Maria Innocentia Hummel
Encyclopedia
Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, O.S.F., (May 21, 1909 - November 6, 1946) was a famous German
Franciscan
Sister and artist
. She is noted for the artwork which became the very popular Hummel figurines
.
in Bavaria
, Germany
, as Berta Hummel, one of the seven children of Adolf and Victoria Hummel, she was raised in a warm, loving and strongly devout family, living above her father's dry goods
store. Already as a child Berta showed creative talent, and developed a reputation in the village as the local artist. Yet she was a cheerful, active girl, who loved the outdoors and the winter sports so common in the Alps
. Her father encouraged her artistic talents and, at age 12, enrolled her in a boarding school of the Sisters of Loreto
in Simbach am Inn
, about 20 miles away. Berta continued to grow in her abilities, and after graduation in 1927 she enrolled in the prestigious Academy of Applied Arts in Munich
, where her talent and skills developed.
Hummel was still a devout Catholic and instead of the standard student housing, she chose to live in a Catholic residence run by Religious Sisters. While living there, she made friends with two members of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Siessen (Sießen) in Bad Saulgau
who were also studying at the Academy. The Congregation was a large one, focused on teaching and which gave great emphasis to the role of art in education. After Berta graduated in 1931 with top honors, she chose to follow a religious calling that she had felt for some time and applied to enter that Congregation, and entered in April 1931 as a postulant
. Berta made one final visit to her family home in late May, spending two weeks with them. On 22 August, she was admitted as a novice
and received the religious habit
of the Congregation and the name Maria Innocentia.
year, Hummel was assigned to teach art in a nearby school run by the convent. Though her days were busy teaching, Hummel spent her spare time painting pictures of children. The Sisters were impressed with her art and sent copies to Emil Funk Verlag, a publishing house in Munich which specialized in religious art, to which Hummel reluctantly agreed. The company decided to release copies of the works in postcard
form, which was very popular in the early 20th century. In 1934, it also published a collection of her drawings, titled Das Hummel-Buch, with poetic text by Margarete Seemann.
Soon afterward, Franz Goebel, the owner of a porcelain
company, was looking for a new line of artwork, and happened to see some of these postcards in a shop in Munich
. Sister Innocentia was agreeable with this and the convent granted him sole rights to make figurines based on Hummel's art. Interest in the figurines exploded after they were displayed in 1935 at the Leipzig Trade Fair
, a major international trade show. (A decade later, the figurines would began to enjoy great success in the United States when returning American soldiers brought them home.)
In 1937, two events in Hummel's life were to mark her future. On 30 August, she made her final profession
as a permanent member of the Congregation. Also, she had released a painting titled "The Volunteers", which drew the enduring hatred of Adolf Hitler
, who attacked the art, denouncing the depiction of German children with “hydrocephalic heads”. Although the Nazi authorities allowed Hummel to work, they banned the distribution of her art in Germany. . One Nazi magazine, the SA Man (issue of 23 March 1937), wrote of her work: "There is no place in the ranks of German artists for the likes of her. No, the 'beloved Fatherland' cannot remain calm when Germany's youth are portrayed as brainless sissies".
Significantly, Hummel also drew sketches that contained the Star of David
, a bold but dangerous theme in those times. She portrayed angels in gowns covered with slightly skewed six-pointed stars. She also designed a series of Old
and New Testament
symbols for the convent chapel in 1938-39. She symbolized the juncture of the two Testaments by designing a cross with a menorah
before it.
broke out, the Sisters were not spared persecution. In 1940, the Nazi government closed all religious schools, including those of Siessen. Later that year, it seized the convent itself, forcing most of the community to leave. Out of a community of some 250 Sisters, the remaining 40 Sisters who were allowed to remain were confined to one small section of the convent, living there without heat and without any means to support themselves. Hummel returned to her family at this time, but within three months so missed community life that she asked to be allowed to return. The Superior
, Mother Augustine, allowed her to do so.
Hummel was given a small cell which served as both as her sleeping quarters and her studio. The Nazis took half of the money generated by her work, but the remaining funds were the main source of income of the Sisters there. Nevertheless, food was scarce and the cold was intense. Mother Augustine later wrote of that period, "What we suffered was indescribable". The conflict caused by these circumstances affected Hummel's constitution. Her personal suffering during this period gave rise to the most personal work of her convent years: The Stations of the Cross
, a series work deeply expressive of her artistic individuality.
