Posted by August Macke was born in 1887 and died in September 1914 in the trenches of Champagne, at the age of 27.
Macke was one of the expressionist painters who formed the Blue Rider (Blaue Rieter) group of painters at the beginning of the 20th century.
He was married to Elisabeth Gerhardt and had two sons.
In August 1912, Macke took part in a military exercise for the reserves in Elsenborn (today in Belgium). He wrote to his mother in Kandern (a town in Black Forest):
“[…] I have arrived here very well. I like it a lot, against expectation. The landscape is as beautiful as up on the Feldberg(a). There is wonderful honey. So everything is great […]”. “[…] For eight days we have now been going around in the rain with God for the King and the country. Liters of water in the boots. But I am standing up. Not even a cold. […]”. (1)
(a) Feldberg is a mountain in the Black Forest area in southwestern Germany. The village of Feldberg is located at 1,277 meters above sea, some 30 kilometers east of Kandern.
Macke was drafted shortly after his return form Tunisia, where he spent a month (April 1914) traveling with his fellow painter Paul Klee. He was 27 years old.
The trip to Tunisia was the high point of Macke’s artistic life. He arrived in Tunis on the 7th April 1914, on board the steamship “Carthage”. When he returned home he had 33 aquarelles, 79 drawings and many photographs in his bags.
“Wir liegen in der Sonne, essen Spargel. Dabei kann man sich umdrehen und hat Tausende von Motiven. Ich habe heute schon sicher 50 Skizzen gemacht. Gestern 25. Es geht wie der Teufel und ich bin in einer Arbeitsfreude, wie ich sie nie gekannt habe. Die afrikanische Landschaft ist noch viel schöner als die Provence!” (3)
“We lie in the sun eating apsaragus. There one can turn around and find thousands of themes. Today I have already prepared 50 sketches. Yesterday I did 25. It is as if I am in an artistic competition with the Devil, one which I cannot win. The African landscape is much pretier than Provence!” (the translation from German to English is mine).
After he was drafted and sent to the front, in his letters and postcards to Elisabeth, Macke uses words like “dreadful”, “horrible”, “awful”, “terrible” and “the most gruesome experience a man can undergo”. He suspects that his chances of surviving are minimal:
“I would consider myself incredibly lucky if I was to return from this war. I think about all the beautiful things that I have witnessed and that I have you to thank for”. Apart from being horrified about the losses on the German side, he also shows compassion considering the injured or killed French soldiers. (1)
On September 20 he is rewarded the Iron Cross Second Class, which he sends home immediately. His last postcard dates from September 24; in it, he asks for chocolate, warm socks, clothes, and cigarettes. On Saturday, September 26, German troops attacked French positions south of Perthes-lès-Hurlus. On this occasion, August Macke was killed. – In one of his last testimonies, Macke tells his brother in law about the front: “[…] My dearest ones! Safe and sound, I am back from a heavy battle. Yesterday, I got the Iron Cross and I am very happy about it. Auguste has written several times sending cigarettes. I am well and I think about you a lot. Faithfully goodbye, August […]”. (1)
August Macke, Turkish Coffee Shop, 1914
In a note from the front (1914) Macke wrote to his wife Elisabeth.
„Ich habe in den letzten Tagen viel an Dich, liebes Kind, gedacht, an die beiden, kleinen Kerle. Ich sehe immer das liebe, blonde Köpfchen vom Wölfchen und die großen träumenden Augen von Walter vor mir. Könnte ich die beiden sehen! Ich betrachte das jetzt immer als ein Wunder, daß das meine Jungen sind. … Ich wäre glücklich, wenn ich heimkommen könnte, in Eure Arme, wenn ich wieder malen könnte (das ist mir wie ein Traum jetzt). Aber wenn ich an die Kinder denke, dann packt mich immer eine wilde Verzweiflung, daß ich die nicht wiedersehen sollte. Es ist ja nur Egoismus, wenn ich einen Schmerz empfinde darüber, daß mir der Anblick der Kinder entrissen werden könnte. Kind, was werden wir aber glücklich sein, wenn dieser Krieg vorüber ist und wir sind wieder zusammen …“ (2)
In the last days I have thought a lot about you dear child, about the two little guys. I always have Wölfchen’s beloved blond head and Walter’s big dreamy eyes in front of me. I wish I could see them both! I always consider it a miracle that my children….I would be lucky to come home, in your arms, to be able to paint again (which is like a dream now). But when I think of the kids, a wild despair grabs me, that I will never see them again. When I feel pain about this, I seek a sight of the children to make the pain go away. Child, how lucky we would be, when this war is over and we are together again…” (the translation from German to English is mine).
Macke’s last painting is titled “Farewell”. In contrast with his other paintings that are bright and colorfull, this is a sombre, rather muted painting. As if the painter had a premonition about his imminent death.
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