Event
Hiking and occupying himself with God was close to Karl Heinrich Zunn's heart. He always had his drawing pad with him on the way. That was about 100 years ago. The pictures, however, could almost be from today - if one disregards the fact that pen and ink drawings are not in fashion at the moment. Karl Heinrich Zunn was also active as a theologian and artist in the Westerwald. Dieter Kaiser (Westerburg) from the History Workshop has studied his biography and work in detail. Zunn has been with him since 1982, when he learned of him through Willy Mehr, a history enthusiast. He has collected 33 works in copies and is showing them at the Tourist Information WällerLand am Wiesensee (Tiwi) from Wednesday, 1 July, 7 pm, to Wednesday, 31 August.
Karl Heinrich Zunn was born in Frankenthal, in the Palatinate, in 1893 and grew up in Dillenburg. His drawing skills were recognised and encouraged as early as grammar school. His wish was to study theology. He had hardly begun when he went off to the First World War, where he was wounded five times. Afterwards he continued his studies, but also wandered a lot, at first mainly in Hesse and the Rhine valley. His small-format pen-and-ink drawings soon found recognition and good sales, and they were also printed in magazines. The Ebnersche Verlag in Hachenburg even published a calendar with his works. As a young pastor, he came to Liebenscheid in the high Westerwald in 1923, where he felt very much at home and started a family. He also proved his drive, which earned him the sympathy of the locals. "On Luck, when his second son was born, there was a big crowd," Dieter Kaiser recounts. (Today, one would say "putting up trees".) Transferred to Bad Marienberg (1927), he founded an association of young men here to catch them, to give them support. In 1932 he was transferred to Bad Godesberg. The National Socialists soon came to power. At first Hitler seemed promising to him and he joined the "German Christians". But the enthusiasm did not last long. And he became a bitter opponent of Hitler and therefore also switched to the Confessing Church. After the Second World War, much changed for the theologian and artist. From then on he worked for a large insurance company. In 1952 he suffered a stroke, and in 1964 he died in Bethel. In his last years he was no longer able to produce precise pen and ink drawings, but instead he resorted to oil pastels and oil paint. The Pen and Ink Drawings In the small-format pen drawings in black paint, Zunn captures the character and construction of houses, castles, archways or even landscapes, showing trees and bushes and hinting at a vague modulation of the landscape, possibly accompanied by birds in flight.... One has to approach the works to look at the details - but the expressiveness and the "typicality" of the respective scenery can be seen immediately. People, however, Zunn did not draw. No clothing fashion, no haircut, no colour reveals anything about the respective decade - what remains is the timeless. The History Workshop The Geschichtswerkstatt was founded in 2005/06 by Dieter Kaiser, Burghard Peschke and Willi Kaesberger to research the history of Westerburg. It is a sub-group of the Westerwald-Verein Westerburg, comprising ten men, each working on a different focus. Dieter Kaiser, for example, is working on a comprehensive historical account of the Westerburg area - from the Celtic period onwards, which he plans to complete soon. In 2016, the history workshop already exhibited Zunn's works in Rennerod (Lang bookstore), which was also attended by grandchildren of the artist from Paderborn and Würzburg, who were delighted with the honour. The group's meeting place and archives are located on the upper floor of the Burgmannenhaus. The contact person and organiser is now Peter Franz (Herschbach). Contact: E-mail p-e-t-e-r@freenet.de - mobile 0160/99315670.
The opening of the exhibition "The artist and draughtsman Karl Heinrich Zunn" with a short speech and exchange will take place on Wednesday, 1 July 2022, 7 pm, at the Tourist-Info (TiWi), Winner Ufer 9 in Stahlhofen a.W.. The pictures can be seen until Wednesday, 31 August, during opening hours: Mondays to Fridays 10-17 h, Saturdays 13-17 h, Sundays 10-18 h.
Contact and directions
Winner Ufer 9
56459 Stahlhofen/Wiesensee