Gertrude Sandmann
Gertrude Sandmann (November 16, 1893 - January 6, 1981) was a Jewish-German artist who survived the Holocaust and advanced the causes of LGBT people.
Her family was wealthy and until the Nazi’s came to power was assimilated into German society, evidenced by the fact that her father was a commercial judge and a civil deputy.
[3] Sandmann knew from an early age that she was a lesbian, but due to social pressures of the time, was briefly married to a man and was soon divorced.
Sandmann moved to Switzerland to pursue her art but had to return to Germany in 1934 as she was unable to extend her work permit.
Sandmann was to be deported on November 21,1942 at a time when most Jewish residents in Germany understood this to be a death sentence.
[4] Sandmann’s partner Koslowski helped to find her places to hide away in Berlin throughout the remainder of the war until she was liberated when the Allied Forces defeated the Nazis in 1945.
Despite contracting serious health problems due to malnutrition and exposure to cold during her time hiding, Sandmann was able to continue her art career.
[7] Gertrude's family got their wealth from her father, David Sandmann, who had become wealthy from his plantation that he owned in East Africa.
Due to the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler’s antisemitism, the Holocaust began with the government unjustly excluding Jewish people from German society with discriminatory laws.
The Nazi party falsely believed that Jewish people were the reason for Germany’s economic, social, and political conflicts.
Now, the Nazi Party decided that Jewish people were a threat to Germany, and that they needed to get rid of them or else their struggles wouldn’t end.
[11] Three years go by… and due to annexations, invasions, occupations, and alliances, Nazi Germany now was in control of parts of North Africa, and the majority of Europe.
In May of 1933, the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, founded by Dr. Magnus Hirschfield, who was a Jewish gay man, was raided, and if not all but most of its collection of over 12,000 books were burned.
She wasted no time fleeing to Switzerland, but unfortunately, she had to return to Germany when she wasn’t able to obtain the proper education and permits.
From a young age, Sandmann described herself as “closer to women than to men,” and throughout her life, particularly postwar, she was outspoken about lesbian issues.
[14] Despite the Weimar Republic’s relative acceptance of male gayness for the period,[15] Sandmann herself found it a difficult place to live as a lesbian.
She had a relationship with a schoolmate, Lilly zu Klampen, in the early 1910s, but had to marry a doctor, Hans Rosenberg, in 1915 to please her parents, though they quickly divorced.
Koslowski arranged hiding spots for Gertrude and provided food and ration stamps till the war was reaching an end.
[18] Before the war even started, many Nazis were appalled to the presence and visibility of lesbian and gay communities, provoking ill treatment towards people being accused of homosexuality which worsened over the 1930’s-40’s, making relationships like Gertrudes and Hedwig's very hazardous.
[22] After the war, Gertrude continued to improve LGBT rights through her art, which is now showcased at Munich Documentation Center.
[23] Gertrude would draw many portraits, one specifically being two nude women with their backs turned to the viewer and seem to be in a deep conversation which was a good example of the artwork she would create later in life which centered nude women of all ages[24] Unfortunately, in her time period, art works done by female artists were hardly ever given proper recognition and were overlooked by museums and galleries because many people did not claim them as “real art”.
In today's time, a large amount of artwork done by all different female artists has been discovered and brought into light, and many collections featuring LGBT+ art is being accepted and displayed.
[25] One of her earliest recovered sketches, Gruppe IX (1922), comes from the period she spent studying under Käthe Kollwitz.
[27] Though more detailed than her earlier studies, it shares the simplicity and medium, Sandmann working only in charcoal and occasionally highlighting with white pastel.
There’s a large gap in her body of work, despite the belief that she created over 1,000 drawings throughout her career,[29] because she left a full apartment behind in faking her suicide in 1942,[30] and her art, considered “degenerate” because of her Jewish heritage, was subsequently destroyed by the Gestapo.
Her drawing Berliner Fenster (1945) acts as a grim glimpse into her world in hiding,[31] despite her marked avoidance of social commentary in her work.
"[33] After the war, she created multiple works and participated in several exhibitions and had one solo exhibition and in 1968 over 70 of her drawings were shown in the House at Kleistpark in Schöneberg, an art gallery in Berlin in which Albert Buesche an art critic for the newspaper Tagesspiegel called her “an Artist by calling.” After Gertrude’s separation from her partner, Hedwig Koslowski, in 1956, Gertrude spent her days with her partner Tamara Streck, who formerly was a circus performer on the trapeze performing under, “artistic Support for the troops” and at that point worked as a professional driver.
In the 1970s Gertrude supported many women's projects and at 81 co-founded L74, a group for elderly lesbians and occasionally worked on the Newspaper “Unsere Kleine Zeitung” drawing “lovers” for the front page.
The death of her partner, who was considerably younger than Gertrude, destroyed her will to live, as she was suffering from cancer, and she denied any life-extending treatments, dying on January 6, 1981.
