Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Hermann Fechenbach artist

Hermann Fechenbach was born into a Jewish family in Württemberg, Germany in 1897 and after serving in the First World War, studied art in Stuttgart, Munich and Florence. Forbidden to exhibit by the Nazis, he fled to Britain by way of Palestine in 1939, working as a painter and wood engraver to raise funds to help his remaining family escape from Germany. He is best known for his prints, including 'My Impressions as Refugee', based on his experience of internment at Hutchinson Camp, Isle of Man.

Born: 1897 Württemberg, Germany

Died: 1986 Denham, Buckinghamshire, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1939

Other name/s: Hermann Israel Fechenbach


Biography

Painter and graphic artist Hermann Fechenbach was born into a Jewish family in Württemberg, Germany on 11 January 1897. He grew up in Bad Mergentheim, where his parents had an inn, which served as a meeting place for the local Jewish community. Fechenbach showed early artistic inclinations, but his family did not consider art to be a suitable career. He therefore went into commerce, quickly gaining recognition as a window-dresser in Dortmund. Fighting in the First World War, Fechenbach was severely wounded, leading to the loss of his left leg. As a result of his injuries, his father dropped his opposition to him becoming an artist and in 1918 Fechenbach enrolled at a handicraft school for invalids in Stuttgart. He subsequently studied painting and restoration for three years at Academies in Stuttgart and Munich, predominantly influenced by the work of Max Liebermann. In 1923 Fechenbach moved to Florence for a year, where he began to produce wood engravings illustrating stories from Genesis. In 1924 he returned to Stuttgart, coming under the influence of Die Neue Sachlichkeit [The New Objectivity] movement. He received his professional status as a 'Kunstmaler und Grafiker' in 1926. In 1930 Fechenbach married Greta Batze, a photographer and together they ran a studio in Stuttgart, teaching art.

With Fechenbach, as a Jew, forbidden to exhibit by the Nazis from 1933, the couple moved to Palestine in 1938, finding, however, its political and physical environment challenging. Arriving in Britain in 1939, Fechenbach worked as a painter and wood engraver to raise funds to help his remaining family escape from Germany. In 1940, as a so-called 'enemy alien', he was interned at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man (known as the 'artists' camp due to its significant roster of artist-internees), along with with Kurt Schwitters, Hellmuth Weissenborn, and art historian Klaus Hinrichsen, among others. In camp Fechenbach went on hunger strike, later producing a series of linocuts entitled My Impressions as Refugee which he exhibited in camp at the Second Art Exhibition on 19 November 1940, and which included Release, depicting a row of internees silently watching the release of a fellow inmate.

Upon his release in 1941, the Fechenbachs were sponsored by Béla Horovitz, Viennese émigré and co-founder of Phaidon Press, who in turn made an introduction to the Finnish-born émigré art historian Tancred Borenius. In 1941 Fechenbach moved to Oxford, where he exhibited paintings and woodcuts at the Nicolas Gallery, including portraits, allegories of creation, and scenes from the Isle of Man; Greta's photographs of Palestine were also displayed. He also showed in Refugee Artists and their British Friends under the auspices of the Free German League of Culture, London. In 1942 Fechenbach held an exhibition, organised by Borenius, at a small Oxford gallery. Borenius commented in the catalogue preface: ‘This many-sided artist, subtle and convincing as an interpreter of human psychology, also shows a remarkable gift for catching the genius loci – his landscapes, inspired by many countries bear eloquent witness in this respect’ (Borenius 1942, n.p.). Many of Fechenbach's prints illustrated Jewish subjects, among them Sabbath, festivals, synagogues, folk tales and kibbutzim. Between 1923 and 1930, he made 32 wood engravings illustrating the Hagaddah (the Jewish text read aloud during the Passover meal). In 1943 he participated in Artists Aid Jewry Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery. In 1944, the Fechenbachs moved to a top floor studio flat in Colet Gardens, west London, and he held his first London show at the Anglo-Palestinian Club in Piccadilly, followed by the first appearance of his work at the Ben Uri Art Society in 1945. In 1948, his second Anglo-Palestinian Club show was inaugurated by a member of the prominent Rothschild family and several members of Parliament. Fechenbach also participated in the annual open air exhibitions in Embankment Gardens, held from 1946 to 1951. In 1962, Movietone News produced a short feature on the artist, which was shown in cinemas in England and Germany. Later the same year the Fechenbachs moved to Denham in Buckinghamshire.

