Werner Heuser

Werner Heuser was born 11 November 1880 in Gummersbach, Germany to Eugenie Hoestermann and Franz Eugen Heuser. His father was the editor of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung newspaper.{{Cite web|title=The History of The Herald-Zeitung|url=http://herald-zeitung.com/history.lasso|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100311231812/http://herald-zeitung.com/history.lasso|archive-date=11 March 2010|access-date=15 August 2020|website=Herald-Zeitung}} When Heuser was one year old his father ran off with his neighbor's wife, emigrated to New Braunfels, Texas and changed his name to Eugen Kailer. As a result of family issues, Werner Heuser was sent to live with his paternal family in Bonn, Germany. He attended high school in Bonn and Siegburg.

He studied at Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Dresden and at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Art Academy) with Peter Janssen, Adolf Maennchen, and Eduard Gerhardt.{{When|date=August 2020}}

On 11 October 1907 he married in Düsseldorf, to Mira Sohn-Rethel, the daughter of painter Karl Rudolf Sohn.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLd6LkZdIe8C|title=Der Querschnitt|date=1970|publisher=Kraus Reprint|volume=4|pages=384|language=de}}{{Cite web|last=Böttcher|first=Kirsten|date=1 June 2016|title=Else Sohn-Rethels Memoiren, Das Turbulente Leben einer Künstlergattin|trans-title=Else Sohn-Rethel's Memoirs, The Turbulent Life of an Artist's Wife|url=https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/kultur/radiotexte/else-sohn-rethels-lebenserinnerungen-100.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818021213/https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/kultur/radiotexte/else-sohn-rethels-lebenserinnerungen-100.html|archive-date=18 August 2016|access-date=19 August 2020|website=Radio Bayern 2, Kultur}} Together they had two children, Klaus Heuser and Ursula Benser (née Heuser). Around 1907, Werner Heuser travelled to Rome and met up with his brother-in-laws Karli Sohn-Rethel, and Otto Sohn-Rethel, and artists Karl Hofer, Hermann Haller and Maurice Sterne.

In 1919, Heuser was one of the first members of the Young Rhineland (Das Junge Rheinland) artists' group, alongside Heinrich Nauen, Adolf Uzarski, Arthur Kaufmann, Carlo Mense, Walter Ophey, and architect Wilhelm Kreis.{{Cite web|last=Ey|first=Johanna|date=2014|title=Mutter der rheinischen Avantgarde. Eine regionale Kunstgeschichte|url=http://www.rheinische-art.de/cms/topics/johanna-ey-mutter-der-rheinischen-avantgarde.-eine-regionale-kunstgeschichte.php|access-date=19 August 2020|website=www.rheinische-art.de|language=de}}

In 1926, he was appointed to the Düsseldorf Art Academy, as a professor of drawing and composition. Some of his students included Herbert Zangs,{{Cite web|last=Meister|first=Helga|title=Herbert Zangs: Die Entthronung eines Krefelder Originals|url=https://www.wz.de/nrw/krefeld/herbert-zangs-die-entthronung-eines-krefelder-originals_aid-48761645|access-date=19 August 2020|website=Westdeutsche Zeitung|date=4 February 2020|language=de}} Else Harney,{{Cite web|title=Else Harney|url=https://freeformsnyc.com/collections/artist_else-harney|access-date=19 August 2020|website=Freeforms}} Georg Meistermann,Inge Herold, "Meistermann, Georg", AKL, vol. 88, Berlin and Boston, 2016, pp. 535-536. Caspar Walter Rauh,{{Cite web|title=Caspar Walter Rauh|url=https://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Caspar_Walter_Rauh/11125271/Caspar_Walter_Rauh.aspx|access-date=19 August 2020|website=Askart.com}} among others.

{{Main|Degenerate Art Exhibition}}

Between 1927 until 1937, Germany was experienced a rise in Nazi Party power.{{Cite web|title=A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust, Degenerate Art, Entartete Kunst|url=http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/artDegen.htm|access-date=19 August 2020|website=University of South Florida (USF)|publisher=Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida (USF)}} In 1927, the National Socialist Society for German Culture was formed, in order to halt the "corruption of art" and inform the people about the relationship between race and art through pseudoscientific racist theories. Starting in 1933, the group labeled modern artwork and artists as "Jewish," "degenerate," and "Bolshevik".

In 1937, the Nazi officials purged German museums and removed the art they considered to be degenerate and formed a special exhibit of the work called, Entartete Kunst. Entartete Kunst featured 650 works of art and travelled throughout Germany, and was popular with viewers. Heuser was one of the artists in the exhibition and he was labeled as a "degenerate". That same year, 1937, Heuser's contract work as a professor was not extended.

During World War II he initially was staying in Sanary-sur-Mer, followed by a stay in Allgäu and Breisgau. In 1943, the Sohn-Rethel home at Goltsteinstraße 23 in Düsseldorf, where he lived and worked, was fire bombed destroying his art work and his art collection. He followed his family to Bollschweil by 1945. After the end of National Socialist rule, he returned to Düsseldorf and by 1 November 1945 he resumed teaching.

He was appointed as Director of the Düsseldorf Art Academy on 7 January 1946, and by 31 January 1946, the school was rebuilt and reopened.{{Cite web|title=1946 - Wiedereröffnung Kunstakademie Düsseldorf|url=https://kulturkenner.de/|access-date=20 August 2020|website=Kulturkenner}}

Werner Heuser died of heart failure in Düsseldorf on 11 June 1964 and is buried at Nordfriedhof Düsseldorf cemetery.

His daughter Ursula Benser (1915–2001) was a painter, and she was married to photographer Walther Benser.

His work is included in various collections, including the Library of Congress.{{Cite web|title=Kriegsbilderbogen Münchner Künstler|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/42049054|access-date=19 August 2020|website=Library of Congress|quote=Collection of signed and hand-colored lithographs by 24 Munich, Germany based artists show images and impressions mostly critical of the first world war.}}

• 1912 – Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler (International art exhibition of the Sonderbund West German art lovers and artists), Cologne, Germany{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/internationaleku00sond|title=Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler zu Cöln, 1912|date=1912|publisher=Cöln a. Rhein : M. Dumont Schauberg|others=Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Library, Sonderbund Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler}}
• 1941 – Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German Art Exhibition), Munich, Germany{{Cite web|title=Schäfer — Die Großen Deutsche Kunstausstellungen 1937 – 1944/45|url=http://www.gdk-research.de/de/obj19365108.html|access-date=20 August 2020|website=www.gdk-research.de}}

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Category:1880 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni

Category:Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Category:Painters from Düsseldorf

Category:19th-century German painters

Category:19th-century German male artists

Category:20th-century German painters

Category:20th-century German male artists

Category:Artists in the Degenerate Art exhibition