Hummel was diagnosed with tuberculosis
in 1944 and sent to a sanatarium in Isny im Allgäu
. She returned to the convent after five months, just before the region was liberated by the Free French Forces
. She did not recover, however, and finally died at noon on 6 November 1946, aged 37. She was buried in the convent cemetery.
Sister Innocentia's sister, Centa Hummel, established the Berta Hummel Museum in the family home in Massing. Centa died September 2011, just before her 100th birthday, and the management of the museum passed to her son.
One of the children depicted in her work, Sieglinde Schoen, established The Hummel Museum in New Braunfels, Texas
, which displayed about 280 of Hummel's original pieces. These pieces had been stored in Switzerland by a private collector during the War. It is not clear as of 2011 if the Museum is still in operation.
The first Mayor of Rosemont, Illinois
, Donald E. Stephens, amassed one of the largest collections of figurines in the world. Upon his death, he bequeathed the entire collection to the City of Rosemont. To house it, the city built the Donald E. Stephens Museum of Hummels, which opened March 13, 2011.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Franciscan
Third Order of St. Francis
The Third Order of St. Francis is a third order within the Franciscan movement of the Roman Catholic Church. It includes both congregations of vowed men and women and fraternities of men and women living standard lives in the world, usually married...
Sister and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. She is noted for the artwork which became the very popular Hummel figurines
Hummel figurines
Hummel figurines are a series of porcelain figurines based on the drawings of Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, O.S.F.-History:...
.
Early life
Born in MassingMassing
Massing is a municipality in the district of Rottal-Inn in Bavaria in Germany....
in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, as Berta Hummel, one of the seven children of Adolf and Victoria Hummel, she was raised in a warm, loving and strongly devout family, living above her father's dry goods
Dry goods
Dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries. In U.S. retailing, a dry goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores, though "dry goods" as a term for textiles has been dated back to 1742 in England or...
store. Already as a child Berta showed creative talent, and developed a reputation in the village as the local artist. Yet she was a cheerful, active girl, who loved the outdoors and the winter sports so common in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
. Her father encouraged her artistic talents and, at age 12, enrolled her in a boarding school of the Sisters of Loreto
Sisters of Loreto
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, more commonly known as the Loreto Sisters , is a women's Catholic religious order founded by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609 at Saint-Omer in northern France...
in Simbach am Inn
Simbach am Inn
Simbach am Inn is a town on the Inn in the Rottal-Inn district of Bavaria, Germany. The Austrian city Braunau am Inn lies on the opposite side of the river from Simbach.-History:Simbach was one of the first places where electricity was used...
, about 20 miles away. Berta continued to grow in her abilities, and after graduation in 1927 she enrolled in the prestigious Academy of Applied Arts in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where her talent and skills developed.
Hummel was still a devout Catholic and instead of the standard student housing, she chose to live in a Catholic residence run by Religious Sisters. While living there, she made friends with two members of the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Siessen (Sießen) in Bad Saulgau
Bad Saulgau
Bad Saulgau is a town in the district of Sigmaringen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 23 km east of Sigmaringen, and 27 km north of Ravensburg between the Danube and Lake Constance....
who were also studying at the Academy. The Congregation was a large one, focused on teaching and which gave great emphasis to the role of art in education. After Berta graduated in 1931 with top honors, she chose to follow a religious calling that she had felt for some time and applied to enter that Congregation, and entered in April 1931 as a postulant
Postulant
A postulant was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a monastery or a convent, both before actual admission and for the length of time preceding their admission into the novitiate...
. Berta made one final visit to her family home in late May, spending two weeks with them. On 22 August, she was admitted as a novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
and received the religious habit
Religious habit
A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anachoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform...
of the Congregation and the name Maria Innocentia.
Life in the convent and as an artist
After completing her novitiateNovitiate
Novitiate, alt. noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a novice monastic or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether they are called to the religious life....
year, Hummel was assigned to teach art in a nearby school run by the convent. Though her days were busy teaching, Hummel spent her spare time painting pictures of children. The Sisters were impressed with her art and sent copies to Emil Funk Verlag, a publishing house in Munich which specialized in religious art, to which Hummel reluctantly agreed. The company decided to release copies of the works in postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
form, which was very popular in the early 20th century. In 1934, it also published a collection of her drawings, titled Das Hummel-Buch, with poetic text by Margarete Seemann.
Soon afterward, Franz Goebel, the owner of a porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
company, was looking for a new line of artwork, and happened to see some of these postcards in a shop in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. Sister Innocentia was agreeable with this and the convent granted him sole rights to make figurines based on Hummel's art. Interest in the figurines exploded after they were displayed in 1935 at the Leipzig Trade Fair
Leipzig Trade Fair
The Leipzig Trade Fair was a major fair for trade across Central Europe for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, its location happened to lie within the borders of East Germany, whereupon it became one of the most important trade fairs of Comecon and was traditionally a meeting place...
