MEIDNER, LUDWIG

MEIDNER, LUDWIG (1884–1966), German painter. Meidner was born in Bernstadt, in Silesia. At 19, he went to Breslau to study art. For a time he eked out a living in Berlin, sketching for fashion magazines, but in 1906–08 studied in Paris. In 1908 he returned to Berlin where in 1912, with jakob steinhardt and Richard Janthur, Meidner founded the group Die Pathetiker. Though an ardent pacifist, Meidner was drafted into the German army, and served throughout World War I. In January 1918 he was given furlough to attend his one-man show of prewar paintings in Berlin. One of its major features was the oil, "I and the City," in which he presented himself as a large, tortured, brooding figure, with exploding streets, factories, and tenements in the background. The show caused a great stir and Meidner suddenly became one of the foremost representatives of expressionism in Central Europe. After the war, Meidner was prominent in the Novembergruppe, an association of artists and intellectuals eager to bridge the gap between the public and the nation's creative minds. Meidner was deeply attached to Judaism, and for a time during the early Nazi period taught drawing at the Jewish Yawne secondary school in Cologne. In 1939 he escaped to England. During the air raids on London he served as night watchman in a morgue. Here, for a few pounds each, he painted portraits of deceased people from photographs. In 1952 he returned to Germany, and for a time lived in the Jewish Old Age Home in Frankfurt. A portrait commission by   the German president Theodor Heuss led to his rediscovery; this enabled him to have a studio for the last years of his life. On his 80th birthday in 1964, he was awarded the Grosses Verdienstkruez of the Federal Republic of Germany. Meidner's most important works are those painted before World War I. Apart from his apocalyptic landscapes and his Jewish themes, his most significant creations are his disturbingly intense self-portraits and portraits of friends. His wife, Elsa Meidner, also made a reputation as a painter. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. Grochowiak, Ludwig Meidner (1966). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Breuer and I. Wagemann, Ludwig Meidner. Zeichner, Maler, Literat, vols. I and II. Exhibition Catalog Mathildenhoehe Darmstadt (1991; with Catalogue raisonné); G. Heuberger, (eds.), Ludwig und Else Meidner (2002); G.T. Natter (ed.), Im Nackendas Sternenmeer. Ludwig Meidner. Ein deutscher Expressionist (2001); Verein August Macke Haus e.V. (ed.), Ludwig Meidner – Weltentaumel. Die expressionistische Werkphase (2004). (Alfred Werner / Jihan Radjai-Ordoubadi (2nd ed.)