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Felix NussbaumGerman artist
Date of Birth: 11.12.1904
Country:  Poland |
Content:
Biography of Felix Nussbaum
Early Life and EducationFelix Nussbaum was a German artist and representative of the Neue Sachlichkeit art movement. He was born into a middle-class Jewish family of a merchant. In 1922-1923, Nussbaum studied at the State School of Applied Arts in Hamburg under the guidance of Fritz Benke. In 1923, he moved to Berlin and continued his education at the United School of Fine Arts, studying under Cesar Klein and Paul Plante.
Artistic Career
In 1929, Nussbaum began working as a freelance artist. In 1932, he received a state scholarship and the Great State Prize of the Prussian Academy of Arts, which enabled him to travel to Rome and become a guest student at Villa Massimo. However, in the same year, a significant number of Nussbaum's works were destroyed in a fire at his Berlin studio. He also contributed to the magazine "Der Querschnitt" and participated in the Berlin Secession exhibition.
Exile and Persecution
In 1933, Nussbaum continued his studies in Rome but was forced to leave due to rising anti-Semitic sentiments. He sought refuge in Alassio, Italy. In 1934, he fled to Belgium. With the outbreak of World War II in 1940, Nussbaum was registered as an "enemy alien" in Brussels. He was arrested in Saint-Cyprien and later transferred to Bordeaux, from where he escaped to Brussels.
Underground Life and Tragic End
In the autumn of 1942, Nussbaum and his wife, Felka Platek, abandoned their studio in Brussels and went into hiding to evade the Nazi authorities. For the last two years of their lives, the Nussbaum family lived underground. However, in 1944, they were arrested and deported from the Mechelen transit camp to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Felix Nussbaum tragically lost his life there, along with countless other victims of the Holocaust.
