Carl Weisgerber

Carl Weisgerber was born on 25 October 1891 in Ahrweiler, a picturesque little town in the Ahr Valley, which is characterized by viticulture and tourism. He was the fourth child of Carl Hubert and Elisabeth Weisgerber and grew up together with his siblings Maria, Anna, Elisabeth and Wilhelm at Niederhutstraße 23. Another brother, Heinrich Weisgerber, had already died at birth in 1887.

The family ran an upholstery and saddlery business in Ahrweiler, where all the children, including the young Carl, had to help out. Carl’s artistic talent was evident from an early age, encouraged by his father’s passion for amateur theater. He began designing theater sets, spent his free time in the forest and hunting, and started taxidermy and drawing animals. Despite this inclination, he remained active in his parents’ craft business. Works from this period show motifs of the Ahr Valley and Ahrweiler in gouache and pastel.

At the age of 26 or 27, Carl Weisgerber’s talent was discovered and encouraged by Willy Spatz. Inspired by Spatz, Weisgerber applied to the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1918 and began his studies in the landscape class of Max Clarenbach. He later switched to animal painting in Julius Paul Junghanns’ class and probably completed his studies in 1922/1923. He formed a lifelong friendship with the animal painter Georg Wolf, who had also studied under Junghanns.

In 1924, he married Amalie Mathilde Hirsch from Oberwesel-St. Goar in Düsseldorf, where their only son was born in 1927. Weisgerber spent his entire artistic life in Düsseldorf, but also spent time in the Ahr valley, in the Eifel region, in the Adenau area and traveled to Holland, East Frisia, Sweden, Tyrol and what was then Yugoslavia.

Weisgerber took part in exhibitions organized by the Young Rhineland, the Rhine Group and the Rhenish Secession and was a member of the Düsseldorf Artists’ Association. His paintings were presented at the Great German Art Exhibitions in Munich from 1938 to 1944 and also found favor with Hitler and other leading National Socialists. After his death in 1968, Carl Weisgerber was buried in the cemetery in Düsseldorf-Heerdt.

His works were shown in various group exhibitions, including the 1933 exhibition “Die Westfront” in Essen, as well as the exhibition “Junge Kunst im Deutschen Reich” in the Vienna Künstlerhaus in 1943. In 1964, a major exhibition of his works was held together with Herbert Griebitz at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.