Erfurt is the capital and largest city in the state of Thuringia, central Germany. It is located in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, within the wide valley of the Gera river. It is located 100 km (62 mi) south-west of Leipzig, 300 km (186 mi) south-west of Berlin, 400 km (249 mi) north of Munich and 250 km (155 mi) north-east of Frankfurt. Together with a string of neighbouring cities Gotha, Weimar, Jena and others, Erfurt forms the central metropolitan corridor of Thuringia called Thüringer Städtekette with over 500,000 inhabitants.
Boniface, born Winfrid in the Devon town of Crediton in Anglo-Saxon England, was a leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He organised significant foundations of the church in Germany and was made archbishop of Mainz by Pope Gregory III. He was martyred in Frisia in 754, along with 52 others, and his remains were returned to Fulda, where they rest in a sarcophagus which became a site of pilgrimage. Boniface's life and death as well as his work became widely known, there being a wealth of material available—a number of vitae, especially the near-contemporary Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi, legal documents, possibly some sermons, and above all his correspondence. He is venerated as a saint in the Christian church and became the patron saint of Germania, known as the "Apostle to the Germans".
Joseph Beuys was a German artist, teacher, and theorist of art who was highly influential in international contemporary art in the latter half of the 20th century. He is a founder of the art movement known as Fluxus, and a practitioner and exemplar of happenings, and performance art. He adopted media and techniques including paint, sculpture, graphic art, and installation.
Emil Schult is a German painter, poet and audio-visual artist.
Donar's Oak was a sacred tree of the Germanic pagans located in an unclear location around what is now the region of Hesse, Germany. According to the 8th century Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Saint Boniface and his retinue cut down the tree earlier the same century. Wood from the oak was then reportedly used to build a church at the site dedicated to Saint Peter. Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples.
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who attended the academy include Werner Hilsing, Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Gotthard Graubner, Ruth Rogers-Altmann, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer and photographers Thomas Ruff, Thomas Demand, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer. In the stairway of its main entrance, are engraved the Words: "Für unsere Studenten nur das Beste".
Michael Buthe was a German artist who lived and worked between Germany and Morocco. He exhibited widely throughout Europe during his life and is known for his eclectic and prolific oeuvre which encompasses painting, sculpture, and installation.
Lothar Wolleh was a well-known German photographer.
Orlando Mohorović is a Croatian artist. He is one of the original members of a group of artists called Labinski atelieri.
Skulptur Projekte Münster is an exhibition of sculptures in public places in the town of Münster (Germany). Held every ten years since 1977, the exhibition shows works of invited international artists for free in different locations all over town, thereby confronting art with public places. After every exhibition, the city buys a few of the exhibited sculptures which are then installed permanently.
Neichen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kelberg, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.
Heinz Günter Mebusch (1952–2001) was a German photographer and experimental artist born in Düsseldorf.
Von hier aus – Zwei Monate neue deutsche Kunst in Düsseldorf is the title of an art exhibition from 29 September 1984 to 2 December 1984. It was organised by the city of Düsseldorf and the Gesellschaft für aktuelle Kunst Düsseldorf e.V. and was curated by Kasper König.
Social sculpture is a phrase used to describe an expanded concept of art that was invented by the artist and co-founder of the German Green Party, Joseph Beuys. Beuys created the term "social sculpture" to embody his understanding of art's potential to transform society. As a work of art, a social sculpture includes human activity that strives to structure and shape society or the environment. The central idea of a social sculptor is an artist who creates structures in society using language, thoughts, actions, and objects.
7000 Oaks – City Forestation Instead of City Administration is a work of land art by the German artist Joseph Beuys. It was first publicly presented in 1982 at the documenta 7.
How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare was a performance piece enacted by the German artist Joseph Beuys on 26 November 1965 at the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf. While it was only Beuys’s first solo exhibition in a private gallery, it is sometimes referred to as his best known action.
Anatol Herzfeld was a German sculptor and mixed-media artist, and also a policeman. A student of Joseph Beuys, he primarily used wood, iron and stone as materials. As an artist, he simply signed Anatol. He received attention for a happening, crossing the Rhine in a boat he created with Beuys, after Beuys had been expelled from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Erwin Heerich was a German artist.
Wächter is a series of large outdoor iron sculptures by Anatol Herzfeld, a student of Joseph Beuys who was both a traffic policeman and an artist, with a recurring theme. The sculptures are located at various places in Germany. One of them watches over a positive change in the environment, another is a monument to policemen killed in the line of duty.
Heinrich Nauen was a German Expressionist artist. He created oils, watercolors, and prints; as well as murals and mosaics. A large part of his output consists of landscapes and floral still-lifes.
