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| Self portrait during 'War Christmas' 1942 |
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A favorite snapshot, showing the artist
surviving and 'emerging' from the uniform. |
It comes as no surprise, when browsing old photo albums, that Fritz is never seen toting a gun or even proudly wearing his uniform. He was always an artist first, and as most artists, a total pacifist. War and especially bombs and combat were a most abhorrent thing to him. This is consistently reflected in the snapshots and paintings that remain from those 7 long, tumultous years spent in the army.
It isn't well known what his duties were, but he was involved in the production of the newspaper of his Division, doing graphics and reporting on happenings through his paintings. There is also some evidence of a planned publication of 48 of his paintings, that earned him a leave to travel to a publisher in Munich, towards the end of the war. With the chaos and loss of communications, however, it appears that this did not come to pass. There are a number of paintings in the archives, mostly watercolors, that were likely selections for this book.
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| Sketch of Welikije Luki, presumably the one done in the photo below. |
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| Fritz sketching the town of Welikije Luki, Belarus, 1942 |
