Ludwig Meidner, sketchbook, 1940/41
Ludwig Meidner, sketchbook, 1940/41
Here I have the sea and hills directly in front of my window, yet it is not as beautiful as my beloved Huyton, which almost became home for me.
letter from Ludwig Meidner to Hilde and Walter Rosenbaum dated November 10, 1940, Institut Mathildenhöhe, Städtische Kunstsammlung Darmstadt, at Stadtarchiv Darmstadt, ST 45 Meidner 1177
The isolation of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea predestined it for use to accommodate “enemy aliens,” and a number of camps had already been constructed there during the First World War. In 1940 in the coastal town of Ramsey in the north of the island around 30 hotels and boarding houses along the sea front were requisitioned and surrounded by a barbed wire fence to create Mooragh Internment Camp. The compound incorporated the nearby golf course, which served as a recreational area for the internees.
Ludwig Meidner arrived at Mooragh Camp in 1940 and remained there until November 1941, when he was transferred to Hutchinson Camp in the island capital of Douglas prior to his release in December the same year. Meidner had already received his release order at the beginning of 1941 but had asked to be allowed to continue living in the camp. In July 1941 he wrote, “I have now been interned for a whole year and would look into changing my situation were I not virtually petrified with fear of the world outside.”
Further reading:
Presler, Gerd/Riedel, Erik, Ludwig Meidner. Werkverzeichnis der Skizzenbücher / Catalogue Raisonné of His Sketchbooks, Munich 2013.
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