Georg Wilhelm Bode (1801-1881)

The history and landscape painter, gymnastics and drawing teacher Georg Wilhelm Bode, also known as "the old man from the castle" or "G. W.", was born in Hanau on May 15, 1801. He grew up in Steinau an der Straße, where his father Bernhard Tobias Bode, a former officer of the Electorate of Hesse, was the castle administrator. He attended the Academy of Drawing in Hanau from 1818 to 1822 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1825 to 1827, where he studied under Peter von Cornelius and the portrait history painter Clemens von Zimmermann. Prompted by the death of his parents, he returned to Hanau, probably for financial reasons. After a stay in Paris, where he is said to have studied the paintings of the Louvre, in particular the works of famous portraitists, and another visit to the Munich Academy, he came to Offenbach in 1830, where he wanted to work as a portrait painter. Another reason for his move to Offenbach was the offer of a position as a drawing teacher at the Progymnasium, which provided him with a steady income and the opportunity to marry. In mid-1830, he married Anna Maria Lückhardt, the daughter of the Hanau town clockmaker, who was born in Hanau on May 24, 1799 and died in Offenbach on March 13, 1870. He initially settled in the old André house in Kleiner Biergrund; in 1836 he was the first private resident to move into the second floor of the old Isenburg castle, which had previously housed a paper factory. In 1831, the first of three sons was born: the well-known history painter Leopold Bode, followed by Carl Bode in 1833 and Johannes Martin Bode in 1839.
In the winter of 1836/37, he is said to have been back in Paris, working on portrait commissions. Bode also worked in lithography, which he had already turned to in Paris - probably under Senefelder's personal direction. He was the first to set up a lithographic workshop in Offenbach, where all printing processes were used, and trained numerous students. His workshop, which was located in Isenburg Castle, produced landscapes, portraits, flower paintings and views of Offenbach, some of which were printed in four colors. One of his drawings after Raphael's "Sistine Madonna" is even said to have been sold to the United States of America.
Newspaper articles preserved in the city archives reveal differing assessments of his achievements. While some describe him as a "highly esteemed draughtsman and portraitist", others criticize the inadequate recognition of his person. Until his retirement in 1872, for example, he was only an assistant teacher - he is said to have been denied the promotion to principal teacher he had hoped for due to his Greater German sentiments. His commitment to the common good was also said to have been underappreciated. From 1854 to 1872, for example, he was fire department commander of the Offenbach volunteer fire department, which was founded in 1845. He had designed the model for a so-called tilting ladder, which was used for the first time in 1861. It was a "tragedy of fate that an artist of such outstanding talent and great skill, who excelled in portraiture in particular, had to spend his years (...) producing lithographic drawings, making designs for club flags and teaching Offenbach boys gymnastics and drawing". Again and again, the regret is expressed that Bode was "shackled by petty bourgeois circumstances", which had deprived him of "the last opportunity for his final development".
Only an exhibition organized in Offenbach in 1914 is said to have brought Bode the recognition he deserved. The art historian Paul Ferdinand Schmidt spoke at the time of "the discovery of the old Georg Wilhelm Bode, who turns out to be one of the most sensitive and sympathetic Nazarenes and deserves his place between Schwind and Steinle".
Bode also played an important role as a supporter of the gymnastics movement. In 1832, he was instrumental in the founding of the gymnastics club. He was even responsible for the introduction of gymnastics lessons in schools. When the gymnastics clubs were dissolved as politically suspect in 1847, he founded a private gymnastics school. He was also involved in the singing association founded in 1826. In the 48s, he was at the heart of the freedom movement. He was friends with the "father of gymnastics" Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, who visited him several times at Isenburg Castle. An anecdote has been preserved about the visit on July 2 or 3, 1848, which was recorded by one of Bode's granddaughters: The friends are said to have sat together in a bay window of the castle and had tea, debating heatedly and excitedly about the political situation - Jahn was a member of the National Assembly. During this conversation, Jahn is said to have seized a halberd in anger and hurled it through two open rooms against a door, causing the halberd to get stuck in the door.
Georg Wilhelm Bode died on 6 April 1881 in Offenbach and was buried "with gymnastic honors".

His work mainly comprises family portraits and portraits of important Offenbach personalities. Other works include "Roland slays the giant", "Knight Harald" (both are depictions based on Uhland's poems); "Walpurgisnacht", "Waldeinsamkeit", the youthful work "Ein Brand in Hanau", "Am Kuhborn" and "Der Traum des Kindes". In 1862/63, he painted 14 life-size figures of saints based on designs by his son Leopold, which were intended for the Catholic Church of the Germans in London.

Georg Wilhelm Bode is considered a Nazarene or German Romantic painter.