1 February 2024 press release

The German Exile Archive 1933-1945 at the German National Library has added the written estate of painter Karl Schwesig (1898-1955) to its collection.

Karl Schwesig was born in Gelsenkirchen on 19 June 1898. He was a member of the artists' initiative "Das Junge Rheinland" ("Young Rhineland") and a co-founder of the "Rheinische Sezession" ("Rhenish Secession"); as a politically active artist, he soon came under Nazi scrutiny. In July 1933, he was arrested, interrogated and severely maltreated in the notorious "Schlegelkeller" in Düsseldorf. Schwesig's handwritten notes are preserved in his estate. Schwesig also confronted the torture he had suffered at the hands of the SA in his 48-work cycle "Schlegelkeller", which was exhibited in Brussels and Amsterdam in 1936 and in Moscow in 1937. The originals have been lost. Schwesig was sentenced to 16 months' incarceration, which he spent at the prison in Wuppertal-Bendahl. After his release, he managed to emigrate illegally to Belgium. In 1940, he was deported to France and interned at the camps in Saint Cyprien, Gurs, Noé and Nexon. The handwritten notes in his estate testify to this time. In 1943, the SS transported Schwesig to Düsseldorf, imprisoned him on several occasions and did not release him until just before the war ended.

After 1945, Schwesig tried to re-establish his reputation as a visual artist. In 1947, he was appointed to the post of teacher at the School of Visual and Applied Arts in Dortmund. However, his artistic preoccupation with the Nazi dictatorship and with maltreatment, imprisonment and internment met with little interest in post-war Germany. Karl Schwesig tried in vain to have his tormentors prosecuted for their crimes and to obtain appropriate compensation for the injustice he had suffered. Karl Schwesig died on 19 June 1955.

His written estate in the Exile Archive encompasses not only his notes on the maltreatment he suffered in the “Schlegelkeller” and the period he spent in internment but also a volume of documents and correspondence, some of which relates to Upton Sinclair's efforts to have Schwesig's "Schlegelkeller" published. There are also photographs and sketchbooks with more than forty ink and pencil drawings.

The collection was taken over from private ownership. Schwesig's artistic estatew is preserved at the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen.

Background

The German National Library’s German Exile Archive 1933–1945 is a platform for discussing the subjects of exile and emigration during the Nazi era. The archive collects testimonies of this exile: publications, institutional and personal legacies – from all walks of life and regardless of the prominence of the individual concerned. The goal is to capture the phenomenon of exile in all its variety and to facilitate access to our holdings.

The establishment of the Exile Archive during the early post-war period was initiated by a number of émigrés and other persons who saw it as an instrument of political enlightenment. This is another reason why the Archive continues to attach particular importance to the dissemination of cultural knowledge: the many aspects of exile between 1933 and 1945 are conveyed in exhibitions and a wide variety of events and publications, thus making a significant contribution to the cultivation of a vibrant culture of remembrance.

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