Berthold Grzywatz was born in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. He is married to Martha-Marie Grzywatz, née Kalz, and they have a daughter and three sons.

After attending the municipal grammar school "Oberschule zum Dom" in Lübeck, Berthold Grzywatz studied German and history, education, political science, constitutional law and economics at the universities in Hamburg and Berlin.

A first and last but not least important encounter with art takes place in high school. One of Berthold Grzywatz's teachers was the important Lübeck artist Peter Kleinschmidt, who provided artistic impetus both through his own work and through his art education activities and many friendly conversations. A large woodcut by Peter Kleinschmidt in the entrance hall of his house still bears witness to this encounter. During the course of study, the first self-taught attempts at sculptural work were undertaken. In the free handling of steel according to accumulative principles of form, efforts were made to create object art striving for new perceptions. The prefabricated form, alive in taken materials or industrially manufactured things such as used steel and other metal materials, was placed in new contexts through processing, assembly and compositional construction, which bore symbolic character as well as the free play with forms and structures offered space. The temporary works were intensively perceived and discussed in workshop and group contexts.

Berthold Grzywatz did his doctorate in January 1982 at the Technical University of Berlin with the topic "Work and population in Berlin during the Weimar period" under Ernst Schraepler (modern history), Christoph Müller (public law) and Johannes Agnoli (political sciences). He then worked primarily in scientific research.

In the research center of the Historical Commission in Berlin, he initially worked on the cultural-historical project "Historical Landscape Berlin", which, in cooperation with the Berlin State Conservator, was intended to make sites of historical events in the city of Berlin visible both from an architectural and historical-political perspective . This was linked to the intention of making clear both the readability of history in an urban landscape and the culture of remembrance in an urban society. In this context, Berthold Grzywatz also dealt intensively with modern literature and theatre. Now began a thematically wide-ranging publication activity.

In 1987, Berthold Grzywatz worked for three years as a research assistant in the office of the district mayor of Berlin-Charlottenburg with the research assignment of writing an art and architectural history of the important city hall. In addition, he worked on the conception and execution of scientific talks and conferences, worked as an advisor on projects and participated in the further development of the city's museums and educational institutions.

The research was supported by the monograph Das Rathaus Charlottenburg. On the history and iconography of a bourgeois monumental building”. The work was awarded with the admission to a doctorate in the architecture department of the Technical University of Berlin with a focus on the history of architecture. Accompanying the project, numerous works in the field of architectural photography were created, some of which were also included in the publication. For the public presentation of the town hall monograph, Berthold Grzywatz organized the exhibition "The town hall - a building project of the 19th century".

In 1994 Berthold Grzywatz returned as a research assistant to the research center of the Historical Commission in Berlin with the project he had developed "Self-government and urban development in the 19th and 20th centuries". The project received funding from the German Research Foundation. The results would later form the basis for his habilitation.

In the summer semester of 1995, Berthold Grzywatz finally took up an ongoing teaching position at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut in the Department of History and Cultural Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin as a lecturer in modern history with a particular focus on contemporary political history.

Two years later, in 1997, Berthold Grzywatz moved to the German Resistance Memorial Center as a research assistant. A new project was to examine the history of those persecuted by National Socialism in German post-war politics. In addition, questions of political education and communication problems in museum and memorial work were discussed.

In 1998, this work culminated in a new project funded by the German Research Foundation, which Berthold Grzywatz worked on independently as a research assistant at the research center for the history of resistance, headed by Peter Steinbach, in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin. The project and research work was carried out in close cooperation with various associations of those persecuted by the Nazis in the Federal Republic, whose estates he organized and made accessible for research.

In addition to project management, Berthold Grzywatz was involved in the further development of the research design of the research center and was involved in the analysis and assessment of scientific projects as part of the ongoing activities of the research center. He also worked on the educational events of the German Resistance Memorial Center, in particular on models, concepts and experiences of educational work in Polish concentration camp memorials and museums.

In 2001, Berthold Grzywatz was able to complete his habilitation at the Department of History and Cultural Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin with the study “City, bourgeoisie and state in the 19th century. Self-Government, Participation and Representation in Berlin and Prussia 1806-1918”. The habilitation thesis was awarded by the Foundation of German Cities, Municipalities and Districts as an outstanding achievement in the field of municipal sciences. After being authorized to teach by the faculty council, he became a private lecturer in modern history at the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut in the faculty of history and cultural studies and a corporate member of the Freie Universität Berlin.

