Franz ehrlich. A »Bauhäusler« in the resistance and concentration camp

2 August until 11 October 2009

Neues Museum Weimar
Tues-Sun 11am – 6pm
— free entrance –

An exhibition by the Stiftung Gedenkstätte Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora in cooperation with the Klassik Stiftung Weimar

Franz Ehrlich (1907–1984), a Master Student at the Dessau Bauhaus, designer and architect, belongs to the Bauhäusler, whose oeuvre has been recently rediscovered. The exhibition opens up a narrow but significant excerpt. It examines Ehrlich’s life during the anti-fascist resistance, in prison and at the concentration camp Buchenwald, where he was imprisoned until 1939. The few works he created during those years point out a little known page of the history of the Bauahus: Only a small minority of Bauhaus students joined the resistance, risking the end of their creative careers and risking their lives. Even in the concentration camp, Franz Ehrlich retained his poise. In 1938, the SS construction supervisor ordered him to create the typographic design for the motto »Jedem das Seine« (»To each his own«). It was to be mounted above the camp gate, legible from the inside, it was to emphasise the right of the SS to brutally sort out and murder the Others. Ehrlich designed the letters to reflect the Masters of the Bauhaus and his teacher, Joost Schmidt. The typography thus becomes a subtle intervention in contrast to the spirit of the words. After his release and before he was drafted to the Strafbataillon 999, Ehrlich was forced to live off the SS commissions. Thus, the exhibition presents artistic witness of his self assertion that included constrictions and the loss of the ability to develop freely and creatively.

The last part of the exhibition is dedicated to another work, which was created completely independently: –273.15°C = 0° Kelvin, a media installation by Maroan el Sani and Nina Fischer about the Berlin Radio building, Nalepastraße, Franz Ehrlich’s masterpiece. Here, it is like a homage to him.