Richard Grune lithograph of a concentration camp guard threatening a cowering prisoner
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 23.750 inches (60.325 cm) | Width: 17.000 inches (43.18 cm)
pictorial area: Height: 9.500 inches (24.13 cm) | Width: 8.500 inches (21.59 cm)
Creator(s)
- Richard Grune (Subject)
- Richard Grune (Artist)
Biographical History
Richard Grune was born on August 2, 1903, in Flensburg, Germany. He attended the Municipal Arts and Craft School in Kiel. In 1926, he studied at the Bauhaus school in Weimar, and later Dessau, where his teachers included Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. He worked as a painter and photographer. Grune moved to Berlin in February 1933. Hitler had been appointed Chancellor in January that year and the country was rapidly shifting into a Nazi controlled dictatorship. Nazi ideology called for the racial and cultural purification of Germany and, in debates in the Reichstag, Nazi party members had already made clear their position that homosexuality was antithetical to a strong Germany. Under the new government, police were enforcing the existing law, Article 6, § 175, which punished indecent acts between men. Same-sex clubs were being shut down and those suspected of violating the law were being targeted for arrest. Grune was arrested in December 1934, one of seventy caught in a wave of denunciations. Under interrogation, Grune admitted to being homosexual. He was held in protective custody for five months, then returned to his childhood home in Flensburg to stand trial for violating §175. In September 1936, Grune was convicted and sentenced to prison in Lichtenburg. Upon his release, the Gestapo kept Grune in protective custody, asserting that his sentence had been too lenient. In early October 1937, Grune was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In early April 1940, he was transferred to Flossenbürg. In April 1945, as American forces approached, Grune escaped during the evacuation of the camp and joined his sister in Kiel. He began creating the works that would be exhibited and published as "Passion des XX. Jahrhunderts" (Passion of the 20th century). The set of lithographs was, one of the earliest and most important works to detail the horrific conditions and brutality of the German concentration camp system to the public. Grune spent much of the remainder of his life in Spain, but later returned to Germany. Grune, 80, died on November 26, 1983, in Hamburg.
Archival History
The lithograph was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2012.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, The Abraham and Ruth Goldfarb Family Acquisition Fund
Funding Note: The acquisition of this collection was made possible by The Abraham and Ruth Goldfarb Family Acquisition Fund.
Scope and Content
Lithograph created by Richard Grune soon after the war to publicize the barbaric conditions he experienced or witnessed as a prisoner in concentration camps and prisons in Germany from 1935-1945. Grune was a Bauhaus trained artist who moved to Berlin in February 1933. Hitler had been appointed Chancellor that January and was transforming the government to a Nazi-controlled dictatorship. Nazi ideology demanded racial and cultural purity and homosexuality was antithetical to this vision. Under the new government, those suspected of violating a pre-existing statute, Article 6, §175, which punished indecent acts between men, were targeted for arrest. In December 1934, Grune was denounced and arrested. Under interrogation, he admitted to being homosexual. He was held in protective custody for five months, then put on trial for violating §175. In September 1936, he was convicted and sentenced to prison. Upon his release, the Gestapo kept Grune in protective custody, asserting that his sentence had been too lenient. In October 1937, Grune was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In April 1940, he was transferred to Flossenbürg. Five years later, in April 1945, as American forces approached, the camp was evacuated and Grune escaped. He began work on a series of artwork to show the horrific conditions of the German-run camps to the world. In 1947, the works were exhibited and published as Passion des xx. jahrhunderts, one of the most important records of Nazi brutality published in the immediate postwar period.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Expressionist lithograph in black ink depicting an officer standing over a cowering prisoner. A soldier with a stethoscope visible in his chest pocket, standing on the left, appears to have just kicked the prisoner on the right, causing him to fall down. The man's mouth is open and the number 8541 is on his trouser leg. Signs behind him read "Haflings Revier von 9 - 10." Some soldiers are printed off the edge of the scene, adding movement and energy to the work. In the lower left hand corner of the image is the artist's printed signature, R. GRUNE.
People
- Grune, Richard, 1903-1983.
Subjects
- Gays--Nazi persecution--Germany--Biography.
- Gay artists--Nazi persecution--Germany--Biography.
- Concentration camps--Pictorial works.
- Concentration camps in art.
- Concentration camp inmates--Germany--Biography.
- Political prisoners--Germany--Biography.
Genre
- Object
- Art