Fritz Grotemeyer
Grotemeyer’s parents, Albert and Bertha Grotemeyer, née Westhoff, opened a café at Aegidiistraße 10 in Münster in 1850. It was here that Fritz Grotemeyer was born as the ninth of eleven children. Later, Fritz Grotemeyer painted this café.
Grotemeyer completed an apprenticeship as a textile merchant. To pursue his training as a painter, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1887, passing the entrance exam on October 8, 1887. He began his studies as a studio student under the painter Woldemar Friedrich, who had been appointed as a teacher of life drawing at the academy in 1885. Grotemeyer later studied with Paul Friedrich Meyerheim. In 1893, he received a scholarship from the Adolph-Menzel-Stiftung and was personally supported by Adolph von Menzel. Around 1900, Grotemeyer created the work Militärparade auf dem Prinzipalmarkt in Münster. As a representative of academic history painting, he painted the monumental piece Die Friedensverhandlungen 1648 in the town hall of Münster for the meeting room of the Stadtweinhaus in Münster from 1895 to 1902 as a master student of Anton von Werner. He was awarded the Order of the Crown by Kaiser Wilhelm II for this painting. Additionally, Adolph Menzel took notice of Grotemeyer through this work, taking him on as a student and becoming his patron and advisor.
His works were regularly exhibited at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung. Grotemeyer received his first major commission in 1897 for the monumental wall painting titled Übergabe Bergedorfs an Hamburg-Lübecker Truppen, which he created for the Hamburg City Hall.
For the Illustrirte Zeitung from Leipzig, Grotemeyer traveled to the Western Front as a reporter between 1914 and 1915 at the beginning of World War I. Here, he worked as a war painter in Flanders and Northern France, producing a painting that depicts young German infantry soldiers before the Battle of Langemarck.
Grotemeyer’s journey to the Orient in 1916
Between February 27, 1916, and November 14, 1916, at the request of the Ottoman War Minister Enver Pasha, he undertook a journey to the Orient to document the war events in the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with the German Empire, as a visual reporter. His connection to Pasha arose after Grotemeyer met his sister in Berlin.
During his journey, he painted as an officially recognized war painter in the Ottoman Empire, present-day Turkey. He also worked as a war correspondent in Palestine. He arrived in Constantinople on February 27, 1916, but was unable to continue his journey due to weather conditions and subsequently made sketches of the city.
He also spent some time on a German warship. After a two-week excursion to the Dardanelles, he sent his first drawings to the Leipziger Illustrirte. It wasn't until May 1916 that Grotemeyer was able to join a troop unit to continue his journey to Suez. His next stop was Aleppo. In Damascus, Grotemeyer met the commander of the Fourth Ottoman Army, who personally took him by carriage to Jerusalem. From Be’er Scheva, he made excursions into the desert. His journey ended on the Sinai Peninsula, where he was forced to turn back due to health reasons. He began his return journey on June 22, 1916. On July 20, 1916, he stayed at the Austro-Hungarian hospice, from the windows of which he painted views of the old city of Jerusalem in the morning hours. During his stay in Jerusalem, he created dozens of drawings of the old city. Due to his deteriorating health, he returned to Constantinople, where he was diagnosed with a severe form of malaria that caused him to lose his hearing. On November 14, 1916, he began his journey back to Berlin. During his time in the Orient, Grotemeyer produced hundreds of sketches and drawings. In 1916, he painted the Hermon in the Lebanon Mountains, a scene from the oasis Bir-Biren in the North Sinai desert, Father Heinrich Hänsler of the Dormitio Abbey as a field chaplain with the troops of the Suez Expedition, the wells of Birseba, and the construction of the Baghdad railway by English prisoners. Back in Berlin, he created further drawings depicting his journey to the Orient, which were published by the Leipziger Illustrirte in the following years.
From 1918 to 1945, Grotemeyer lived once again in Berlin. He created a lithographic poster for the Opfertage on August 17 and 18, 1918, in support of the Colonial Warriors Fund, which was acquired by the Münster Museum in 2003 and is now on permanent loan to the Stadtmuseum Münster. For the Colonial Warriors Fund, Grotemeyer also designed a series of postcards featuring motifs from German East Africa. On March 3, 1919, Grotemeyer was present at Pariser Platz in Berlin for the homecoming of soldiers from East Africa, which he captured in a painting. Additionally, in the 1920s, Grotemeyer painted large-scale oil paintings characterized by oriental motifs.
Several of these works are in the possession of the city of Münster. In 1931, he created a painting titled Großflugtag Münster 1931 at the Loddenheide airfield. Grotemeyer also focused on the Thirty Years' War.
In 1939, he bequeathed a large portion of his drawings to the city of Münster. In 1942, Grotemeyer received a commission to create a portrait of the Mayor of Münster, Dr. Georg Sperlich, as well as a painting of Hitler. On August 11, 1941, he received a commission from the Minden magistrate to create a series of nine paintings for the town hall, depicting the history of the city of Minden. He completed these works during the war years of 1942 and 1943, finishing the series on January 19, 1943. Before the town hall was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1945, the works were stored away until they were made accessible to the public by the Minden Museum in 2002. Over the decades, the Minden Museum dedicated several exhibitions to Grotemeyer.
In 1945, Grotemeyer moved from Berlin to Witten. For an exhibition in Chicago, he created a picture book of everyday scenes from the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus, for which Empress Friedrich wrote the introduction. He also produced architectural images and historical depictions of his hometown, Münster. Grotemeyer was buried in the Waldfriedhof Lauheide. In Münster-Kinderhaus, Grotemeyerstraße was named in his honor.