Horst Strempel

The biography of German artists, writers, musicians, artists, active during the Weimar years follow all the same pattern : whatever their successes in their respective fields, the year 1933 marks a turning point, not to say a gap.  

That goes for many big names, but also for artists less known at the time. Horst Strempel was born in 1904 in Breslau (today’s Wroclaw, in Poland). Like so many others, he moves to Berlin in 1927. Like so many others he sympathizes with the Communist Party and joins the Association of Revolutionary Artists. In 1932, one of his works – « Selig sind die geistig Armen », (« Blessed are the poor in spirit ») is deemed too controversial for the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung (Berlin Arts Exhibition), He leaves the country in 1933, returns after the war and chooses, like many other left-wing artists and intellectuals, to live in « the better half of Germany », i.e. the GDR. That « better half » proving itself to be not good enough for creative artists, he moves to the West in 1953. He died in 1975.

Strempel started his career during during the Weimar era, but most of his production dates from the 40’s and 50s.

"Selig sind die geistig Armen" 1932

1938