Erich Moebes and Georg Kolbe

In 1937, Erich Moebe, who had been expelled from school, wrote to Georg Kolbe and asked him for advice, because he was driven by the desire to become an artist. Even before the two met for the first time, Moebes revealed intimate details of his life to Kolbe, whom he admired very much.


 The two remained in written and personal contact until Kolbe's death in 1947; on the one hand, there was an exchange of ideas, but on the other hand, there was also a sales brokerage by Moebes or the suggestion of casts. Although Moebes has remained unknown to art history (until now), he had a small, but nevertheless material influence on Kolbe's late career.

In addition to the correspondence with Moebe, Georg Kolbe's extensive estate includes further correspondence with admirers, which sometimes more or less led to a productive exchange or gives indications of a productive reception. Based on Moebes as a central example, the question of the significance of these actors for an artistic career like Kolbe's will be asked. Is there a fan culture in the artistic field that has so far been ignored by the conventional history of reception?


Julius Redzinski is a research assistant at the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation and works in particular on the collection of art from the GDR assembled by the Ludwigs. He studied art history at the Free University of Berlin and is pursuing a dissertation project on the social history of artists with a focus on the National Socialist era at the Technical University of Berlin. He has published on the Ghent Altarpiece, historical film and art under National Socialism, among other things.



(IN GERMAN)