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?

The original note where our Fritz Neumann confirms that he is Ric, published by Mark Strong of Meibohm Fine Arts included an address:

His address is Gartenfelder Str. 132 h in Berlin Haselhorst.

Since Torsten Steinberg, the author of the ad mentioned in the last post wrote about the old address books of Berlin I tried to do the same. This are the results, the first result was from 1934:

Above only random samples, therefore the cut-outs are not continuous. No address books are available after 1970, so here are some extracts from telephone directories.

This at least makes it clear that our Fritz Neumann lived and worked in Berlin for around 50 years. And perhaps died in 1984, or at least stopped working as a graphic designer, e.g. because he went into an old people’s home.

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.

I was just in the process of translating this page when events escalated , but now it’s done: This page is also a available in German . Additionally a page on the J.C. Blumenberg Kunstverlag has been added.

Fritz Neumann (1928–2014) is not Ric!

During my vacation I did some research on one of the last posts : I’ve contacted the Freudeskreis Kunst Oldenburg . They forwarded my questions to Andreas Neumann, the son of Fritz Neumann (1928–2014).

He send me the following reply:

Original in German:

So we need to restart the search!

But first, let’s start a bit of cleanup:

• Meibohm Fine Arts will update the page on Ric / Fritz Neumann
• A change to the German Wikipedia is awaiting approval

It’s interesting to see how many people and pages have adopted the link between Fritz Neumann (1928–2014) and Ric.

Keep in mind, it’s certain that some Fritz Neumann is Ric, just not the one who was born in 1928.

The page will be updated in the next weeks…

While doing the migration away from Tumblr and adding old drafts I also checked some links. The one pointing to the Google Image search showed two new Ric prints (see Ric 27 )and Ric 28 ). And as if that weren’t enough luck, I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the description: Someone not only claimed to have solved the Ric mystery, he also provided proof. Since I’m still in my migration project, I didn’t manage to update all affections sections and pages yet. But the relevant part of the eBay description has it’s own page now. Great work Mark!

Images by Mark Strong of Meibohm Fine Arts .

[Update 1. October 2020]: This entry is now always the first, new entries start below. [Update 25. July 2024]: [Fritz Neumann (1928–2014)](/post/mystery again) is not Ric! This entry isn’t sticky anymore.

This blog has been moved to Projektemacher . It’s now powered by Hugo and GitHub .

There have been a few updates during this process:

• Images are now available in highest possible resolution
• An fullscreen view has been added
• Some old drafts are now public (over 33% more content - including a previously unknown work of Ric)
• Some more hints are available

A few day ago I bought an interesting book at my favorite rare book book seller : A catalog of deliverable prints of the “Kunstverlag Hanfstaengl” for the year 1961. The woman at the counter told me that the book has been sitting around on the shelf for ages and offered me to look up the price again, just in case the value dropped. Thy have tho policy to offer books at a lower price then the one on the web. It turned out, that the price increased in the last years, but in that case they stick with the original offer.

Prints made by “Kunstverlag Hanfstaengl” are quite common in Germany, you can find them often on flea markets, the quality is good, and many people are confused by the fact, that they can be very old and try to sell those as originals.

Anyways, I bought the book, since i’ve discovered a print in it, that I own. It’s the one of the Kingfisher on page 168. I never managed to read the whole signature and now I know the name, I learned that I was actually searching with a few wrong fragments. The etching is by the artist Kurt Meyer-Eberhardt from Munich.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to claim the Fritz Neumann and Kurt Meyer-Eberhardt are somehow related, even if there are some similarities in the motives. That might be just be the Zeitgeist between the 50ies and 70ies.

But maybe there are more similar catalogs out there by other art publishers that may contain works by Ric or Fritz Neumann.

This is the probably older version of the blind stamp that’s used on some prints by Fritz Neumann.

It imitates the Holsten Gate in Lübeck (second image), another indication of a North German origin. So far, inquiries from the Lübeck City Archives about former art publishers in the city have not yet been answered.

For examples of the blind stamp in use, see:

• Fox Terrier by Fritz Neumann (First image, lower right corner)
• Two Fox Terriers by Fritz Neumann (Last image)

You can also look at the pages tagged with “Blind embossing” .

A while a ago I’ve added a post showing a painted tile painted by Fritz Neumann and produced by Rosenthal . Since the company has quite a history they also offer a archive research service. In spring 2019 I’ve send them an inquiry about the history of this particular product and the artist, Today I got an answer. Since I don’t have their permission I don’t quote the reply here. The raw facts:

• Produced by Rosenthal Handmalerei in Munich between 1934 and 1951, since the mark was only used in this time span - especially for export goods to the USA.
• A painting by the German painter Fritz Neumann (1881-1919) was used as a template.

Every regular reader will be surprised now and notice that the dates of life and the theme do not go together: The second statement is wrong with a probability bordering on certainty, but so far there has been no answer.

All hints of the original blog are incorporated now. The next steps are to wait for some replies and to find out more about the Holsten Gate blind stamp.

I’ll continue to post new images of Ric’s works, when I find them. Until then the frequency of new entries will be quite low.