it is to be judged as an admission of the bankruptcy of little Goebbels' art factories. For I myself deliberately and always have repudiated the un-German destruction of art, which chases and hunts the true artist abroad, declares every house painter a genius if only he has had the Party membership in his pocket long enough and kowtows before the dictator. It is precisely this adulteration from above from which the authentic, great German art arose as protest, from Riemenschneider to Schiller's Don Carlos to Lehmbruck and Barlach. My populism makes me belong with Nolde and Barlach, against whom the Schwarze Korps is leading a brutal campaign, whose works they remove from galleries and whose exhibitions were closed by the Gestapo because they unswervingly carry on the tradition in the path of Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grünewald.
At the cradle of German art stood a sculptor, Tilmann Riemenschneider, who, because his heart beat with the hunted, rebelling peasants, was so harmed in torture by the rich tyrants, that by the end of his life, he could no longer wield a chisel.
The German artist Wilhelm Lehmbruck, in 1914, as a socialist, refused the same militarists his service in war, who today have declared total war on free art.
Guernica, concentration camps and war against religion – what can German art create with this dance of death of human culture, other than to swing the scourge against this forced march into barbarism? Desperately, they search their Party card file for a small talent and cannot find it. They are prepared to pay any price, believe they can buy Serious Geniuses for money just like they acquire mansions and cars. True art grows from love of life, human kindness and fruitful unfoldment. Art always goes against tyranny and with liberty. Death, hate and deprivation are the negative fundamental values of fascism. They have proclaimed the Führerprinzip and eradicated freedom of thought, declared the people to be "disciple" minors without rights, tributary masses.
But German art grows out of the people, with the people, for the people, and against coercion, amateurish capriciousness and dictators. The genuine artist only wants to be recognized by that Germany which the greatest German artists long for, a true democratic people's republic of Germany. Because for us, that means freedom of thought, creative freedom, artistic freedom.
Heinz Kiwitz (en)
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- Heinz Kiwitz (geboren 4. September 1910 in Duisburg; gestorben 1938 in Spanien) war ein deutscher Holzschneider des Expressionismus. Er starb im spanischen Bürgerkrieg. (de)
- Heinz Kiwitz (September 4, 1910 – 1938) was a German artist. His woodcuts were in the German Expressionist style. An anti-fascist, he was arrested following the Nazis' seizure of power. He survived imprisonment in Kemna and Börgermoor concentration camps and was released in 1934. He went into exile in 1937, first living in Denmark, then in France, where he again began to fight Nazism. In 1938, he went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he apparently perished. (en)
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