Draft:Hans Friedrich Grohs

Hans Friedrich Grohs (12 December 1892 in Pahlen—28 November 1981 in Heide-Holstein) was a German artist (2nd generation expressionist), specializing in printing, paintings, and stained glass, and professor at the Nordic Art Academy and district cultural officer of Bremen.

Biography
Hans Grohs' art and writings reflect the two major foundations—his love for his homeland with its history and natural beauty and his love of God; later politics and the war years further influenced his art along with his travels. He stood firm and independent in his style shunning being classified into the artistic movements of his day. Today he is often grouped with the 2nd generation Expressionists. His graphic woodcuts strongly reveal his expressionistic orientation, and many of his paintings lend themselves toward romanticism. His writings were influenced by the Low-German, Dithmarschen, Romantic poet Klaus Groth, the neo-Romantic Heimatkünst movement with the authors Gustav Frenssen and Adolf Bartels, the Bible, the Nordic Edda, Dithmarschen history, and his study of artists.

Early Life and Education
Hans Grohs grew up in Pahlen along the Eider River at the northern border of Dithmarschen. His father, Claus Hinrich Grohs (1855–1947) followed the career of his father, Hans Grohs of Delve, and fished the North and Baltic Seas, enriching the mind of young Hans with the history and tales of the Nordic lands. Grohs' mother, Maria Christina Grohs Warner (1865-?) educated young Hans with a strong Lutheran background and encouraged his artistic talents to grow. Life was simple yet meager. Hans was a frail child and short in stature. Financial hardship struck when his father's boat capsized. Unable to afford the Gymnasium in Heide, Hans worked at age 15 as an apprentice house painter.

His formal education began when as journeyman painter, he attended evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hildesheim. At his first official art exhibition in Heide in 1912, Grohs met Emil Nolde and Ludwig Dettman. In 1913 Dettman accepted him as his student at the University of Königsberg, where he met the German impressionists Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth. Lovis Corinth offered students a summer trip to the Curonian Spit on the Baltic Coast during which Grohs painted the watercolor, Kurische Nehrung (Curonian Spit), 1914-1917 By late summer Grohs applied to the Grand-Ducal Saxon School for Fine Arts in Weimar, which became the Staatliches Bauhaus Art School in 1919 when Walter Gropius became director. Grohs remained at the school in Weimar until December 1919, minus his time with military service.

WWI 1914-1918
It is unclear whether it was poor health or being wounded that shortened Grohs' active duty as a soldier, for he soon found himself in the hospital in Erfurt in 1915. Upon release, he was called twice again to serve in military civil duty, once at the Royal Library in Bruges, Belgium, and again later to Brussels. When not serving he immersed himself fully in art studies in Weimar.

Weimar Years, 1915-1919
While in Königsberg Grohs met the author (and radical antisemite) Adolf Bartels who, seeing his great potential, became the benefactor for his Weimar education. The German Impressionist Fritz Mackensen was his mentor. Walther Klemm, Theodor Hagan, Max Thedy, and Lyonel Feininger were among his instructors with interactions with Marks, Klee, Kandinsky, Schlemmer, Nolde and others, and evenings of plays, presentations and music at the Nietzsche Archive.

Grohs created the series You New Generation: Pray and Build, consisting of very large oil paintings, from which the Adoration, 1916, and Descent from the Cross, 1918, were displayed at the Bauhaus exhibition in 1919. Only the Adoration, 1916, given to the Schleswig Cathedral, survived WWII intact. Grohs published the series with an essay in 1926. Other expressive oils created during these years, now destroyed as degenerate art, include Christ and the Money Changers, 1918, and The Mocking of Christ, 1919.

In Wiemar, Grohs won several Hebbel prizes and graduated in 1917 with the Karl Alexander Stiftung award for his altar piece painting, The Crucifixion, 1916, a triptych depicting the crucifixion with the German Lutheran reformers Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon translating the Bible. Twenty years later in 1937 he would be crushed when the Nazi's destroyed it, as he writes below its photograph: "Von der Entartung betroffen. 1937. In Heide vernichtet. Für dieses Bild erhielt ich die höchste Auszeichnung der Hochschule in Weimar, 1917."

Grohs enjoyed the graphics class with Lyonel Feininger. Grohs' major woodcut prints during these years include the Dance of Death, 1917, with poetry, the Small Dance of Death, 1918, and the Large Dance of Death, 1919. Grohs' drawing of Lyonel Feininger was destroyed as degenerate art. Lyonel Feininger also made a woodcut of Hans Grohs.