, a major international trade show. (A decade later, the figurines would began to enjoy great success in the United States when returning American soldiers brought them home.)
In 1937, two events in Hummel's life were to mark her future. On 30 August, she made her final profession
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
as a permanent member of the Congregation. Also, she had released a painting titled "The Volunteers", which drew the enduring hatred of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, who attacked the art, denouncing the depiction of German children with “hydrocephalic heads”. Although the Nazi authorities allowed Hummel to work, they banned the distribution of her art in Germany. . One Nazi magazine, the SA Man (issue of 23 March 1937), wrote of her work: "There is no place in the ranks of German artists for the likes of her. No, the 'beloved Fatherland' cannot remain calm when Germany's youth are portrayed as brainless sissies".
Significantly, Hummel also drew sketches that contained the Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
, a bold but dangerous theme in those times. She portrayed angels in gowns covered with slightly skewed six-pointed stars. She also designed a series of Old
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
symbols for the convent chapel in 1938-39. She symbolized the juncture of the two Testaments by designing a cross with a menorah
Menorah
The menorah is described in the Bible as the seven-branched ancient lampstand made of gold and used in the portable sanctuary set up by Moses in the wilderness and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Fresh olive oil of the purest quality was burned daily to light its lamps...
before it.
Wartime suffering and death
When World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out, the Sisters were not spared persecution. In 1940, the Nazi government closed all religious schools, including those of Siessen. Later that year, it seized the convent itself, forcing most of the community to leave. Out of a community of some 250 Sisters, the remaining 40 Sisters who were allowed to remain were confined to one small section of the convent, living there without heat and without any means to support themselves. Hummel returned to her family at this time, but within three months so missed community life that she asked to be allowed to return. The Superior
Superior (hierarchy)
In a hierarchy or tree structure of any kind, a superior is an individual or position at a higher level in the hierarchy than another , and thus closer to the apex. It is often used in business terminology to refer to people who are supervisors and in the military to people who are higher in the...
, Mother Augustine, allowed her to do so.
Hummel was given a small cell which served as both as her sleeping quarters and her studio. The Nazis took half of the money generated by her work, but the remaining funds were the main source of income of the Sisters there. Nevertheless, food was scarce and the cold was intense. Mother Augustine later wrote of that period, "What we suffered was indescribable". The conflict caused by these circumstances affected Hummel's constitution. Her personal suffering during this period gave rise to the most personal work of her convent years: The Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross
Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St...
, a series work deeply expressive of her artistic individuality.
Hummel was diagnosed with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in 1944 and sent to a sanatarium in Isny im Allgäu
Isny im Allgäu
Isny im Allgäu is a town in south-eastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is part of the district of Ravensburg, in the western, Württembergish part of the Allgäu region. For nearly 1000 years, Isny was an important town within the Holy Roman Empire...
. She returned to the convent after five months, just before the region was liberated by the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
. She did not recover, however, and finally died at noon on 6 November 1946, aged 37. She was buried in the convent cemetery.
Legacy
Goebel, his team of artists, and a board of Sisters of the convent carried on her legacy through the figurines, all of which are based on her artwork. Even though many of the newer ones are dressed to look more contemporary, they are still popular and well-known all over the world. Despite this, Goebel Germany discontinued creating the figures as of October 31, 2008.Sister Innocentia's sister, Centa Hummel, established the Berta Hummel Museum in the family home in Massing. Centa died September 2011, just before her 100th birthday, and the management of the museum passed to her son.
One of the children depicted in her work, Sieglinde Schoen, established The Hummel Museum in New Braunfels, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, which displayed about 280 of Hummel's original pieces. These pieces had been stored in Switzerland by a private collector during the War. It is not clear as of 2011 if the Museum is still in operation.
The first Mayor of Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States located immediately northwest of Chicago. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that...
, Donald E. Stephens, amassed one of the largest collections of figurines in the world. Upon his death, he bequeathed the entire collection to the City of Rosemont. To house it, the city built the Donald E. Stephens Museum of Hummels, which opened March 13, 2011.
External links
- The Berta Hummel Museum http://www.hummelmuseum.de
- M.I. Hummel Club "About M.I. Hummel" https://www.shophummel.com/about_hummel
- Hummel:Background, History and Features, WorldCollectorsnet.com http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/hummel/index.html