View of 'Douglas Rebuilt' from Hutchinson Camp
Date made: 1940-1941
Description: A sheet of printed text and additional illustration about the vision of a new Douglas (to accompany MNH collection ID Number 1996-0070/25). A print by Bruno Ahrends of 'Douglas Rebuilt' from Hutchinson Internment Camp. Bruno Ahrends was an architect and 'Douglas Rebuilt' was his vision of a new and futuristic Douglas promenade, if it was rebuilt under 'modern' architectural principles e.g. as a series of Modernist tower blocks.
Collected by Dr Klaus E. Hinrichsen (1912-2004) during his time as an internee in Hutchinson Camp. Hinrichsen was a young art historian who had fled to Britain in the 1930s to avoid Nazi persecution, and found himself interned with some of the leading German refugee artists of the day. He appreciated and recognised the significance of the material being produced in Hutchinson Camp, and began to collect and exhibit pieces within the camp. The resulting collection contains examples of the camps leading artists such as Erich Kahn, Hermann Fechenbach, Helmut Weissenborn, Bruno Ahrends, Fritz Kraemer and Paul Henning.
Bruno Ahrends (1878-1948), born as Bruno Arons, was an internationally known German architect. In 1904 he changed his biblical family name Arons to the German sounding Ahrends. He studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich and worked in Berlin, until the Nazi government ordered a general professional disqualification for Jews and others. In 1936 he flew to Italy. From there he made it to Britain in 1939, where he lived without a job in poor conditions. He was interned at Hutchinson Internment Camp on the Isle of Man, where he produced stencil prints of his surroundings as well as architectural drafts for a replacement of the whole location at Hutchinson Square. After World War II he emigrated to South Africa, where his two sons were living. He died soon after his arrival.
Materials: paper
Object name: print
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 1996-0070/25a
Subject tags : #WW2INTERNMENTMUSEUMCOLLECTIONS