Rudolf Heinrich Zille (1858 - 1929)

Born 10 Jan 1858 in Radeburg, Amtshauptmannschaft Dresden, Königreich Sachsen

Ancestors

Husband of Auguste Hulda (Frieske) Zille — married 15 Dec 1883 in Fürstenwalde, Landkreis Lebus, Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt, Provinz Brandenburg, Preußen

Descendants

Died 9 Aug 1929 at age 71 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Freistaat Preußen, Deutsches Reich

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Biography

Heinrich Zille is Notable.

Heinrich Zille lebte in Berlin.

Rudolf Heinrich Zille, a German painter, illustrator, caricaturist, lithographer of every day life in the workers' quarters of developing Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century, was born on 10 January 1858 in Radeburg, Amtshauptmannschaft Dresden, Königreich Sachsen (Kingdom of Saxony)^[1], son of Johann Traugott Zille (~1830 - ~1900) and his wife Ernestine Louise Heinitz (~1830 - ~1900).

He still had an older brother Rudolph Alfred Zille (1870-1870) and a sister Fanny Louise Zille (1854-1895).

He came to Berlin with his parents from Radebeul in 1867, trained as a lithographer from 1872, employed by the Photographische Gesellschaft Berlin in 1877.

Heinrich married Auguste Hulda Frieske (1865-1919) on 15 December 1883 in Fürstenwalde, Landkreis Lebus, Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt, Provinz Brandenburg, Preußen (Prussia)^[2], they had four known children:

1. Hulda Margarete (1884 - 1977)
2. daughter without name, died in childbirth 30 December 1886
3. Hans Berthold - (26 February 1888 - 1934)
4. Rudolf Walter Otto (9 January 1891 - 1959)

From 1880 to 1882, Zille completed his military service as a grenadier with the First Brandenburg Leib-Grenadier Regiment No. 8, in Frankfurt/Oder and as a guard soldier in the Sonnenburg penitentiary (today Słońsk, Poland). For Zille, these years were an unpleasant experience, which he recorded in numerous notes and sketches during his free time.

At the turn of the 20th century, Heinrich Zille began more and more consciously to discover scenes from the proletarian lower class as a subject for himself. Zille - in Berlin also locally patriotic called Pinselheinrich - found his Milljöh in the backyards of tenements, side streets and dives of working-class neighborhoods.

He suffered increasingly from gout and diabetes after the war. On 9 June 1919, Zille's wife Hulda died at the age of 54.

His son Hans worked as a teacher in Rosemarsow, Altentreptow district, and his daughter, Margarete Köhler-Zille, lived in Altentreptow and Demmin.

In 1924 he was admitted to the Prussian Academy of Arts at the suggestion of Max Liebermann and at the same time awarded the title of a professor. Zille's popularity culminates in major celebrations to mark his 70th birthday in 1928. There was a retrospective of "Zille's career" at the Märkisches Museum.

Heinrich Zille passed away on the morning of 9th August 1929 in his home in Sophie-Charlotten-Straße 88 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Freistaat Preußen, Deutsches Reich / Weimarer Republik (Free State of Prussia, German Empire / Weimar Republic), aged 71.^[3] The residential building was later listed as a historical monument.^[4]

He received an honorary grave of the city of Berlin in the southwest churchyard Stahnsdorf, burial block Epiphanies (field 14, garden site 34/35). About 2000 mourners followed the coffin. A sign and a stone show the way "to Zille".

After Zille's death, the writer and Zille biographer Hans Ostwald published two new Zille volumes in collaboration with Zille's son Hans: Zille's Vermächtnis (1930) and Zille's Hausschatz (1931). In his will, he had appointed his son Hans as the administrator of his artistic estate, which thus came to Rosemarsow. When Hans died in 1934, his father's artistic legacy passed to Margarete Köhler-Zille in Demmin. She now did everything she could to see her father's artistic legacy through the Hitler era and the turmoil of the war. Supported by the Demminer cultural worker Gerhard Flügge, she set up a Zille memorial at Philipp-Müller Straße 35 in Demmin. In two rooms of her apartment, the paintings and drawings of the "people's professor" were displayed on a rotating basis and illustrated lectures in the city and countryside brought his art closer to the working people. In 1955, Flügge also published the biography Mein Vater Heinrich Zille (My father Heinrich Zille) based on the memories of Margarete Köhler-Zille.

