Nationalpark-Haus Neuwerk
Insel Neuwerk 6
27499 Hamburg-Insel Neuwerk
Alfred Ehrhardt (1901-1984) was an artistic multi-talent. Through his mother he found his love for music, an education as an organist followed. Early on, he himself taught young people music and art. After studying fine arts, he worked at a reform pedagogical school. At the end of the 1920s he studied and worked as an assistant teacher at the Bauhaus in Dessau. There he met Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky, among others. Initially he returned to the reform pedagogical school until 1930, when he was appointed to the Landeskunstschule in Hamburg. There he taught a preliminary course on materials science.
In 1933 he was dismissed because of his modern view of art – he sought work as an organist and found employment in Cuxhaven-Döse. During this time he discovered photography for himself and made excursions to the Cuxhaven mudflats. The islands Neuwerk and Scharhörn did not remain undiscovered. On the island of Neuwerk he also met his wife Lieselotte Dannmeyer.
While he initially photographed the landscapes on both a large and small scale, he was soon captivated by the shapes of shells, snails and corals. He skillfully placed the limestone shells of these sometimes bizarre creatures in the center of attention, thus giving the viewer a new perspective.
Alfred Ehrhardt was one of the most important photographers of the New Objectivity. He found what was forbidden to paint in nature and photographed it. His illustrated book Das Watt from the 1930s is still considered outstanding today, and his films have won several national and international awards.