“Nobody needs pictures during this time.” Paul Roloff was under no great illusions in 1920. Nevertheless, a year later he founded “Die Welle” in Prien with other painters. The members of the artists’ association were fed up with seeing their pictures and sculptures drown in colorful mass exhibitions in Munich. Perhaps, so the hope of the group, the works, presented exclusively, could be better sold in the country. After all, there were tourists at Chiemsee back then. A mistake, as it soon turned out.
The 70th anniversary of Roloff’s death and the founding of “Welle” 100 years ago gave the Prien local history museum the opportunity to honor both the painter and his Welle colleagues in a double exhibition (until October 31). The project is not without its problems, because Roloff came to terms with those in power during the Nazi era. The research platform for the Great German Art Exhibitions 1937 to 1944 in Munich (www.gdk-research.de) recorded eight hits for his name. There he was represented, for example, with a portrait of Paul Ludwig Troost, the architect of the “Führerbau” and the House of Art in Munich. His painting “Munich waitress”, Issued in 1938, Hitler liked it so much that he bought it for 2000 Reichsmarks.
“But he wasn’t a Nazi,” says Elisabeth Waldmann, leafing through the photo albums with her grandfather’s works. He was never in the party, but always on the Protestant church council. But yes, he tried to feed his family with art and was therefore dependent on commissions.
Nudes, biblical scenes and portraits give rise to the painter’s reputation
His portraits were in demand. The granddaughter has been looking after Paul Roloff’s estate for many years. “I grew into it,” she says. Her mother started keeping records because her grandfather never kept a list of works himself. In the meantime she has documented many of the widely scattered paintings and also taken over the archive of “Welle”, “Otherwise everything will be lost”.
Paul Roloff in his studio around 1932.
(Photo: Heimatmuseum Prien)
Paul Roloff did not move to Prien until 1921. Born in a manor in the Stendal district in Altmark, he studied at the academy in Munich and quickly celebrated his first successes. Above all, the idiosyncratic nudes, the biblical scenes and the portraits established the reputation of the painter, who had been a member of the Munich Secession since 1911. The war interrupted his career abruptly, Roloff was deployed as one of the officers of the Bavarian Army on the Western Front. Badly marked by these experiences, after his return it seemed impossible for him to earn enough money to live with painting. An intermezzo as a landlord ended quickly, the hard work left him no time to paint. He could not return to Munich because he did not have a permit to move to Munich. So he took it immediately when a Munich businessman offered him his summer house on Chiemsee for sale during a train journey. In 1921 he moved with his wife and two daughters into the beautifully nooks and crannies, directly on the lake, which his granddaughter now lives in.
He often painted the view of the Fraueninsel in changing moods and colors. He was an excellent painter, as evidenced by the pictures in the Prien exhibition. But the paintings were not easy to sell in the post-war years. This is one of the reasons why he founded “Die Welle” as a free association of Chiemgau artists with like-minded Chiemsee newcomers – the painters Bernhard Klinckerfuß, Karl-Hermann Müller-Samerberg and Emil Thoma, the sculptor Friedrich Lommel and Paula Rösler as the only woman.
“Die Welle” financed its exhibition center from its own resources. When the lease expired after ten years, the municipality of Prien insisted on demolition.
(Photo: Heimatmuseum Prien)
As there was a lack of exhibition space, the rapidly growing group decided to take an unusual step: They decided to build a pavilion in Prien-Stock directly on the banks of the Chiemsee. A piece of land was leased and each member was supposed to pay 10,000 marks for the construction costs, Paula Rösler only 6,000.
The press was impressed by the exhibitions
the Chiemgau newspaper In July 1922, was enthusiastic about the “simple, elegant exhibition building that was integrated into the landscape with an artistic tact”. the Munich latest news noted in the summer of 1930 that the delightful building would be “preserved with personal sacrifices”. In general, the press was very impressed by the annual exhibitions. Karl Aß, director of the local history museum, pushed a lot of newspaper articles between the landscapes, still lifes and portraits of the “Welle” artists. Even if reading is tedious, they can be used to understand the history of the group.
Paula Rösler was a founding member of “Welle”. Here is one of her paper cuttings.
(Photo: Heimatmuseum Prien)
The painters themselves were all “realists”, devoted to the representational mode of representation, albeit in very different shades. While Paula Rösler approached the arts and crafts with her gorgeous silhouettes, Rudolf Sieck painted wide, light, romantic landscapes. The free spirit left the group again in 1926 because a member had branded him a “communist”. Much more expressive in their language are the powerful paintings by Theodor Hummel or the pictures by Lisbeth Lommel, the sculptor’s sister, who studied at the same time as Gabriele Münter at the “Ladies Academy” of the artists’ association in Munich.
The fact that the tone changed in the 1930s cannot be ignored. “Wiesch Pavilion took place.” German art as we want it can only be carried by a love of the German homeland and landscape and the German people. “Elisabeth Waldmann knows the quotes. Her grandfather, offspring of an old officer family, was probably grateful that there was – from his point of view – an upswing, she says.
In 1934 the group disbanded. Why? That has not yet been exactly researched
When the lease expired, the municipality of Prien insisted on demolishing the small art temple, allegedly in order to expose the view of the Herreninsel again. Therefore, the wave went to Rosenheim for its last exhibition in 1934. Again the exhibition was highly praised. Of the Volkish observers approximately, the journalistic party organ of the NSDAP praised the excellent overall impression. And the one brought into line Munich-Augsburger Abendzeitung was happy that nothing at Chiemsee had to be “cleaned up”.
In the same year the group broke up. Exactly why has not been researched to this day. Perhaps, as a free group, it actually stood in the way of National Socialist harmonization. Or maybe she gave up because the hope of selling works of art more easily in the country had proven wrong.