Ludwig Dettmann (1865-1944), who was appointed as the new director in 1900, also came from Berlin, where he was one of the founders of the then still controversial secession, the association of modern, impressionist painters. He reformed the teaching system and opened the academy more to the public. Together with the graphic artist Heinrich Wolff (1875-1940) he aroused new interest in art in the whole province. The beginnings of the artist colony Nida on the nearby Curonian Spit also benefitted from this.
After 1918 new styles prevailed at the academy – expressionism in 1920 with the appointment of Arthur Degner (1887-1972) and New Objectivity as early as 1925 with the appointment of Fritz Burmann (1892-1945). The landscape painter Alfred Partikel (1888-1945) and the teacher for figurative painting Eduard Bischoff (1890-1974) influenced the last phase of the academy development around 1930. The academy tradition was not continued after 1945 in today’s Kalingrad (former Königsberg).
Illustration:
Eduard Bischoff as a teacher at the art academy in Königsberg, photo, 1942.