In 1969 Fechenbach produced more than 100 ‘powerful, richly evocative’ wood engravings illustrating Genesis: the First Book of Moses published by Mowbray. He also started researching the fate of the Jewish community of Bad Mergentheim during the Holocaust, liaising with historian Dr Paul Sauer and Professor Max Miller, historian and theologian. In 1972 his semi-autobiographical The Last Jews of Mergentheim was published in Germany. During Fechenbach's late years, his work was shown at Blond Fine Art, London in 1985 and included in Kunst im Exil in Großbrittanien 1933–1945 in 1986 which toured Berlin, Oberhausen, Vienna and London. Hermann Fechenbach died on 6 December 1986 in Denham, England. His work is represented in UK public collections including the Ben Uri Collection, Imperial War Museum and Wellcome Collection. Ben Uri has shown his collection work frequently in many posthumous group exhibitions.

Related books

  • Ulrike Smalley, 'Lecture on the Lawn II: Four Internment Artists', in Rachel Dickson and Sarah MacDougall eds., Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain, c. 1933–1945 (London: Ben Uri Museum, 2009), pp. 50-63, 94
  • Jutta Vinzent, Identity and Image: Refugee Artists from Nazi Germany in Britain (1933–1945) (Kromsdorf/Weimar: VDG Verlag, 2006), pp. 42, 99–100, 255, 269, 283
  • Paul Sauer, 'Erinnerungen an Hermann Fechenbach', Württembergisch-Franken, No. 82, 1998, pp. 325-338
  • Hermann Fechenbach, Alice Haarburger: zwei jüdische Künstler in Stuttgart, exhib. cat. (Stuttgart: Kulturamt-Stadtarchiv, 1991)
  • 'Hermann Fechenbach', Jewish Chronicle, 19 December 1986, p. 13
  • Art in Exile 1933-45, exh. cat. (London: Camden Art Centre, 1986)
  • Hermann Fechenbach: Wood Engravings and Linocuts (London: Blond Fine Art Ltd., 1985)
  • Barry Fealdman, 'Fechenbach's Freshness', Jewish Chronicle, 1 March 1985, p. 13
  • Hermann Fechenbach, Die Letzten Mergentheimer Juden und die Geschichte der Familien Fechenbach (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1972)
  • Richard Grunberger, 'Forgotten Men', Jewish Chronicle, 14 February 1972, p. 26
  • Hermann Fechenbach, Genesis: The First Book of Moses (London: Mowbray, 1969)
  • 'Vivid Illustrator', Jewish Chronicle, 31 October 1969, p. 9
  • 'Dean of Canterbury at A. P. C.', Jewish Chronicle, 6 May 1949, p. 9
  • Tancred Borenius ed., Hermann Fechenbach: Art Exhibition (Oxford, 1942)
  • 'Oxford', Jewish Chronicle, 16 May 1941, p. 16

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Anglo-Palestinian Club, London (member and exhibitor)
  • Free German League of Culture (exhibitor) (exhibitor)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Finchleystrasse: German artists in exile in Great Britain and beyond, 1933-45, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum at the Germany Embassy, London (2019)
  • Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain c. 1933–1945, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London (2009)
  • Art Behind Barbed Wire, London Jewish Cultural Centre (2005)
  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Permanent Collection and Recent Acquisitions, Ben Uri Art Society (1989)
  • Art in Exile 1933-45, Camden Art Centre, 1986
  • Kunst im Exil in Großbritannien 1933–1945, Orangerie des Schlosses Charlottenburg, Berlin (1986)
  • Hermann Fechenbach: Wood Engravings and Linocuts, Blond Fine Art, London (1985)
  • Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1985)
  • Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1982)
  • Genesis – Herman Fechenbach, Ben Uri Society, London (1969)
  • Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1954)
  • Festival of Britain: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, 1851–1951, Art Section, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1951)
  • The Artist: Self-Portrait and Environment, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1951)
  • Portraits by Hermann Fechenbach, 52 Colet Gardens, London (1950)
  • Anglo-Palestinian Club, Piccadilly, London (1948)
  • Exhibition of Painting & Sculpture by Contemporary Jewish artists, Ben Uri Society, London (1946)
  • Exhibition of Portraits by Contemporary Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Art Gallery (1945)
  • Anglo-Palestinian Club, Piccadilly, London (1944)
  • Artists Aid Jewry Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London (1943)
  • Hermann Fechenbach: Art Exhibition, organised by Tancred Borenius, Oxford (1942)
  • Paintings and Woodcuts by Hermann Fechenbach, Nicolas Gallery, Oxford (May 1941)
  • Refugee Artists and their British Friends, Free German League of Culture, London (1941)
  • Second Art Exhibition, Hutchinson Camp, Douglas (19 November 1940)
  Hermann Fechenbach
   
Ben Uri collection

Hermann Fechenbach in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Hermann Fechenbach]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Hermann Fechenbach] in the Ben Uri Library