3rd May 1944
Ernst Vollbehr

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Art postcard in the series 'Kriegsbild Dokumente von Ernst Vollbehr (1876-1960) . Nordfront. Bild 9'. The caption to the reverse reads, 'The sea strait of Kairalla, famous for the summer battles of 1941. (Kandalacha front). Scene of the German-Finnish attack on the railway and road bridge (early 1942).' Ref: 03.05.1944

Ernst Vollbehr

Ernst Vollbehr (1876 - 1960) was a German travel writer, painter and illustrator who glorified colonialism, war and National Socialism in his works .

Vollbehr was a son of the Kiel merchant Emil Jakob Heinrich Vollbehr (1837 - 1913) and his wife Caroline Elisabeth, née Beckmann (1846 - 1927). His seven siblings included the chemist and antiquarian Otto Vollbehr. The art historian and Magdeburg museum director Theodor Volbehr was his cousin.

ree — Bild 6, from the series, 'Kriegsbild-Dokumente von Ernst Vollbehr. Nordfront.' The caption to the reverse reads, 'View of the Norway-Finland border bridge built by our mountain troops. In the foreground, destroyed Lapp houses from the 1940 winter campaign.' Ref: 08.05.1944 (located at 03.05.1944)

In 1892, Vollbehr began an apprenticeship as a decorative painter at the Schwerin Court Theater. From 1897, he studied art in Berlin, Dresden, Paris and Rome. Around 1900, his artistic style was close to Art Nouveau. As a participant in expeditions to Albania (1904) and Brazil (1907), he discovered travel painting for himself. Between 1909 and 1914, he traveled to the four German-African colonies with artistic intentions.

ree — Bild 19, from the series, 'Kriegsbild-Dokumente von Ernst Vollbehr. Nordfront.' The caption to the reverse reads, 'Bright red and yellow autumn colours in the tundra. Moors, pines and alders with colourful shrubs, mountains in the background that have been cut off by ancient glaciers, hiding places for Bolshevik gangs.' Ref: 22.04.1944 (located at 03.05.1944)

During the First World War, Vollbehr worked as a war painter at the front. In addition to terrestrial and aerial panoramas of the battlefield, he created hundreds of paintings and drawings.

Vollbehr became known through landscape and war paintings, with which he also took part in the Great German Art Exhibition. After 1933, Vollbehr painted pictures of the Nazi Party Rallies and the Olympic facilities in Berlin on state commission. Fritz Todt commissioned him to create numerous paintings of the construction of the Reichsautobahn. Vollbehr became one of the most popular artists in Germany, whose works were shown in the special exhibition 1, 1934, conceived under Hermann Lorey, with the theme: 'Vosges Front. Memorial Exhibition 1914–1934. With war pictures by Ernst Vollbehr' in the Zeughaus (Berlin). Adolf Hitler's high regard for Vollbehr's work was expressed, among other things, in the purchase of his war paintings by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). His admission to the NSDAP, despite a ban on admission at the time, was personally approved by Hitler in July 1933.

ree — Bild 25, from the series, 'Kriegsbild-Dokumente von Ernst Vollbehr. Nordfront.' The caption to the reverse reads, 'The mighty waters of the Bardufoss near a power station. The waterfall cascades down into the valley in two tiers, with huge numbers of fish in the rapids.' Ref: 25.05.1944 (located at 03.05.1944)

Vollbehr took part in the invasion of Poland in 1939. He showed pictures of this in Berlin in 1940 in the exhibition Polish Campaign in Pictures and Portraits. In 1941 he received the Goethe Medal for Art and Science. In 1944 Vollbehr was on the list of those blessed by God of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Further information here.

ree — Bild 36, from the series, 'Kriegsbild-Dokumente von Ernst Vollbehr. Nordfront.' The caption to the reverse reads, 'View of the Rombakstötta and ‘Sleeping Queen’ from the Fjellden Pass. In the distance Narvik, in front of us Bjervik, where the French were defeated 5 times.' Ref: No date (located at 03.05.1944)

In the Soviet occupation zone, Vollbehr's writings The Face of the Western Front (1932), The Streets of Adolf Hitler, Built in 1933/34 (1935), Work Battle: 5 Years of Painting Trips to the Construction Sites of the 'Streets of Adolf Hitler' (1939) and With the OT at the West Wall and Advance (1941) were put on the list of literature to be discarded. In the German Democratic Republic, this list was followed by Colorful, Shining World (1935).

ree — Bild 46, from the series, 'Kriegsbild-Dokumente von Ernst Vollbehr. Nordfront.' The caption to the reverse reads, 'The burnt fjord town of ‘Namsos’, famous for the English ‘victorious’ retreat.' Ref: 25.05.1944 (located at 03.05.1944)

In 1957, the German Museum of Regional Studies in Leipzig, under the director Edgar Lehmann, bought around 900 paintings by Vollbehr, mostly landscape and ethnographic paintings. Almost 400 of the works come from Vollbehr's travels through the German-African colonies; war paintings and propaganda commissioned works were not purchased. A scientific estate of Vollbehr, including around 800 paintings and travel diaries, is located in the Geography Archive of the Leibniz Institute of Regional Studies in Leipzig.

Source: Wikipedia

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3rd May 1944 Ernst Vollbehr

3rd May 1944
Ernst Vollbehr