Hop heisa, in the rain and wind!
He sings of rain and wind. And of the madness of the world, which can only be drowned with wine. To the wise fools from shakespeare’s comedy "what you will" you certainly feel reminded when you stand in front of the archway on the south side of the hardenbergblock (goethestrabe). Top right the "rainmaker": an old boozer with a barrel over his shoulder, pouring his wet into a shell. On the left, the "windmaker, modeled as a buxom beauty, her cheeks puffing out like a bellows with lusciously spouting breasts. The grotesque-comical clay figures are from hans lewerenz. They are three years after his release from russian prisoner of war at the end of 1947 and previously experienced war atrocities his answer to leave the past behind him. It is an art of laughing away.
Infinitely grateful to have survived are the thousands who made their way to kulmbach at the end of the war or afterwards. At the end of 1951, 6763 expellees, refugees and former concentration camp inmates are registered in the city district with a total population of 24,015. 1046 of them standing as apartment seekers on the waiting list.
But it is a community of need, which despite everything with confidence, courage and elan to the rebuilding approached. The rapid economic upswing in kulmbach after the 1948 truth reform is largely due to outsourced companies such as the sudwerke of the essen-based krupp group, the adalbert raps spice mill, the berlin meat research institute, and efficient refugee businesses such as the erwin-schnittert works. With a herculean effort, the city of kulmbach and the kulmbach building cooperative set about dealing with the housing shortage: between 1951 and 1954, 224 buildings with 806 apartments were erected. The largest building, the hardenberg block, is ready for occupancy in the spring of 1951. In july, the first expellees arrive, mostly silesians and sudeten germans who had been housed in the plassenburg camp.
The feeling of life of these years manifests itself in four other ceramic figures by lewerenz. The ornate house entrances along the south side of the housing complex: allegories of the "four seasons". The sculptures exude a lust for life, a joy in the diversity of creation, as if the artist had the violin concertos of antonio vivaldi in his ear.
Since his arrival in kulmbach, lewerenz has been intensively engaged in modeling, casting, firing and glazing clay. He wanted to take a piece of his pomeranian home in stargard with its many brick churches to his new place of residence – a city with a lot of red brick.
Spring appears as a lovely girl from an eastern book of tales. It releases the birds held captive in the kafig to flutter out into their colorful homeland. The artist alludes to the released prisoners of war. The summer meets us as a harvester with ahrenbuschel in the arm. She has pulled her headscarf over her hat deep into her face to protect herself from the laughing sunflower sun. At the time of the autumn moon the harvest is brought in, ripe fruit and juicy grapes are brought into the winepresses. The last of the season is father frost, who trudges through the cold in felt boots and a fur-lined coat, carrying a hare on his back as hunting prey.
Amusing frescoes painted by lewerenz for the eastern entrance gate to the hardenberg farm. On the left, a father is seen picking apples on a ladder, while a helper collects the fruit in baskets. The fresco on the right shows him coming home to his family in the evening. The woman squats dutifully in the parlor and cradles the sleeping child in her arms.
The sequence of pictures in the new home is deliberately genre-like and of gentle irony. Also the well decorated coats of arms contribute to it: the kulmbacher city coat of arms is present, but also the french revenge receives the honor due to it.