After a long period of research and teaching with numerous publications, books, articles and essays, Berthold Grzywatz was looking for a new context in his artistic work that could build on his experiences. The combination of dialogue and discourse flowed into his forms of expression and gave them a highly individual impetus.

Intensive encounters with nature played a significant role in artistic self-discovery. After intensive training in sculpting, especially in plastic design with Fionna-Sophie Oltmann-Copyn in Kiel, work began in the new studio and intensive discourses in new group contexts followed. As a sculptural, three-dimensional and object artist, Berthold Grzywatz initially concentrated on the materials wood and metal: he tried to gain compositional principles and symbolic dimensions from the tension between organic and abstract-functional forms. Plastic works for metal casting soon followed, mainly using aluminum as a material, as well as works combining stone and steel. In 2010 the studio was set up in the district of Kassel (Ahnatal).

Photography accompanied the sculptural work from the beginning, but initially only as a medium for documenting and analyzing the sculptural works. From 2011, photography became an independent area of ​​artistic activity.

After intensive preparations, the first solo exhibition with sculptural works was opened in Kassel in 2012. Already in the following year, the successful participation in a public competition with the purchase and the erection of an installation (Bad Hersfeld).

Berthold Grzywatz's often cyclical works are then presented nationally in individual and group exhibitions; he carries out artistic work on both public and private commissions, takes part in competitions and calls for tenders and can refer to works in public and private collections.

In 2016 a new studio was set up in the district of Kassel (Habichtswald). In the summer of 2017, they managed to open their own gallery in the Rendsburg district port area. With the "locomotive shed", a forgotten industrial building is being set up as a place of art in the immediate vicinity of Rendsburg's landmark, the famous high bridge over the Kiel Canal. Berthold Grzywatz takes over the management of individual and group exhibitions. He also works on the projects "Forum Junge Kunst" and "Ars Haervejen - Kunst am Weg".

Alongside his artistic work, Berthold Grzywatz also took up literary work, particularly as a poet, but also as a narrator. In 2012 he was able to publish his first two volumes of poetry, "Ortserkundung" and "If forgetting is life". His fifth volume of poetry entitled "Surreal Diary" is now available. A sixth volume, The Inhospitable Reality, has just been completed and is about to be published.

He makes his scientific research on the history of those persecuted by National Socialism in German post-war politics available in the form of an extensive manuscript on his website under the scientific texts.

Since 2018, Berthold Grzywatz has been a member of the cultural network of the Rendsburg region, from which he is delegated to the steering group for cultural development planning in the active region of Rendsburg. In the same year, the first invitation to the state exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists Schleswig-Holstein follows. In 2019, Berthold Grzywatz will present photographic works for the first time in a solo exhibition. The Bund Bildender Künstler Kassel-Nordhessen accepted him as a member that year, and a little later he was admitted to the BBK Schleswig-Holstein.

In the shadow of the pandemic, Berthold Grzywatz is increasingly turning to digital formats, especially video and digital image processing art in connection with an innovative remix of sculptural works.

In the summer of 2019 he developed the competition concept "Forum Junge Kunst", which aims to offer young artists presentation opportunities. The 1st Young Art Forum will be realized in autumn 2021. Berthold Grzywatz takes over the artistic direction, curates the exhibition and chairs the expert jury. The exhibition venue is the gallery [ Der Lokschuppen ]. The "Forum Junge Kunst" is supported in particular by the development agency for the living and economic area of ​​Rendsburg and the cultural foundation of the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde as well as by private sponsors such as the Sparkassenstiftung. With the 2nd Forum Junge Kunst 2022, this exhibition format is also supported by the BDK Schleswig-Holstein, the professional association for art education. In addition, with "Ars Hærvejen - Kunst am Weg" he has conceived a large-scale project that is to be realized as art in public space in German-Danish cooperation and is intended to turn a historically traditional path into a gallery space.

 As part of the "Culture Restart" program, the State Ministry for Culture provided significant funds for the modernization of his gallery [ Der Lokschuppen ] as part of the program "Pandemic-related investments in cultural institutions to strengthen the cultural landscape that is important nationwide", and the state managed further funds Schleswig-Holstein. In the future, the gallery should continue to gain in importance as a place for young art. The "Wurzel Kunst" format will make an important contribution in the future.

Berthold Grzywatz lives with his family in Schleswig-Holstein (Westerrönfeld) and works as a freelance artist and gallery owner in Rendsburg and in the Kassel district (Ahnatal).

