Hein Heckroth was born in 1901 in Giessen, Germany, and studied typography, painting and art history in Frankfurt. Having built a successful career as a painter, stage designer and teacher, Heckroth fled Nazi Germany in 1933 due to his wife's Jewish heritage, briefly settling in Paris before immigrating to England in 1935. After internment as an 'enemy alien' in 1940–41, Heckroth resumed his career as a painter and set designer, collaborating with the British film production partnership, The Archers, on a number of projects, including <em>The Red Shoes</em>, the art direction for which he received an Academy Award in 1949.
Painter and theatre and film designer, Hein Heckroth was born in 1901 in Giessen, Germany. Initially trained as a typographer, in 1919 Heckroth enrolled at Frankfurt's Städelsche Kunstinstitut. He then studied briefly at the Staatliche Zeichenakademie Hanau before reading art history at the University of Frankfurt until 1922. Heckroth's early paintings were exhibited at the salon of art dealer Ludwig Schames (brother of émigré artist, Samson Schames) and at the renowned Flechtheim Gallery, both in Frankfurt. Heckroth also worked as a set designer for the Künstlertheater Rhein und Main. In 1924 he moved to Münster, focussing on theatre and ballet design. Following marriage to artist Frieda Diana ('Ada') Maier in 1927, Heckroth moved to Essen, becoming Head of Stage Design for the municipality's theatres in 1929 and leading the stage design course at the Folkwangschule für Musik, Tanz und Sprechen. In 1932 Heckroth was awarded the first prize at the Concours International de Choréographie for his design of the acclaimed anti-war ballet Der Grüne Tisch [The Green Table], created by one of the Folkwangschule's founders, Kurt Jooss (1901–1979, who also fled to Britain). Both Surrealism and Jooss' expressionist performances had a deep influence on Heckroth's future work. During the late 1920s and early 1930s Heckroth also undertook numerous guest engagements in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Vienna.
In 1932 Heckroth was appointed Professor of Stage Design at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden, his tenure abruptly ending in 1933 when he refused to divorce his Jewish wife, following the introduction of anti-Jewish legislation in Germany. Later the same year, fearing arrest, Heckroth followed Ada to Paris. Encouraged by an invitation from composer Kurt Weill (1900–1950) to stage the premiere of his Der Kuhhandel (A Kingdom for a Cow) musical at the Savoy Theatre, the couple immigrated to London in 1935. The engagement led to subsequent commissions for the Old Vic Theatre, London and for Glyndebourne opera. From the mid- to late-1930s Heckroth taught at the progressive Dartington Hall School in Devon (where Jooss was also employed). Following the outbreak of war, Heckroth was interned as a so-called 'enemy alien', first in Huyton, outside Liverpool and later at Hay Camp in Australia, transported on the SS Arandora Star which was sunk by enemy torpedoes on 2 July 1940. Fortunately, Heckroth survived, though he suffered from a resultant condition for the rest of his life. Following intervention by art historian Herbert Read, Heckroth was released, returning to London in 1941. In 1943 his paintings were exhibited at Jack Bilbo's Modern Art Gallery and in 1947 he was naturalised British. During this period Heckroth formed friendships with fellow refugees artists, including Jankel Adler (1895–1949) and Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948).
Heckroth's first film design was for Gabriel Pascal's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). Later the same year he began working for The Archers, a film-making partnership formed by Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988), the latter a fellow refugee from Nazi Germany. Having joined their company as a costume designer, Heckroth replaced Alfred Junge (1886–1964) as principal production designer in 1948 to work on their new film, The Red Shoes. Catherine Suroweic writes that 'This man of the theatre was the ideal designer for them [...] a surrealist romantic who was not afraid to experiment, and knew how to suggest an atmosphere with economy and an expressionist use of colour. His abstract, painted sketches were full of mood, movement and theatrical flair. For the famous ballet he designed impressionistic sets, using […] chiffon, gauze, papier mache and cellophane.' (Accent on Design: Four European Art Directors, 1992, Powell-Pressburger Pages website). In 1949 Heckroth won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction for The Red Shoes and was later nominated for two Academy Awards for art direction and costume design for The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), another Powell and Pressburger collaboration.
Heckroth returned to Germany in 1956, appointed Head of Stage Design at the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt, working as a set designer for film productions while maintaining links with local artistic groups, including Quadriga. In 1965, he collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on his film Torn Curtain. Heckroth died from a heart attack in 1970. Posthumous exhibitions of his work include: Frankfurter Kunstverein (1970), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel (1977), German Film Museum, Frankfurt (1991), Dietgard Wosimsky Gallery, Giessen (1993, 1998 and 2001) and Kunsthalle Giessen (1998). In 1999 his work featured in Ben Uri Art Society's exhibition Jewish Stage and Film Designers. Designs for The Red Shoes are held in the collection of the British Film Institute (BFI), London, where they were exhibited in 2009, coinciding with the re-release of the restored movie. The Hein Heckroth Prize in stage design is awarded biannually at the Stadttheater, Giessen.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Hein Heckroth]
Publications related to [Hein Heckroth] in the Ben Uri Library