About the Work
Between 1965 and 1967, working not on commission but of his own accord, Tübke produced 11 paintings, 15 watercolours, and some 65 drawings and studies on Nazi injustice. At the centre of the complex series “The Life Memories of Doctor of Law Schulze” is a fictitious judge with the common name Schulze. This figure represents the Nazi judicial officers who continued practising their professions after the war’s end in Western and Eastern Germany alike. The cycle was inspired particularly by the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials.
Thematically, this series—Tübke’s most important contemporary-historical work—was in line with the GDR ideology concerning Western Germany. Yet it also echoed the critical all-German remembrance climate. As an ‘allegory of injustice’ (Tübke), it applied equally to the circumstances in the GDR—and was officially condemned as a result.
In this spontaneous study, Tübke was contemplating the overall composition and individual elements of one of his “Schulze” paintings. We see the seated figure of the judge in front of the loosely drawn portico of a court building. Surrounding the latter are sketches of torture and executions, a knight on horseback, and two angels of justice swooping down from heaven. Notes on colour point to the artist’s deliberations regarding the palette.