Berthold Grzywatz

Werkverständnis

Die skulpturalen Werke von Berthold Grzywatz konzentrieren sich auf das moderne Ich in seiner individuellen und gesellschaftlichen, in seiner privaten und öffentlichen, Inneres und Äußeres verbindenden Existenz. Die Dialektik von Fragmentie-rungen, Brüchen, Spannungen, Gegensätzen und Widersprüchen, die das Sein in der Gegenwart konstituie-ren, sind Ausgangspunkt, um nach Möglichkeiten von Individualität und Selbstbe-stimmung zu fragen. Die Arbeiten verweigern sich linearen Erzählungen, sie zielen vielmehr auf Abstrak-tion ab, um Raum für Strukturen, Beziehungen und Konstellationen zu öffnen, die auf Typisches bzw. Allgemei-nes und Expression verweisen.

Da das Herstellen symbolischer und metaphorischer Bilder ein wichtiges Anliegen von Berthold Grzywatz ist, wird der Wahl der Werkstoffe und ihrer Kombination intensive Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Er nutzt die biomorphen Qualitäten von Holz, die Möglichkeiten des Metalls für Linearität, Rhythmisierung und Flächenauflösung sowie das kontrastreiche Wechselspiel zwischen Form und Oberfläche beim Gestein, um in seinen Werken Gegensätze von offenen und geschlossenen, von geraden und organischen Formen aufzubauen. Gleichzeitig versucht er durch die Arten der Bearbeitung die vorgegebene Anlage der Materialien miteinander zu verschränken.

In seinen Arbeiten bezieht sich Berthold Grzywatz auf die dialektische Struktur der Wirklichkeit, die sich als Geschehenszusammenhang ebenso als Einheit wie als Differenz darstellt. Er fragt nach den Möglichkeiten eines vernunftgeleiteten, an den Problemen der Zeit orientierten Handelns, das einer ethisch begründeten Humanität verpflichtet ist. In dieser Hinsicht greift Berthold Grzywatz gesellschaftspolitische Probleme auf, die unter dem Gesichtspunkt des Sehens mit dem Verhältnis von Materie und Form verbunden wird. Verletzungen, Situationen des Gebrochenseins und der Spaltung werden angesprochen, ebenso die Ungewissheit und Spiegelungen eines gesonderten Daseins wie die Flucht als notwendiger oder aufgezwungener Ausweg.

Gestalten, Sehen und Verstehen unterliegen, indem sie prozesshaften Charakter tragen den Problemen des Transformierens. Das Erfassen und Verstehjen der Form in ihrem räumlichen Vorhandensein und in ihrer inhaltlich-assoziativen Ausrichtung fordert das Sehen des Betrachters heraus. Es bleibt dabei nicht beim physiologischen Wahrnehmen stehen. Das durch die künstlerische Intuition Erschaute und im Werk Umgesetzte möchte ein Erlebnis des Sehens veranlassen, welches die Sicht auf noch nicht Erlebtes anregt und unbekannte Sichtweisen entfaltet.

Berthold Grzywatz

Understanding of the Work

The sculptural works of Berthold Grzywatz focus on the modern self in its individual and social, private and public, inner and outer existence. The dialectics of fragmentation, ruptures, tensions, contrasts and contradictions that constitute being in the present are the starting point for asking about the possibilities of individuality and self-determination. The works refuse linear narratives; rather, they aim at abstraction in order to open up space for structures, relationships and constellations that refer to the typical or the general and to expression.

Since the creation of symbolic and metaphorical images is an important concern of Berthold Grzywatz, intensive attention is paid to the choice of materials and their combination. He uses the biomorphic qualities of wood, the possibilities of metal for linearity, rhythmisation and surface resolution as well as the contrasting interplay between form and surface in the case of stone to build up contrasts of open and closed, of straight and organic forms in his works. At the same time, he tries to interweave the given layout of the materials through the ways in which they are worked.

In his works, Berthold Grzywatz refers to the dialectical structure of reality, which presents itself as a context of events as much as a unity as a difference. He asks about the possibilities of reason-guided action oriented towards the problems of the time and committed to an ethically founded humanity. In this respect, Berthold Grzywatz takes up socio-political problems, which are linked to the relationship between matter and form from the point of view of seeing. Injuries, situations of brokenness and division are addressed, as are the uncertainty and reflections of a separate existence as well as escape as a necessary or forced way out.

Shaping, seeing and understanding are subject to the problems of transformation because they have a processual character. The grasping and understanding of the form in its spatial presence and in its content-associative orientation challenges the viewer's seeing. It does not stop at physiological perception. What is seen through artistic intuition and realised in the work wants to induce an experience of seeing that stimulates the view of what has not yet been experienced and unfolds unknown ways of seeing.