Berthold HELLINGRATH

Berthold Franz Hellingrath was born on October 27, 1877 in Elbing, West Prussia, and died on December 15, 1954 in Hanover. He was a renowned German painter, etcher and university lecturer.

Hellingrath was the son of a Rhinelander and a Silesian woman. At the age of five, he moved to Gdansk with his parents, Bertha and Franz Hellingrath. There he received his first artistic training at the Provinzial-Kunstschule under the guidance of Wilhelm August Stryowski (1834-1917) and Bernhard Sturmhoefel (1853-1913). He then studied at the Dresden Academy of Art from 1899 to 1905 and was a student of Gotthardt Kuehl. He took up his studies in Dresden on the advice of Arthur Bendrat, whom he had met during Bendrat’s study trip to Danzig and with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. From 1907, Hellingrath ran his own studio in Dresden, where he was in contact with Erich Heckel, co-founder of the artists’ group “Die Brücke” (1905), and Max Pechstein. He also frequently traveled to the Baltic Sea and often stayed in Gdansk.

In 1925, Hellingrath was appointed lecturer for architectural painting, proportion theory and freehand drawing for civil engineers at the Technical University of Hanover. His achievements were recognized in 1928 when he was appointed honorary professor.

On May 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP (membership number 2,956,334) and also became a member of the National Socialist German Lecturers’ Association (NSDDB). However, in October 1935, he was stripped of his party offices for life. The National Socialists rejected his painting, which led to Hellingrath being expelled from the Reichskunstkammer in 1937 for “alien painting”. A large number of his works were irretrievably lost through bombing.