New art museum on Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

The art museums in Germany are getting a new addition: this weekend, a new art museum will open in the former childhood home of expressionist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. The city of Chemnitz has renovated the house for around 3.5 million euros. It is the European Capital of Culture this year.

The museum presents a show about Schmidt-Rottluff's life and the prehistory of Expressionism in Chemnitz. On display are works of art, facsimiles and documents, wooden, stone and jewelry objects as well as private objects belonging to the artist, such as his tobacco pipe.

Where it all began: Schmidt-Rottluff's childhood in Chemnitz

Karl Schmidt was born in Rottluff - now a district of Chemnitz - in 1884. His parents ran a mill here. It was later sold and his parents used the proceeds to build their country house in 1913. By then, the artist was already living in Berlin.

However, the house became his refuge for several years after his apartment and studio were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943. In addition to the country house, the historic mill next door has since been renovated. He spent his childhood and youth on the site and gained his first artistic experience in the neighborhood.

Schmidt-Rottluff was a co-founder of the artists' association "Brücke", whose roots lie in Chemnitz, according to Florence Thurmes, general director of the city's art collections. His later fellow artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel also grew up in the city, while other "Brücke" members Fritz Bleyl and Max Pechstein came from nearby Zwickau. Works by these fellow artists are also on display in the new museum, which is part of the Chemnitz Art Collections.

"Artist's memorial to a great painter"

Interested visitors are invited to trace the beginnings of the "Brücke" and get to know the development of Schmidt-Rottluff's artistic signature through original works, explains Thurmes.

The house and the presentation offer a change of perspective, says curator Sabine Maria Schmidt. It makes it possible to tell the story of objects and works of art in this place and from this place in a different way.

Minister President Michael Kretschmer (CDU) spoke of an "artist memorial to a great painter of classical modernism". He recalled that Schmidt-Rottluff's works were ostracized and even destroyed under National Socialism. The opening of the new museum is a special moment in the cultural life of Chemnitz and will radiate far beyond the city.

The Karl Schmidt-Rottluff House will be opened on Sunday (April 6) with a ceremony. It will be open to visitors on this day from 3 pm to 7 pm. It will then be open regularly from April 8.