Dörte Helm facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dorothea "Dörte" Helm
Self-portrait
Born	(1898-12-03)3 December 1898 Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany
Died	24 February 1941(1941-02-24) (aged 42) Hamburg, Germany
Nationality	German
Other names	Dörte Helm-Heise
Education	Kunsthochschule Kassel, Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar, Bauhaus
Occupation	Bauhaus artist, painter and graphic designer
Spouse(s)	Heinrich Heise
Parent(s)	Rudolf Helm, Alice Caroline, b. Bauer

Dorothea "Dörte" Helm (born December 3, 1898 – died February 24, 1941) was a talented German artist. She was known for her work as a painter and graphic designer. Dörte was also an important part of the famous Bauhaus art school.

Life of Dörte Helm

Dörte Helm was born in Berlin, Germany. Her father, Rudolf Helm, was a professor who studied old languages and history. Her mother was Alice Caroline Bauer. In 1910, Dörte's family moved to Rostock because her father got a job at the University of Rostock.

Early Education and Art Studies

From 1910 to 1913, Dörte went to school in Rostock. After that, she spent two years at the School of Applied Arts. This is where she started learning about art. From 1915 to 1918, she studied at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, an art college. She learned modeling and drawing there.

In 1918, Dörte went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar. She studied graphics, which is about making prints and designs.

Joining the Bauhaus School

In 1919, Dörte Helm joined the State Bauhaus in Weimar. The Bauhaus was a very famous and new art school. It focused on combining art with crafts and technology. Dörte worked in the mural (wall painting) and textile (fabric) workshops.

She learned from important teachers like Johannes Itten, Lyonel Feininger, Oskar Schlemmer, Georg Muche, and the founder, Walter Gropius. In 1922, she became a certified decorative painter.

Dörte was involved in many projects at the Bauhaus. In 1921, she helped with the interior design of a building called Haus Sommerfeld. She also made a special curtain for it. In 1922 and 1923, she worked in the weaving workshop. She also helped organize the big Bauhaus exhibition in 1923. For this exhibition, she created a four-part fabric screen and a geometric wall hanging.

Life After Bauhaus

Dörte stayed at the Bauhaus until 1924. Then, she moved back to Rostock. There, she joined local art groups like the Rostock Artists Association. She often showed her art in exhibitions. Her first exhibition in Rostock was in 1920.

She also traveled to places like Ahrenshoop, Austria, and Switzerland. In 1927, she was asked to design the inside of the Kurhaus Warnemünde [de], a spa building. Sadly, the murals she painted there were destroyed after 1933.

Later Life and Challenges

In 1930, Dörte married Heinrich Heise, a journalist. They moved to Hamburg in 1932.

Because of her family background, Dörte faced difficulties from 1933 onwards. The government at the time made it hard for her to work as an artist. She continued to write, sometimes using a different name.

Dörte Helm passed away in February 1941 from an illness.

Dörte Helm in Television

In 2019, a German TV series called Die Neue Zeit (The New Era) was made about the Bauhaus. Dörte Helm was a character in this series, played by Anna Maria Mühe. The show included some fictional parts, like a romantic relationship between Dörte and Walter Gropius. However, Dörte's daughter, Cornelia Heise, has said that this relationship is not proven to be true.

Gallery

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  View of St. Mary's Church, Rostock (1916)

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  Interieur (1916)

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  Standing Man (1919)

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  Sitting Man (1919)

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  Bauhaus exhibition, postcard 14 (1923)

Works by Dörte Helm

Dörte Helm created many different types of art. Her works include:

• Drawings
• Woodcuts (art made by carving wood)
• Paintings
• Tapestries (woven wall hangings)
• Woodwork

Some of her notable works are:

• Designs for a special stamp for the State Bauhaus.
• Postcard 14 for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition. You can find this at the Museum of Modern Art and Harvard Art Museums.
• A stained glass window in a summer house in Ahrenshoop (1926/1927).
• Portrait G. D. in front of northern landscape. This painting is at the Art Museum Ahrenshoop.
• Farmhouses by the water. (1925) Also at the Art Museum Ahrenshoop.
• Portrait L.R. (Line Ristow) (1927), a pastel drawing.
• Self-portrait. (1931)
• Yellow daffodils.
• Fishing nets.
• The puppeteer from Kiel. (The title is in Low German, a dialect).
• The flying room.
• The slipping room.
• In the fairytale kingdom. (1921) This was a children's book with poems written by her father.
• King Drosselbart. This was a fairy tale play. It was performed at the Stadttheater Rostock in 1931, and Dörte designed the stage for it herself.

See also

In Spanish: Dörte Helm para niños