SHORT BIOGRAPHY
(OTTO) HERBERT FIEDLER, 1891-1962

1891 September 17: Herbert Fiedler is born in Leipzig, Germany

1910 graduates from Nicolai Gymnasium ( Grammar School ), Leipzig

1910 - 1912 studies at the Royal Academy of Art in Dresden on the advice of Max Liebermann and Wilhelm Trübner; gets acqainted with George Grosz; drawing lessons from Robert Sterl and Richard Müller

1912 moves to Berlin on the advice of Waldemar Rösler; rooms with George Grosz; meets Max Beckmann

1913 - 1914 participates in the Berlin Secession Spring exhibition; departs for Paris in April; meets the graphic artist Otto Schoff; together they do model studies at the Académie Colarossi; meets Jules Pascin, Karl Hofer and Wilhelm Uhde; participates in the Berlin Secession Autumn exposition and in the exhibition ‘Der Dôme’, Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf

1914 Hedwig Jaenichen- Woermann ( Hamburg ) offers Fiedler a studio and a stipend for a year in Paris, starting August 1, 1914; on August 3 1914, Germany declares war on France; leaving his work and diaries behind, Fiedler is obliged to return to Leipzig on July 31st; is sent to the eastern front and seriously wounded

1916 Fiedler is released from military duty; returns to Berlin; has to perform alternative service

1918 participates in Freie Secession exhibition, Berlin; praise by the art critic Karl Scheffler in ‘Kunst und Künstler’; meets John Heartfield, Richard Hülsenbeck, Frans Wildenhain, Max Pechstein and Bertolt Brecht

1924 - 1926 works in the UFA-studios and paint workshops, Berlin

1926 - 1927 travels to Italy with the sculptor Kurt Radtke

1930 - 1931 visits Paris for the second time; meets the Swiss artist Amrey Balsiger

1932 Amrey joins Fiedler in Berlin; Fiedler exhibits at the Gurlitt Gallery; a new fresco-like technique (stone painting) he developed together with Kurt Radtke attracts attention; again praise by Karl Scheffler for his work in the Freie Secession exhibition

1933 - 1934 participates in the Spring and Autumn exhibitions of the Berliner Secession; exhibits with the Künstlerbund, Kassel/Saarbrücken, and with the Verein Berliner Künstler

1934 - 1935 departs ‘on holiday’ to the Netherlands leaving the bulk of his possessions behind, together with Amrey, who helps in getting his work out of Germany under her name; settles in the artists’ village Laren; visit from George Grosz

1937 Fiedler is sought in Germany by the ‘Reichskammer der Bildende Künste’(Mitteilungsblatt der Bildende Künste, 1937)

1938 - 1939 marries Amrey Balsiger; birth of daughter Anna Sabine

1940 Germany invades the Netherlands; the Fiedlers are forced to move to Amsterdam; regularly meets with Max Beckmann during the occupation period

1941 thanks to the artist Jan Wiegers he becomes a member of the ‘Onafhankelijken’ ( The independents )

1942 exhibition in the Gallery ‘Pampus’

1944 enlisted in the German army guarding bridges; fearing for his family, does not go underground

1945 interned by the Dutch authorities; is released after 2 months through efforts of the Resistance and colleagues; exhibition embargo till January 1, 1946

1948 Fiedler and Amrey become members of the newly formed ‘De realisten’ ( The Realists )

1949 Fiedler becomes a member of the ‘Hollandse Aquarellistenkring’ ( Dutch Aquarellist’s Society )

1953 on the invitation of the Max Beckmann Society he makes a study-trip to Munich and Murnau, Germany

1957 finally the Fiedlers get Dutch citizenship

1961 his 70th birthday draws wide attention from his friends and the press; receives an invitation for a retrospective exhibition by Willem Sandberg, the director of the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum

1962 dies suddenly on February 27 of cardiac arrest; September/October memorial exhibition at the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum

1999 Amrey Balsiger dies on April 23

1936 - 1961 his work is represented in various group and solo exhibitions in the Netherlands, France, Spain and Egypt

1982 - 1983 extensive solo exhibition ( Frank-Fiedler collection ) in Nijmegen, Hilversum, Zwolle, Franeker and in Amsterdam ( Arti et Amicitiae)

In connection with a retrospective exhibition, to take place in September 2000 in the Singer Museum, Laren, Holland, and to complete the documentation of visual and other materials undertaken in cooperation with the RKD ( Netherlands Institute for Art History ), the board of the Herbert Fiedler Foundation would welcome any information or assistance in further determining the whereabouts of such materials.