Slowly the old man, dressed in a huge leather coat, walks down the beach. It’s winter and the wind blows, the waves carry long white crests and the old man unfolds his tiny chair. He sits down, takes out his sketch book and starts filling the paper with waves, sand and sky. His name is Otto Niemeyer Holstein (1896 - 1984), a famous German painter, who found his haven on the island of Usedom in Northern Germany.
The story of Niemeyer Holstein seems to be characteristic for the 20th century Germany, as the painter who he accidentally turned out to be, had to struggle with oppressive regimes almost all of his life. Being 18 years old, he would fight in World War I and start painting while he recovered from a war injury. He would himself say that it was of boredom that he started working with brush and canvas and always maintained a certain level of insecurity because he didn’t consider himself to be talented. In the face of his doubts he soon started exhibiting his work, that was mainly influenced by Expressionism and New Objectivity. The acquaintance of several painters like Alexej Jawlensky, Marianne Werefkin and Arthur Segal just like the attendance of courses in Berlin, Ascona and Paris helped him develop his skill. Step by step the theme of Niemeyer Holsteins œuvre turned out to be nature and its atmosphere. His continous admiration of the visible world would always be present in his work as Holstein would mainly depict what surrounded him in the small village of Lüttenort at the most narrow spot of Usedom, where the interplay of light, wind and clouds inspired him.
On Usedom Niemeyer-Holstein created a small paradise, that started to take shape in 1933 when he left Berlin. He and his wife Annelise came with an old S-Bahn wagon, that he had bought at an auction for 65 Mark. The wagon served as their first shelter and was step by step enlarged with two small houses. Eventhough their refuge was idyllically placed close to the sea, the fear and horror spread by the Nazi regime would also reach them there. Usedom at that time was a strategically important point in the Baltic Sea and the military was stationed close-by. Otto Niemeyer-Holstein got into the focus of the oppressors attention and soon some of his works were prohibited by the Nazi-Regime. In the years 1933 until 1945 he would not have a single exhibition.
Somehow Niemeyer-Holstein at his humble Lüttenort home inevitably stirrs romantic similarities to Max Nansen, one of the main characters of the Nobel-awarded novel “The German Lesson” by Siegfried Lenz. Nansen is a painter as well, fascinated by the northern sea, struggling with the oppressive Nazi-regime and the local police officer, who stubbornly obeys to every single call from above. Just like Nansen, Niemeyer-Holstein might just as much have been longing for liberation to work freely.
A very productive period was ahead of Niemeyer-Holstein after the end of World War II – staying in his haven on Usedom, he returned to the public sphere, had several exhibitions and received a lot of appreciation and admiration in the years to come. Despite the shortcomings of living in authoritarian German Democratic Republic, where Niemeyer-Holstein continously was observed by the secret police Stasi, his mastermind would become even more visible. Otto Niemeyer-Holstein undiminishedly captured nature’s uniqueness and at the same time succeeded interpretating it from his very own perspective.
Otto Niemeyer-Holsteins wish was to maintain his studio as an inspirational place for future generations and thus it is still possible today to get acquainted with his artistic universe and to learn about his admiration of nature. The small paradise is accessible as the Otto-Niemeyer-Holstein-Studio. It consists of two buildings: the newly-built gallery, where changing exhibitions present Niemeyer-Holsteins and his colleagues and friends talent and secondly of the actual home of the famous painter. The S-Bahn wagon is still there, linking the two main houses. The peculiar construction lies charmingly in a garden, that is a concert of appealing sculptures and refined plants. Due to its authenticity the studio is an extraordinary place. Niemeyer-Holsteins wife would once say, that everything in Lüttenort remained, as if Otto Niemeyer-Holstein was just about to return from yet another walk on the beach.
The Studio’s website: