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Otto Edward Henry Schröder
Otto Edward Henry Schröder was born on 12.2.1913 in London, the son of a German banker father and an English mother. After his father’s internship during World War 1 and subsequent release, the family moved to Germany in 1918 where Otto Schröder received his education in Köln and Hamburg. According to his father’s wishes Schröder underwent commercial training at an export company in Hamburg. He studied art privately, mainly under the tutelage of Hermann Junker from 1934 to 1938. In 1939 he came to Cape Town as an employee of a Germany Import firm, with the plan to return to Germany as soon as possible, to continue with his art education in Munich. World War II broke out and Schröder was interned at Baviaanspoort from1941 to 1946. After his release he met his future wife, Lucie Johanne Schroeder, a teacher in Natal. In 1947 he moved to South West Africa and they married in December of that year in Okahandja. Schröder was co-founder, together with Emma Hoogenhout and Josef Reiter, of a branch of the South African Association of Arts in Windhoek. He was secretary from 1947 to 1955. With the help of the Association he started an Art School for children of all races. Schröder was also instrumental in the establishment of the Dr.Erich Lübbert Stiftung, in which building the Association’s Art Gallery and the Art Centre was housed. Otto Schröder published a small book about Adolf Jentsch, also a South West African painter and personal friend. And in the “Afrikanischer Heimatkalender” his contribution about South African Art is substantial. In 1963 Otto Schröder was appointed Professor of Creative Art at the Stellenbosch University. He started the Department with 14 students in one big lecture hall in the Ou Hoofgebou, now part of the Law Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch. Prof Otto Schröder was a teacher in the true sense of the word. His students enjoyed a diverse and interesting course, not only in their chosen field of art, but they also took subjects such as languages and Music History. He was of the opinion that only then were the students well-rounded people and able to make their mark in the outside world. Aesthetic values were of utmost importance. He strongly disapproved of one-sided education. Prof Otto Schröder was also Director of the University Art Gallery, where many exhibitions of artists of note were held over the years. Here works of the students of the Department of Creative Art were exhibited on a regular basis. Otto Schröder died on 13 June 1975. Schröder held many one-man shows, notably in 1955, 1960, 1963, 1969, 1972, 1974 and 1975. After his death 3 commemorative exhibitions were held, one in Windhoek and one in Stellenbosch in 1976. In 1986 a big exhibition was held in the Sasol Art Gallery in Stellenbosch. He also participated in State Exhibitions in 1940, 1947/48 and from 1950 to 1967. His paintings are represented in public and private collections in Namibia, RSA and overseas. He was author and co-author of many publications. He was, amongst others, a member of the International Society for Education through Art (of UNESCO), the International Council of Museums, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art, International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, and International Association of Plastic Arts. He was not only an educator and instructor, but an artist with his own style and approach. He saw himself as an South West African artist, because he, like his fellow artists and personal friends A Jentsch and F Krampe, were under the impression of the unspoiled and ancient nature of the country. Therefore the country and its native people became the main themes of his paintings. The surroundings of this country with its bright sunlight together with the haziness of the coastal regions, which in turn softened the bright colours, mountain contours and even vast plains and people, made his art expressive, sensitive and nature bound. His thorough training and precision in art, gave him competence in all media, but pastel eventually became his preferred medium through which he could express this country’s different nuances. He was also well known for his portrait paintings in both oils and pastels, charcoals drawings, etchings, murals in metal and enamel in public buildings and stained glass windows. Together with A Jentsch and F Krampe, Otto Schröder has become one of the great artists of Namibia. He was honoured with the issue of a commemorative set of four stamps portaying his landscapes after his death in 1975.