Today I received an e-mail from Sebastian Schuth, head of the archive of the Spandau City History Museum. Attached to it was a newspaper article from the Spandauer Volksblatt of 19 February 1972 (Archive signature IV C Z ZA PA 1038), written by a Uwe-Michael Troppenz, the title:

Segelboote für Millionäre und Vögel für sich selbst
(Sailboats for millionaires and birds for themselves)

Fritz Neumann: "Ich male am liebsten, was ich sehe ..."
(Fritz Neumann: "My favourite thing to paint is what I see ...")

The article is about the person who has been sought after here for years, the Spandau artist Fritz Neumann. The article has now revealed a few more details:

• Fritz Neumann was born in December 1897
• Studied at an art school from 1912 to 1916, where he also met his future wife Hedwig Neumann (born as Klinge)
• Was in Verdun during the First World War
• Managed an advertising studio afterwards
• Started his own business as a painter and etcher in 1930. (This can be roughly traced in the address books )
• Took part in World War 2 “from the very beginning”

We also learn that his wife published her works under her maiden name, Hede Klinge, even after their marriage. As well as the fact that he worked for the “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” - certainly after the First World War.

In addition to the stages of his life, the various motifs and places from which Neumann drew his inspiration are also discussed.

Origin and family

With this data, for example, an entry on Geneanet.org can be found, which allows the data to be narrowed down further:

• Full name: Franz Robert Fritz Neumann
• Date of birth: 6 December 1897
• Date of death: 8 June 1984
• Wife: Anna Hedwig Klinge
  • Date of birth: 21 September 1895
  • Date of death: 5 November 1980
  • Wedding day 2 May 1925
• Parents:
  • Ludwig Karl Franz Neumann, 1858-1933, (Letterpress) printer
  • Clara Emilie Emma Wusterhausen, 1871-1942
• Brother: Wilhelm Franz Rudolf Neumann, 1901-

Connections to other articles

By the way, the name “Hede Klinge” already appears by pure luck in an older article about copyright entries , now it becomes obvious that it was not so coincidental.

And it is also clear that the Fritz Neumann from the Archiv der Reichskunstkammer is not “our” Fritz Neumann.

Update 24.10.2024

In the meantime, I have also received another reference from Torsten Steinberg: He sent me an extract from the death register . According to this, Fritz Neumann died on 8 June 1984 in the Havelhöhe Community Hospital in Berlin Spandau.

Documents

• Civil register entries for Fritz Neumann
• Fritz Neumann at the Academy of Fine Arts, Berlin

As it is known from the newspaper article that Fritz Neumann’s wife also worked as an artist, here are some references from the catalogue of copyright entries. More about this catalogue can be found in the corresponding article on Fritz Neumann .

Summary

The marriage certificate shows another address for Fritz Neumann: Lettestraße 1.

A search of the address reveals that it is most likely his father’s, Ludwig Karl Franz Neumann address, as there is an F. Neumann, book printer, sometimes also typesetter, can be traced there from 1904:

Address books

Address book 1904

(Der Kopf der Spalte befindet sich vor dem Umbruch)

Address book 1915

Address book 1917

Address book 1920

Address book 1925

Address book 1926

Address book 1927

Address book 1929

Address book 1930

Address book 1931

Address book 1932

Address book 1933

This shows that Fritz Neumann’s father lived at Lettestraße 1 between 1904 and 1933 and worked as a typesetter between 1927 and 1931, otherwise as a printer. As Fritz Neumann had this address when he married, it can be assumed that he lived at home until 1925.

Sources

The digital copies of the sources are linked to the respective excerpts. As the URN:NBN resolver of the DNB is used, these can also be cited.

Name lists of the civil status registers

In addition, already known data can also be found in name directories of Berlin registry offices:

• Landesarchiv Berlin, P Rep. 221 registry office Berlin Xb Nr. 605 Name index birth register 1897, S. 167 -
• Landesarchiv Berlin, P Rep.806 registry office Berlin IX Nr. 658 Name index marriage register 1925, S. 33

Thanks to Evelyn Kraßmann for the tip.

The newspaper article in the Spandauer Volksblatt of 19 February 1972 shows that he attended an art school between 1912 and 1916. Now there is the first indication that he was enrolled for one semester at the Akademische Hochschule für die Bildenden Künste in the winter semester of 1912/13:

The excerpt comes from the Alphabetical index of names WS 1909/10 to SS 1924 of the Academy of Fine Arts, page 92, shelfmark UdK Archive 6-204

Thanks to Dr Anastasia Dittmann from the Archive of the Berlin University of the Arts for pointing this out.

