Fritz Koelle, Turmspringerin

Back

				Price: on request

Description

‘Turmspringerin’ (‘Platform-diver’)
Biography: Fritz Koelle

A nude created on special instructions of Adolf Hitler.
Life-size bronze, created 1941.
The original model of plaster is in the possession of the Lenbachhaus, Munich. No other casts are known to exist.

— displayed at the exhibition ‘Art in the Third Reich, Seduction and Distraction’, November 2023 – March 2024, Museum Arnhem, The Netherlands —

‘Germany does not need woman who can dance beautifully at five o’clock teas, but woman who have given proof of their health through accomplishments in the field of sports…The javelin and diving-board are more usefull than lipstick in promoting health’, Frankfurter Zeitung 1937.

Fritz Kölle, ‘Turmspringerin’. The original plaster model in the possession of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus. Depicted in ‘Fritz Kölle, Leben und Werk’, 2001, by Eva Pasche.

Fritz Kölle and Hitler’s request for nude female sculptures
In an interview in his atelier with the Croatian writer Nada Kestercanek in 1944, Kölle said that Hitler had specifically asked him to create female sculptures. Two years later, in a letter dated May 28, 1946, Fritz Kölle wrote: ‘in 1940 I was visited by Giesler on special instructions of Adolf Hitler. I was promised large orders, but first I had to create a nude; after that, I would be allowed to sculpt workmen again. Thus I made a female-dancer (Spitzentänzerin). I thought they would like that, but no, I still had to produce a nude. Hence I made the platform-diver (Turmspringerin). Then I received orders again to create large sculptures of workmen…’ (‘Fritz Koelle, Leben und Werk’, 2011).
In the book ‘Adel der Arbeit, der Arbeiter in der Kunst der NS-Zeit‘, 1984, the son of Koelle writes at page 96: ‘…At the opening of the Great German Art Exhibition, I think it was in 1940, Hitler said to his companions, that the next year he did not want to see workers by Koelle anymore; instead he wanted Koelle to create a female nude. Shortly afterwards, Gauleiter Giesler and Robert Ley came to his atelier and notified him about the wish of the Führer….So my father created the ‘Spitzentänzerin’. However this girl was not naked, and thus not according to Hitler’s request. He made a second female sculpture which was not naked either. Both Gauleiters were greatly irritated… Then he made a third sculpture, -again not naked…. However the wish of the Führer had to be fulfilled, and finally he created the naked ‘Turmspringerin’…. By that time the Gestapo already checked his atelier, his administration and the progress of his work’.

This was the reason why Spitzentänzerin (1941), Turmspringerin (1941), Balletttänzerin (1943) and Tänzerin Nika (1943) came into existence. From 1940 to 1944, Kölle often went to the Munich Prinzregenten Theatre, where he was inspired especially by the dancers Nika Nilanowa-Sanftleben and Else Högenäuer. Else Högenäuer frequently stood as a model in his atelier for the sculpture Spitzentänzerin (GDK 1942 room 31).
At the end of 1953, shortly after Kölle’s death, a bronze was cast from Spitzentänzerin and bought by the director of MAN in Augsburg. Kölle’s son allowed an after-cast in bronze of Ballettänzerin to be made, which has stood in Grünwald since 1975 (from 1975 onwards, many large bronzes by Kölle -owned by the Städtische Sammlungen Augsburg- were given on loan to other German cities and villages). Tänzerin Nika was also cast in bronze and placed in Strasslach.
The following is an overview of all casts of these four female sculptures (excluding the two from German Art Gallery):
Spitzentänzerin: 1 bronze cast in Grünwald, another bronze cast is privately owned.
Ballettänzerin: 1 bronze cast in Grünwald. Plaster model in possession of the city of Augsburg.
Tänzerin Nika: 1 bronze cast in Strasslach.
Turmspringerin: no other bronze cast is known. Plaster model in possession of the Lenbachhaus, Munich.

‘Turmspringerin’ by Fritz Koelle, displayed at the exhibition ‘Art in the Third Reich, Seduction and Distraction’, Museum Arnhem, The Netherlands, November 2023 – March 2024. Photo’s: Eva Broekema.

‘Turmspringerin’ by Koelle, depicted in the exhibition catalog ‘Art in the Third Reich’ by Jelle Bouwhuis and Almar Seinen, 2023.

Leni Riefenstahl, ‘Olympia-Fest der Schönheit‘, 1936  (‘Festifal of Beauty); section Competition Diving. The film was a masterpiece in cinematic form, but also a vehicle for Nazi Party propaganda, particularly in its celebration of the  strong, healthy athletic, and Aryan human body.
At the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, September 21, 1935, Hitler described his ideal of the German Youth as: ‘swift as a greyhound, tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp’s steel.’ (‘Schlank und rank, flink wie Windhunde, zäh wie Leder und hart wie Kruppstahl‘). This phrase was subsequently quoted often and used as a slogan.
(…..’for what matters is not merely how many glasses of beer he can drink, but how many blows he can withstand, not how many nights he can spend doing the rounds of the bars and pubs but how many kilometers he can march. Today the German People’s ideal is no longer your average beer-drinker but the young men and girls who are fit and trim…’

============================================ § ============================================