Heinrich Zille is one of the most famous Berlin'ers of the first half of the 20th century and, along with Claire Waldoff, with whom he was friends, is one of the Berlin originals.

On 4 February 1970, Heinrich Zille, the "pictorial chronicler of the Milljöh", was posthumously named Berlin's 80th honorary citizen by the Berlin magistrate.^[5]

He is immortalized in numerous honors in the German capital Berlin. With his drawings he reached both the upper educated bourgeoisie and the "ordinary people," who served as grateful subjects for him.

The Kunstmuseum (art museum) of the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr owns the largest Zille collection outside of Berlin. The "Themel Collection" with over 300 exhibits was assembled by Dr. Karl G. Themel, who, as the former attending physician of Zille's son Walter, later worked for many years as head physician and radiologist at the Protestant hospital in Mülheim an der Ruhr. In 1979, Themel founded the Förderkreis des Kunstmuseums and transferred his collection to the Kunstmuseum.^[6]

BURIAL: Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf, Stahnsdorf, Landkreis Potsdam-Mittelmark, Brandenburg, Germany - PLOT: Block Epiphanien, Feld 14, Gartenstellen 34/35^[7]other people in the grave: daughter Margarethe Köhler-Zille & son Hans Zille

Sources

1. ↑ Birth and baptism entry of Rudolf Heinrich in the church register of the Lutheran parish of Radeburg, 10.01.1858
2. ↑ Marriage certificate No.75 of Auguste Hulda Frieske and Rudolf Heinrich Zille on 15.12.1883 in Fürstenwalde (original in the Kreisarchiv (district archive) Beeskow)
3. ↑ Death certificate of Heinrich Zille, 9.8.1929 (original in the Landesarchiv Berlin/Berlin State Archive)
4. ↑ Zille's residence in Sophie-Charlotten-Straße in the Berlin Monument Database
5. ↑ Wkipedia - List of honorary citizens of Berlin
6. ↑ Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr in der Alten Post - HEINRICH ZILLE Sammlung von Dr. Karl G. Themel
7. ↑ Find a Grave, memorial page for Heinrich Rudolf Zille (10 Jan 1858–9 Aug 1929), Find A Grave: Memorial #23752960, citing Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf, Stahnsdorf, Landkreis Potsdam-Mittelmark, Brandenburg, Germany; Maintained by Frank K. (contributor 46941322)

• Wikipedia - Heinrich Zille (EN)
• wikiwand - Heinrich Zille (DE)
• Documents from the life of the Zille family (in german)
• LeMO Lebendiges Museum Online - Heinrich Zille
• Nicole Bröhan: Heinrich Zille: Eine Biographie. Jaron Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-89773-734-1
• Gerhard Flügge: Mein Vater Heinrich Zille, nach Erinnerungen von Margarete Köhler-Zille, Berlin 1955
• Kurt Wensch: Heinrich Zilles Vorfahren, Mitteldeutsche Familienkunde, 1965, Heft 4
• LiteraturPort Portal des Literarisches Colloquium Berlin e.V. - Heinrich Rudolf Zille
• BRANDENBURG – DATENBANK - Datenbank für Familienforscher in Brandenburg - Heinrich Rudolf Zille
• Website ZiLLEMUSEUM Berlin - Biographie Rudolf Heinrich Zille
• Das Grab von Heinrich Zille bei knerger.de - The grave of Heinrich Zille at knerger.de (in german)
• Der Lehrer Hans Zille & sein Vater, der Maler Heinrich Zille in Rosemarsow