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Description
‘MG-Schütze’ (‘Machine Gunner’, soldier in combat-ready stance, armed with an MG 42)
Biography: Matthäus Bayer
Displayed at the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1944 room 32 (insured for 8,000 Reichsmark).
Given by the Infantry Regiment at the East Front in which Bayer served, to Paul Giesler, Gauleiter of Munich-Upper Bavaria, and Ministerpräsident of Bavaria.
Size: 3/4 life size.
Created at the front near Moscow, by Mattäus Bayer, sculptor and feldwebel (sergeant) in the Wehrmacht/ Infanterie-Geschütz-Ersatz-Kompagnie 407, Ingolstadt.
Signed:
“OSTFRONT 1943
FW. MATTH. BAYER”
Photo at the right: Russia, near Moscow, 6 March 1943.
Executed in poplar-wood. Made from a 150 year old poplar tree trunk from the Sovkoz Terenina, a collective farm near the city of Smolensk, app 200 km away from Moscow. Terenina was occupied by the Germans from October 1941 to August 1943.
Map: village of Terenina.
‘MG-Schutze’, displayed at the Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung. Photo from the personal photo album of Matthäus Bayer, in which the artist documented his pre-1945 works created at the Russian front, and at home. Titled ‘AUS MEINER ARBEIT’ and signed ‘Feldw. Matthäus Bayer, I. G. Ers. Kp. 407 Ingolstadt, 1943’ , in possession of German Art Gallery, see biography.
Notice the original GDK-base with the small nummer plaque (at the top, in the middle).
The text at the back of the photo reads:
‘M.G. Schütze
Große deutsche Kunstauststellung 1944 im Haus der deutschen Kunst.
Geschenk einer im Osten eingesetzen Infanterie Division an den Heimatgau
zu Händen von Herrn Gauleiter Paul Giesler.
An der Ostfront 1943 entstanden.
Feldwebel Matth. Bayer’
‘M.G. Schütze
Great German Art Exhibition 1944 in the Haus of German Art.
A present of an Infantery Division active at the East Front, to the Heimatgau (Homegau)
Fore the attantion of Gauleiter Paul Giesler.
Created at the Ostfront.
Sergeant Matth. Bayer’
‘MG-Schütze’, photos from the personal photo album of Matthäus Bayer.
Paul Giesler (1895 – 1945) was a German Nazi Party politician and SA-Obergruppenführer. From 1941, he was the Gauleiter of Westphalia-South, and he was appointed to the same position for the Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria in 1942. From 2 November 1942 to 28 April 1945, he was also Ministerpräsident of Bavaria. Giesler was also named in Hitler’s Political Testament as Interior Minister, replacing Heinrich Himmler, in the short-lived Goebbels Cabinet. He committed suicide together with his wife in the closing days of the war in Europe.
MG-Schütze, further depicted and described in the personal photo album of Matthäus Bayer.
The text reads: ‘Die Entstehung: Ein etwa 150 Jähriger Papelstamm aus dem Sowchos Terenino stellt das Material für beide Plastiken‘ (‘The creation: A 150-year-old poplar trunk from the Terenino state farm provides the material for both sculptures’). ‘Both sculptures’ refers to Bayer’s ‘MG-Schütze’ and ‘Grenadiere’ (‘Grenadiers’).
Russia, near Moscow, 6 March 1943.
Left: Russia, near Moscow, 10 March 1943.
Right: Russia, near Moscow, 1 April 1943 (notice at the background the sculpture ‘Grenadiere’ in progress; below more).
Left: Russia, near Moscow, 25 April 1943.
Right: Munich, 1944, Great German Art Exhibition.
Left: Russia, near Moscow, 1 April 1943 (notice at the background, left, the sculpture ‘Grenadiere’ in progress).
Right: ‘Grenadiere’ by Bayer, the text left reads: ‘in possession of Karl Wahl, Gauleiter of Swabia’. Karl Wahl (1892 – 1981) was the Gauleiter of Swabia from the Gau inception in 1928 until the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945. After the war, Wahl spent 3½ years in jail before being released in 1949.
Related GDK-1944 documents.
| – condition | : III |
| – size | : height 132 cm |
| – signed | : ‘OSTFRONT 1943, FW. MATTH. BAYER’ |
| – type | : made from a 150 year old poplar tree trunk from the Russian front |
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