oha 2017

Schöpfung und Fall: Resistance, Imprisonment, Death: 2 Protestant German anti-Nazi resisters & 3 demon apparitions

Art: 2017
Media : Ink, gouache, colored pencil; string; waxed twine; fragments  of 1976 Tree (Segan made) woodcut print / Medien: tinte, gouache, farbstift, schnur,  gewachste Schnur; Fragmente von 1976 Baumholzschnitt (Segan Kunst)
Size: Framed, 20 3/8 in. H x 49 W. [51.75 cm. H x 124 W
Papierformat: 15 Zoll H x 43,5 W (ungerahmt). Zentimeter: 38,1 H x 110/40 W

The drawing was begun Nov.27 and completed Dec. 5, 2016. On Aug. 1, 2017 the artist added color to the middle (center) demon apparition and added stitched-on white twine, tan twine and waxed twine to 4 different sections of the drawing.

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The source inspiration photo for the upper center portion: A black & white photo of a view of a cell at the Tegel prison. The source photo is seen in the book Dietrich Bonhoeffer - A Life in Pictures. Authors: Eberhard Bethge, Renate Bethge, Christian Gremmels (pub. by Fortress Press, 1987; hardcover, 240 pages)

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The prison is in a Berlin suburb. During WWII political prisoners incarcerated there included pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the leader of the anti-Nazi Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned at Tegel for a year and a half. (see below, about Bonhoeffer)

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The portraits of the two resisters, at left:

Dr. Hans John, born August 1, 1911. He was an assistant to Rϋdiger Schleicher at the Institute for the Law of the Air, University of Berlin. He was executed / shot by a Nazi firing squad, April 23, 1945.

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The portrait on the right: Friedrich Justin Perels, born 1910. He was legal advisor to the (anti-Nazi) Confessing Church. He was executed by Nazi SS soldiers April 22/23, 1945.

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Rϋdiger Schleicher, a brother-in-law of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was born Jan. 14, 1895. He was executed near the Lehrter Straße prison in Berlin, April 22/23, 1945.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born Feb. 4, 1906. He was executed April 9, 1945, Flossenbürg concentration-death camp.

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Also executed at the same time: Klaus Bonhoeffer, born Jan. 5, 1901, the brother of Dietrich.

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Both the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Austria-Germany were aligned with and worked in-tandem with the Nazi government and atrocities including the Holocaust.