Georg Lebrecht, Ums Morgenrot

Description

‘Ums Morgenrot’ (‘At Daybrake’)
Biography: Georg Lebrecht

Displayed at the Great German Art Exhibition 1938 room 17; depicted in the exhibition catalog.
With original GDK-medal at the back.

Purchased for 5,000 Reichsmark by Otto Meissner (1880 – 1953), Head of the Office of the President of Germany from 1920 to 1945. He served during almost the entire Weimar Republic under Presidents Friedrich Ebert and Paul von Hindenburg, and remained in the post under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi government.

Monumental work of 160 x 125 cm.

‘Ums Morgenrot’ by Lebrecht, displayed at the Great German Art Exhibition 1938 room 17; depicted in the exhibition catalog.
The oil painting depicts a patrol of Imperial German Uhlan cavalrymen on horseback navigating a desolate, uneven landscape. The soldiers are distinctly recognizable by their traditional military uniforms, lances, and iconic Czapka (traditional horned cavalry helmets).
The Lances: Uhlans were the primary lance-armed light cavalry regiments of the Imperial German Army. You can clearly see the long wooden cavalry lances (Ulanenlanzen) held upright by the riders in the background.
The Covered Tschapkas: the helmets worn by the front riders have a distinct, slightly squared flat top beneath their gray fabric field covers. This unique headgear -the Tschapka- was exclusive to Uhlan regiments.
The Litewka/Feldrock: the Uhlans are depicted in their wartime Feldgrau field uniforms, which stripped away the bright peacetime colors but retained the classic silhouette of the cavalry corps.
During the opening months of World War I in 1914, these Uhlan regiments acted as the eyes and ears of the German advance, conducting long-range reconnaissance patrols and skirmishing across Belgium and France before the onset of static trench warfare.
When World War I erupted in 1914, all major European powers fielded massive cavalry regiments, under the assumption that fast, mounted troops would breakthrough enemy lines. However, the introduction of trench warfare, barbed wire, and machine guns rapidly minimized their strategic mobility on the Western Front, forcing many regiments to fight as dismounted infantry. Despite this, they remained highly active and crucial for reconnaissance and mobile warfare on the wider Eastern and Middle Eastern Fronts.

Otto Meissner Nazi Era (1934-1945)

In August 1934, shortly after Hitler fused the offices of president and chancellor into a single position of supreme leader, Meissner’s department was restructured and renamed the Presidential Chancellery. Its role was sharply narrowed to purely ceremonial and protocol duties, while all substantive political responsibilities shifted to the Reich Chancellery under Hans Lammers. Around the same time, Meissner was also appointed to the Academy for German Law. On 30 January 1937, marking the fourth anniversary of the Nazi seizure of power, Hitler awarded the Golden Party Badge to several longstanding non-Nazi officials in the government. Meissner was among them, receiving membership number 3,805,235. Later, on 1 December 1937, he was elevated to the rank of Minister of State (Staatsminister) and placed in charge of the newly renamed Presidential Chancellery of the Führer and Chancellor. Although his position carried the authority and standing of a Reich Minister, he was not formally granted that title.

Below, Adolf Hitler congratulates Otto Meisner for his 60th birthday in his Berlin’s apartment.
Hitler met Meissner for the last time on March 13, 1945, when Hitler congratulated him on his 65th birthday and presented him with a cash check with an endowment of 100,000 Reichsmark.

– condition	: II
– size	: 125 x 160 cm
– signed	: right, below
– type	: oil on canvas; with GDK-medal on the back

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