Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler

Elfriede Lohse Wächtler (born Anna Frieda Wächtler; December 4, 1899 – July 31, 1940) was a German painter of the avant-garde whose works were banned as "degenerate art", and in some cases destroyed, by the Third Reich. She was killed in a former psychiatric institution at Sonnenstein castle in Pirna under Action T4, a forced euthanasia program of Nazi Germany. Since 2000 a memorial center for the T4 program in the house commemorates her life and work in a permanent exhibition.

Works
Her most creative period falls within the time of her stay in Hamburg. From 1927 to 1931 she painted some of her major works. The portraits of mentally ill people she drew in Hamburg-Friedrichsberg (1929) and Arnsdorf (1932–1935) have attracted much interest. As part of the "degenerate art" campaign by the Nazis nine of her works from the art museum Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Altonaer Museum were confiscated and presumably destroyed in 1937, as well as a large part of her paintings from Arnsdorf.

Commemoration and legacy
The rehabilitation of this long forgotten artist started with a presentation of some of her paintings in Reinbek near Hamburg. In 1994 an association for the promotion of the works of Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler was founded (Förderkreis Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler). 1996 saw the publication of the first monograph on her works, written by Georg Reinhardt. This and the exhibitions in Dresden, Hamburg-Altona and Aschaffenburg marked the beginning of a broader reception of the artist's work and fate.

In 1999 there was a stele erected in memory of her at the Saxon Hospital in Arnsdorf and a ward house named after her. In Pirna-Sonnenstein a street was dedicated to her in 2005, and since 2008 a street in Arnsdorf also carries her name. At the former hospital site in Friedrichsberg (Hamburg-Barmbek-Süd) a rose garden with a commemorative plaque was designed for her in 2004. In the development area close by another street was also given her name.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfriede_Lohse-W%C3%A4chtler]

Additional Sources:

• [http://www.lohse-waechtler.com]
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