Battke, Heinz

Heinz Battke was born into an upper-middle-class family in Berlin in 1900. His father, Max Battke (1863–1916), was a composer who taught at the Konservatorium des Westens in Berlin. After the death of her husband, Heinz’s mother Ada Battke (1877–1959) married the conductor and composer Dr Rudolf Cahn-Speyer (1881–1940), who was heavily involved in the debate about copyright in music. In 1918, Heinz Battke began his studies at the private art school in Berlin that was run by Adolf Propp (1882–1936); then in 1921 he moved on to the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he studied under Karl Hofer (1878–1955) until 1925. Battke gave his first solo exhibition in 1927, at the Galerie Neuman-Nierendorf. After completing his studies in Berlin, Battke moved to Paris, where he studied for a further two years. In 1934, Battke began to work for the Schlossmuseum in Berlin on an honorary basis, remaining there for a year, where he catalogued its ring collection and published the results in book form. Battke became an expert in ancient rings and was a great collector himself. In 1935, he was offered the headship of the painting class at the Rhineland Academy. However, this would have required him to join the Nazi Party, which he refused to do. As a result, he was declared a “degenerate” artist and excluded from the Imperial Chamber of Culture. He went into exile, joining his mother, who had already emigrated to Florence with her husband. In 1941, Battke was drafted into the Luftwaffe to work as a German-Italian interpreter on Sicily. His friend Rudolf Levy was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and put in the Le Murate prison in Florence. Battke tried to have him freed, but was unsuccessful, and Levy died while being deported[C1.1]. In 1944, after the liberation of Florence, Battke was captured by the Allies and interned in a camp at Padula in Salerno. He was freed in July 1945 and allowed to return to Florence. In 1949, galleries in Florence and Venice exhibited his works. A friend of Battke’s showed several of his works to the art patron Hanna Bekker vom Rath, whereupon she organised an exhibition in her gallery in Frankfurt am Main in 1950. In 1956, Battke was appointed the head of the free design class at the Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt. He later enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions in the German-speaking world, and participated in international exhibitions. He was elected to the committee of the Frankfurt Secession in 1957.

Weiterführende Informationen finden Sie in unserem Sammlungskatalog „Wir werden euch nicht Vergessen. Die Verlorene Generation. Ihre Kunst. Ihre Geschichten“. Dieser ist here erhältlich.