Thanks to Torsten Steinberg, we now have two civil register entries for Fritz Neumann. These are partly the source for the dates in the main entry .

Marriage certificate

This is the marriage certificate of Franz Robert Fritz Neumann and Anna Hedwig Klinge, married on 2 May 1925. The occupation of both is given as “draughtsman” and “draughtswoman”.

Fritz Neumann’s birthday is given as 6 December 1897 and his address as Lettestraße 1.

Anna Hedwig Neumann was born on 21 September 1895 and lived at Alte Schönhauser Straße 61.

Source: Standesamt Berlin 9 (IX), Heiratsregister, Nr. 131/1925

Witnesses

Torsten Steinberg also adds the witnesses:

• The craftswoman Erna Dombrowski, 30 years old, living in Berlin-Friedenau, Fregestraße 78.

  Erna Luise Adele was born on 9.4.1895. On 16.3.1934 she married the senior teacher Otto Wilhelm Alfred Büchner (died 1952). Her profession at the time of marriage was draughtswoman. At the time of her husband’s death, they both lived in Bergmannstraße in Berlin.

• Walter Klotz, 29 years old, a craftsman, lived at Viktoriastrasse 8, Berlin-Lankwitz.

Death certificate

This is the death certificate for Franz Robert Fritz Neumann, painter. The address Gartenfelder Str. 132 h is the one known from the old address books .

He died on 8 June 1984 in Spandau Hospital.

In addition, the date of birth is given as 6 December 1897 and that he was the widower of Anna Hedwig Neumann, née Klinge, to whom he had been married since 2 May 1925 (see above).

Source: Standesamt Spandau von Berlin, Sterberegister, Nr. 1476/1984

After it turned out that Fritz Neumann (1928-2014) is not Ric , Mark Strong has updated the biographies at Meibohm Fine Arts and AskArt.com .

Many thanks to Mark for this!

Hopefully the false attributions on eBay and other auction sites will now be less…

Another hint from Wolfgang Barina , an invoice for a Fritz Neumann watercolour painting called “Regatta” dated 20.10.1938.

The United States Copyright Office (USCO) is a keeper of differend kind of copyright entries. It used to issue a printed catalogue of those registered copyright claims. Since the USA has been a global market already before world war two, there were copyright registrations by J.C. Blumenberg in the thirties. Some of those, especially in Part 4: Works of Art, these also cover works by our Fritz Neumann. This gives us dates for certain works of our Fritz and is an indicator when they started to work with each other.

The printed copyright catalogs have been digitised and are available at the Internet Archive .

1936

1938

1939

Summary

Even if Fritz Neumann-Hegenberg could be ruled out as “our” Fritz Neumann from the outset. There is further evidence to support this.

Already on 31 August 2021, three years ago, a work by Fritz Neumann-Hegenberg appeared on the TV programme “Bares für Rahres” . Following the programme, a newspaper article about the consequences was also published (behind a paywall).

His works are also represented in various online collections

• In the MoMA Collection of German Expressionism
• In the Museum of Cultural History in Görlitz

Since both the address book entries and some of Fritz Neumann’s works (such as this from August 1935 or this from between 1934 and 1951) date from the time of the ‘3rd Reich’, it is relatively likely that he was a member of the Reichskunstkammer . Membership was compulsory at the time…

And indeed, in the Landesarchiv Berlin (state archive Berlin), which administers the files of the “Reichskammer der bildenden Künste”, Landesleitung Berlin, there is a personal file on Fritz Neumann, born on 18 June 1905, under the archive signature A Rep. 243-04 No. 6261 !

In addition, you can see that there is a Finding aid of the collection . This also contains evidence of several auctions in which a ‘Fritz Neumann’ is mentioned…

And there is also at least one Fritz Neumann in the files of the “Reichschrifttumskammer”, kept at the Bundesarchiv, but we’ll ignore it for now…

The finding aid also reveals a date of birth: 18 June 1905!

And with this date there is even more: Fritz Neumann, born on 18 June 1905, was probably a teacher at the Staatsbauschule Berlin-Neukölln. At least there is a corresponding personnel file in the branch of the Federal Archives in Berlin-Lichterfelde. The school merged into today’s Berlin University of Applied Sciences via several intermediate steps .

But is this ‘our’ Fritz?