As spokesperson for the student body and young master artist with a studio, Grohs took on a leadership role. His woodcut print, Descent of the Holy Ghost, 1919, his poem, and a co-authored essay were featured in the first edition of the Bauhaus' student journal, Der Austausch. He eloquently greeted Walter Gropius in the welcoming ceremony with a speech. However, the political upheaval of the Weimar Republic, which began in November 1918, and the sweeping changes made by Gropius in the administration of the school caused concern to brew. In the April 1919 Bauhaus "Program", Gropius stated "art is not a 'profession.' There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his workto blossom into art." In a December 12 meeting discussing "the new art in Weimar," Grohs could not fully accept the radical liberal ideas that swept through the school. The following day's Bericht der Studierenden (Report of Students) states, "The assembly of students on the 13th of December, which intended to take a position on the behavior of Gross was not called by any Jews but by two Germans..." (transl. Bareikis), implying that this was not anti-Semitic, in opposition to remarks later in the discussion. Barekis further commented on the unlikeness that the anti-Semitic  comments came from Grohs since he was a Mischling, or part Jewish. This resulted in the subsequent resignation of Grohs and thirteen other students from the Bauhaus. Grohs upheld the notion of the conservatives that art was being despoiled by all the "isms" that had infected the Bauhaus, saying, "For me, these terms do not exist. True art remains true art; it is not bound to any particular time or any particular direction." This is similar to the middle direction Max Liebermann took as administrator of the Berlin Art Academy, who believed in the separation of art and politics and "pushed for the right of artists to do their own thing, unconcerned with politics or ideology."

Family
Grohs met the love of his life, Elisabeth von Treskow; they married in 1922, but tragedy struck when Elisabeth died in childbirth two years later. The loss left Grohs devastated with a young child. To cope with grief Hans Grohs created expressionistic drawings and woodcuts, The ABC of Death 1924, The Elli Dance of Death, 1924, and carved Elli's grave sculpture Elli Ascension, 1924. To help him recover, a friend offered him a trip to Italy; later in his life Grohs would return twice more to Italy.

During an art exhibition in Marne in 1925, Grohs met Elma Hansen, a sculptress who studied with Georg Kolbe in Istanbul during WWI and at the Berlin and Munich Art Academies. After a brief courtship, they married on Hans' birthday, December 12, 1925. Hans Grohs had three more children, Frauken, Gero, and Volker, and lived a long life with Elma.

Career
The post-Bauhaus years were highly productive for the artist. In 1920, Hans Grohs, Hermann Matzen and Karl Pünjer became co-founders of the art and culture journal Dithmarschen, in which Grohs made several publications, contributing short stories, poems, woodcut prints, and cover designs. Grohs participated in several exhibitions throughout North Germany. Notable works during this time include several woodcuts (the Dithmarschen History of the Peasant Wars, woodcut portraits of its noble leaders, and Dithmarschen landscapes, a Zarathustra and a Nibelungen series, oil paintings (Priel bei Ebbe 1927), stained glass (Die Schöpfung,1926, Das Abendmahl, 1930), and many others. His reputation grew, resulting in several published articles featuring his life and works, a 1933 lecture at the University of Marburg, and a 1934 appointment by Fritz Mackensen as professor at the Nordic Art Academy in Bremen, where Grohs also served as deputy director and interim acting director for the year of 1943.

Pre-war and WWII, 1930-1945

As Emil Nolde, Hans Grohs joined the NSDAP in 1930. Two years later, he self-published Der Weg zur Nordischen Kunst and Das Ewige Werden, accompanied with a poetic chant (ein Sprechchor) performance." IThe NSDAP appointed Grohs as district cultural warden. For meetings, large tapestries were made, designed by Hans Grohs and stitched by Elma Grohs and other women. Given his impoverished background, Grohs had great hopes in the cultural mission of his party to bring Germany out of hyperinflation and post-war depression. In spite of his position at the Nordic Art Academy in Bremen and with the NSDAP, certain Nazi officials did not like him and were often on his case. Hans Grohs had a sympathetic heart for the Jews although he could not express it openly.  However, the National Socialists discredited his Expressionist works and in 1937, as part of the Germany-wide concerted action "Degenerate Art", they were removed from museums in Berlin, Hüsum, Kaiserslautern, Kiel, Weimar, Wuppertal-Elberfeld and from his home in Heide; almost all of them were destroyed. Grohs did manage to save some artwork, however, by burying them under the floor of his barn. Grohs was drafted in 1943 at age 50 as a foot soldier on the Russian front. Although he was ordered not to paint, he made small sketches to complete after the war. With very poor health and a kind leutinant, he was dismissed and returned home to Bremen in time to witness its bombing.

