Persona

Stehwien, Fritz, 1914-2008. (artist)

Fritz Stehwien was born in Miltern, Germany, in 1914. At 16 he began an apprenticeship as a painter and sign painter, then worked as a church painter and restorer in central Germany. In 1937, at 23, he began classes in mural painting, drawing and painting at Hansische Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, Germany. From 1939-1946 he served as a soldier in France and Russia. Following the war he resumed his studies, taking advanced classes at the Kunstschule Burg Giebichenstein in Halle, and over the following several years, received numerous commissions and participated in art shows in Dresden, Berlin, and Halle. His artwork fell out of favour with the communist government of East Germany, and by 1952, no further commissions were forthcoming. Stehwein began working for the City Planning Bureau, rendering cityscapes from building plans. He escaped with his wife and their four children to West Germany in 1958, settling in Döffingen. In 1968 he and his family emigrated to Canada, settling in Saskatoon. He continues to exhibit his artwork, which can be found in numerous corporate and private collections throughout Canada and Europe. In 1991 he returned to a unified Germany to collect the artwork he had been forced to leave behind when he fled East Germany.Stehwein died in 2008.