Harald Pickert

Drawings and etchings, dimensions variable

Harald Pickert’s drawings, sketches, and etchings were created during his internment at a concentration camp and right afterwards. The artist, who had been trained as a painter and etcher and also took over his father’s publishing house and print shop in 1928, was openly critical of National Socialism in his works. Because of his publishing activities, he was labeled an enemy of the state and imprisoned as a political prisoner in 1939. After stints at various jails, Pickert was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and, not long afterwards, to Dachau. He spent two more years in Mauthausen before being returned to Dachau in 1943. From there, he was assigned to various work details at the Augsburg and Bäumenheim camps, until he was liberated in 1945. The drawings on display capture the terrible experiences of Pickerts time in concentration camps and are, in part, from his cycle titled Pestbeulen Europas Pickert documented scenes of torture and death, the torment and tyranny of the SS officers, and the suffering of the prisoners. He added comments to his sketches, laying bare the terror committed by the Nazis. Pickert never spoke about his experiences during the war period, and it was not until 2015, many years after his death, that the drawings were discovered in his estate. They attest to the profound trauma and violence he endured.

 

Harald Pickert: Die Pestbeulen Europas. Naziterror in Konzentrationslagern (Buboes of Europe. Nazi Terror at Concentration Camps), 1939-45

From June 2 to July 29, 2020 the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte presented further works from the cycle, including preliminary sketches, in the north atrium on the first floor. 

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