Life after WWII, 1945-1981
After the war, the Nordic Art Academy was closed and, due to his political office, Hans Grohs was interned for a year by the Americans in 1945. While in the camp, he painted several portraits of American soldiers and a large oil painting, The Last Supper, 1945, which was freely given to the American Lutheran Church in Bremerhaven, as well as a Rembrandt-like Life of Christ series of six oil paintings, his way of thanking God for saving his life. He was interned again for ten days in 1948 by the Germans and released as a "Follower", with an atonement notice on April 19, 1948.

To earn income directly after the war the Grohs family established a hand-weaving and blueprint and ochre screenprint business in Heide. Elma Grohs' father, August Emil Hansen, a Freemason and merchant of Marne, provided supplemental income to the family.

"Exhausted and dispirited" after the war, Grohs fell out of step with emerging trends, turning inward to God in meditation and isolation. To lift the spirits, Hans and Elma traveled to the USA in 1959, to Italy in 1966 and 1969, and to the Lofoten Islands of Norway in 1967, with Hans painting many landscapes and Elma recording events for a travel journal. Watercolor became one of his favorite mediums where he played with colors in a dancing landscape. His admiration of Vincent van Gogh is expressed in his post-war flower and portrait paintings. Hans and Elma often went to the Dithmarschen coast and the Halligen islands painting with the Warft group. Hans Grohs recorded the great Stormflood, 1962, through his artworks, made large Klaus Groth frescoes, 1963, for the Klaus Groth School in Heide, religious paintings for churches, completed his writings and Elma recorded his biography.

The Artist into the Future: His Artistic Style and His Message
Grohs' artworks and writings demand future studies. A 1965 article in the Heimat-Rundschau news, says, "(Grohs') literary works are little known. Here too he broke new intellectual ground with the new, completely spiritual interpretation of the Nibelungenlied. His (theatrical) plays "Telsche von Wöhrden " and "Vincent van Gogh", his stories, poems, and notes are written in Low German. His weavings and tapestries also show how versatile he is. He has worked on the Isenbrand saga several times." Although many manuscripts remain unpublished, some of Grohs literary publications can be found in the early editions of the journal Dithmarschen, some news articles, the exhibition catalog Hans Grohs–An Ecstatic Vision, and the book A Trunk of Memories: North German Short Stories of Hans Friedrich Grohs.

Grohs' post-war landscape watercolors coupled with his poetry and writings let one see deep glimpses into his thoughts and meditations. Grohs' self-portraits capture a story of his life. His post-war portraits show him humble, with gratitude for his life and repentance of past errors, as can be seen in the drawings of Self as the Prodigal Son, 1956, and Self with Shadow, 1963-1985, and in the oil paintings Self as Elijah, 1945, and Self with Crucifixion and World Globe, 1967, with flames of the past in the background. In his last oil painting, Via Dolorosa, 1981, one sees his image as Christ carrying the cross. To understand this artist, one must look into his Christian soul with compassion.

Pünjer described his art as "emotional, vivid, religiously based..., monumental in its simplicity of style". He praised Grohs, calling him an eideticist, i.e., "having a strong objectivity to internally see images both from memory and fantasy, even feeling musical notes in vivid colors." In Visions from the Soul: Woodcuts of Hans Friedrich Grohs, Bareikis said, "It is as if Grohs' religious paintings were Biblical iconography triple filtered through the eyes of a nineteenth-century German Romantic, a baroque mannerist, and a modern Expressionist, coupled with symbolic undertones in the manner of Paul Gaugin." Grohs' The Money Changers, 1918, and Nolde's Christ and the Sinner, 1911, both show a "strong sense of Expressionistic pathos", both were displayed at the Kiel exhibition in 1920, and both were degenerate. Although Otto Dix and Georg Grosz's antiwar works may be more outrightly defiant as "Painted Military Sabotage,"  Grohs' art and poetry present a more subtle tone of dissent.

A study of Hans Grohs entails the consideration of psychology, art and social history, German culture and literature, and religion. Grohs' most Expressionistic works are his woodcuts, however, one cannot apply the Expressionist label to Grohs as a whole. He remained more focused on form. His debt as a painter is more to artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Emil Nolde and Edvard Munch, to medieval traditions and Italian Renaissance. And we must remember that Grohs did not like those "isms."