Portrait of my grandfather Robert Kreidler (1903-1985) (2022)

Print on aluminium Dibond with hand-painted glaze
60x45cm

Pride is the wrong word - I'm just a bit glad that he (and his wife, my grandmother, who died too young) were staunch opponents of the Nazis. Neither of them made any secret of their opinion of the regime in public, and during the war my grandmother hid a deserter at home. They were probably only saved from arrest by the fact that they lived in a very remote rural area in the Black Forest with its special family and social structure. However, he was called up as a soldier in 1940, no doubt as a reprimand, despite his advanced age. He returned from captivity in 1947 with only 3 teeth left. Throughout his life he remained in friendly contact with the French farmer on whose farm he had to work from 1945-47. I later asked my father why his parents were actually Nazi opponents - in the historical context, that was not self-evident. My father couldn't say. I remember a picture of my grandfather, whom I got to know as a small child, >composed< , based on a photo my father took of him in the mid-1960s.

Exhibitions:
■ Ghost Notes Stuttgart, Gustav Siegle Hause 2022
■ Bürgermeisterhaus Essen 2022