Schwimmer Max

Biography

Max Schwimmer (December 9, 1895 – March 12, 1960) was a German painter, graphic artist, and illustrator. He is known for his expressive realism and his notable influence on the German art scene of the 20th century.
The son of a factory bookbinder, Schwimmer trained as a seminarian before working as a schoolteacher in Obersaida, Marienberg and the Ore Mountains. Drafted during the First World War, he returned to Leipzig after the war to study art history and philosophy. His artistic career began during this period, with a notable connection to the anti-bourgeois cabaret scene dominated by figures such as Hans Reimann and Erich Weinert. He contributed to the satirical magazines *Die Aktion* and *Der Drache* and established himself on the left-wing art scene with the help of Johannes R. Becher.
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After travels to France and Italy, Schwimmer taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Leipzig and married graphic artist Eva Götze in 1922. They had two daughters, but separated in 1933. Following the Nazi takeover, he was dismissed from his post in 1933 and nine of his works were labeled "degenerate art" and confiscated. Schwimmer then turned to book illustration, with over 25 illustrated titles published by 1944.
In 1939 he was briefly drafted into the medical service before being demobilized, and in 1943 he married the painter Ilse Naumann. In 1944 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and assigned to the prisoner of war camp Stalag IV-B in Mühlberg/Elbe. After the end of the war he joined the German Communist Party and became a professor of graphic design at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, where he worked until 1950. He was then appointed to the Dresden Hochschule für Bildende Künste in 1951, where he remained until his death.
Max Schwimmer is considered one of the most important painters of Saxony in the 20th century. His artistic career and political commitment marked his time, and he became a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1952.
His legacy lives on through his contributions as an expressive realist, and his works continue to be admired for their visual impact and social engagement.