Part 2 - A ceiling as a problem: the path to Hann Trier

Newspaper report from the press cuttings of the Department of State Palaces and Gardens Berlin, 20 April 1968

The article’s headline – ‘What if Old Fritz [Frederick the Great] heard about this!’ – is obviously calculated to arouse in the readers a negative attitude towards abstract painting as mentioned in the subtitle. The ideas under consideration by the decision-makers and reported in the article – that Trier should be invited not just to submit a design but to execute the whole ceiling painting, and that the final decision should only made thereafter – were subsequently abandone

‘What is causing the head conservationist’s nausea is to be realized for all eternity in the Great Dining Hall.’
‘The painter Trier received the commission for a completed ceiling painting at a price of 40,000 Deutschmarks.’

Newspaper article from the press cuttings of the Department of State Palaces and Gardens Berlin, 18 September 1968

And indeed, Seeleke soon received information from a newspaper about an alleged sketch painting of Pesne’s ceiling from the time of its creation. The newspaper published the accompanying letter, signed by a certain Bodo von Feckendorff. 

‘I am a native of Breslau [Wrocław, Poland, until 1945 Prussian Silesia] and was able to save this oil sketch when fleeing from the Russians … My grandfather was valet de chambre of the art-loving Prince Louis, who, shortly before he [the Prince] died, presented it to him in gratitude for having looked after him so selflessly.’

Newspaper article from the press cuttings of the Department of State Palaces and Gardens Berlin, 26 September 1968

A short time later it came out that the sketch painting was a fake. It had been done by Helmut Börsch-Supan of the Palaces Department, who used his second home address to send the telegram under the bogus name von Feckendorff. He had completed the painting on an old canvas in less than three hours. According to this article, Kurt Seeleke was considering taking him to court. However, he ultimately refrained. 

‘The eighteenth-century occasional poem printed above possibly relates to the ceiling painting in the White Hall at Charlottenburg Palace. It was sent to us recently by one of our readers, who came across it when conducting research in the Hohenzollern family archive around 1935.’

‘In the opinion of the forger’s superiors, “there is no cause for any steps to be taken against Dr Helmut Börsch-Supan.” It is thought that the head conservationist should take the matter in good humour.’ 

Newspaper article from the press cuttings of the Department of State Palaces and Gardens Berlin, 13 October 1968

‘Seven days after the oil sketch had arrived, Seeleke discovered an adhesive label two square centimetres in size under a roughly two-centuries-old, worm-eaten scrap of paper on the back of the canvas. The inscription upon it: “From Antoine Pesne to his dear friend Seeleke”.’

The events surrounding the forged sketch and the poem require a comment from today's perspective: Kurt Seeleke was a deserving conservator who had come to Berlin from Braunschweig. His work was not made easy here, as politics favoured new buildings. Nevertheless, he succeeded, for example, in saving the baroque Kollegienhaus in Kreuzberg. Seeleke retired in 1969 at the age of 56.

Hann Trier, study for the ceiling painting in the White Hall, New Wing, Charlottenburg Palace, 1969, matt paint on paper, mounted on particle board, 151.7 x 327.6 cm

This overall design of Trier’s for the ceiling was the model for the monumental full-size sample painting that was affixed to the ceiling of the White Hall.

First page from one of the books put out for the visitors taking part in the opinion poll, January 1971 

The visitors were asked to enter their names and addresses in one of the books and to write down their choice from a selection of five possibilities: 
a) A white ceiling,
b) A ceiling in blue or with a painting of clouds,
c) A free figural variation,
d) As exact a replication of the original as possible, or 
e) A modern work of art.

Newspaper article from the press cuttings of the Department of State Palaces and Gardens Berlin, 27 November 1971

According to Senator Stein, the survey was intended to do no more than to ascertain the public’s general feeling. The result of the poll was not to determine the decision. In the evaluation, the opinions expressed were thus not all accorded the same importance. On the basis of the quality and detail of the entries, the assessors felt they could judge the ability of visitors to express a valid opinion – an assumption which was strongly criticized by the press. 

Commission for the execution of the ceiling painting in White Hall of Charlottenburg Palace, issued to Hann Trier by Werner Stein, Senator for Scholarship and Art, 21 July 1971 

On 21 July 1971 Senator Werner Stein officially commissioned Hann Trier to paint the ceiling in the White Hall. In so doing, Senator Stein explicitly instructed the artist to take into consideration the expert commission’s suggestions and the completion of the painting on the coving.

Berlin Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, White Hall, scaffold for the painting of the ceiling, 1972

Trier worked on a mobile scaffold. By way of preparation, to help him get his bearings up on the scaffold, he traced the outlines of his design onto transparent paper and then traced them onto the ceiling. In the first step of the painting process, he applied the areas of colour with brushes and then blurred them with a sponge. 

Hann Trier painting the ceiling of the White Hall in Charlottenburg Palace, 1972

Hann Trier wrote that for him the ten months of work represented a ‘golden marriage between eye and hand’. This time, he ‘gave the eye priority over the hand. After all, if one has a seeing eye, one can hardly can paint for decades without noticing what one has painted is gradually beginning to look back at one. Through the eyes it falls back into the hands from which it came, where it understands itself anew …’

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, White Hall, ceiling painting by Hann Trier, 1972, state in 2018

Hann Trier himself once compared the 120-square-metre completed ceiling painting with a battle. Specificially, he described the battle of Fehrbellin of 1675 during the war between Sweden and Brandenburg as rendered in Heinrich von Kleist’s play The Prince of Homburg or the Battle of Fehrbellin.

Trier described the grid- or rib-like structures as the ribbons of genii (protective spirits) which had got entangled in a strong wind.

When concluding his commentary on the ceiling painting, however, Trier makes one thing clear – thus putting a question mark against what he has just said: ‘A self-distancing from the figure, from what is represented, is also implied.’ What he is actually implying is the turning away from the figural, from the readily comprehensible, that is to say, the orientation that gives Hann Trier’s art its special identity. What is more, he was saying this in a time ‘which tends to assume that the more comprehensible art is, the better it is.’

Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, New Wing, White Hall, section from the ceiling painting by Hann Trier, eastern cartouche with inscription, state in 2018

In one of the cartouches Hann Trier inserted an inscription that is hardly perceptible from below. 

‘Martin Sperlich advised that this new heaven should be created and after seven years of contention, the other side also having been heard, Senator Stein ordered that it be painted.


Painted by Hann Trier with his own hands in ten months in 1972.'   


December 1972’