Overbeck, Fred (own name Friedrich Theodor)

Graphic artist, Painter

born: 23.03.1897 in Bremen

died: 09.11.1972 in Wiesbaden

Fred Overbeck came from a family of merchants. He attended pre-school in Bremen from 1903 to 1905. The family later moved several times, including to Berlin.

As Overbeck was destined for a military career, he attended the Bensberg cadet academy in Bergisches Land from 1909. At Easter 1912, he transferred to the Lichterfelde cadet school in Berlin. In the fall of 1913, Overbeck fell ill with pneumonia and pleurisy and had to leave the cadet corps due to this illness and undergo long-term treatment and convalescence. He was already a self-taught artist.

After the outbreak of the First World War (opens in a new tab), Overbeck signed up as a volunteer, but was not accepted due to his state of health. It was not until March 1915 that he was able to join the Field Artillery Regiment No. 60 in Schwerin as a war volunteer. In the winter of 1915/16, Overbeck was transferred to the 2nd West Prussian Field Artillery Regiment No. 36 as a Fahnenjunker. During a short leave in Berlin, he passed his ensign's examination and was promoted to lieutenant in December 1916. In his regiment, Overbeck was deployed as a battery officer, battery commander, ordnance officer and deputy adjutant.

During the war, Overbeck suffered gas poisoning. He was also so badly injured in his left leg by a grenade shot that it was subsequently paralyzed. After being wounded, Overbeck spent the end of the war in a military hospital in Güstrow, from which he was discharged in 1919. During the war, Overbeck was awarded the Iron Cross I. and II. Class and the Bremen Hanseatic Cross.

Fred Overbeck initially remained in Mecklenburg after the war and recovered from his wound. Here he continued his private art studies, which he had begun during his time as a cadet in Berlin, first with lessons from an animal painter and then with the well-known painters Arthur Kampf and Heinrich Wilke.

In the years that followed, Overbeck worked as a freelance artist. After his marriage in 1922, he took up a position in the commercial sector. Overbeck subsequently worked in various fields. He worked as a crate manufacturer, general agent for oriental tobacco products and for an advertising agency. In 1928, he won first prize in a poster and logo competition organized by the city of Wiesbaden. This success led to him setting up his own business as a graphic designer. He had already been working as an industrial designer and commercial artist in Wiesbaden since the early 1920s and worked for the sparkling wine producers Burgeff & Co, Schonberger (Hochheim am Main) and the company Rietschel & Henneberg.

By the early 1930s, Overbeck had designed four posters on behalf of the city of Wiesbaden, which were used for tourist advertising. The central element of the posters was a logo designed by Overbeck, which was used until the 1960s: It shows a "W" with the Kurhaus gable and three wavy lines representing the healing waters of the spa town as well as the Rhine. Overbeck had lived in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg since the end of the 1920s. Together with his second wife Julie von Kleinschmit, Overbeck opened a studio and from then on worked mainly for the Henkell & Co sparkling wine company (opens in a new tab), for which he designed numerous advertising posters. Overbeck often worked together with his wife.

The numerous packaging, labels, posters etc. for Henkell were characterized by powerful, harmonious colours, drawing skills and creative wit.

Overbeck saw himself as part of a German cultural revolution propagated by the National Socialists and welcomed the "seizure of power". He joined the NSDAP in the spring of 1933. Between 1935 and 1937, he took on the role of block leader within the party.

Overbeck also combined his political and professional activities in the 1930s by taking on the role of head of propaganda at district level. In the Wiesbaden district propaganda leadership of the NSDAP, Overbeck was responsible for the main area of work: decoration. Decorating meant the decoration of buildings, rooms or streets that were used for National Socialist events.

Overbeck designed the street and square decorations for several major events, such as the Reichstag elections on May 1, 1936 or the harvest festival in the same year, for example for the Kleinfeldchen sports facility. Overbeck was also responsible for the "street and hall decorations" for the visit of the "old leadership corps of the NSDAP" led by Rudolf Hess to Wiesbaden on October 9, 1936.

After the start of the Second World War (opens in a new tab), Overbeck volunteered for military service in February 1940. Due to his war injuries from the First World War, he was deployed as a clerk at Deputy General Command XII in Wiesbaden. He was responsible for the prisoner of war system at the commander for prisoners of war in military district XII.

In this function, he worked closely with the civilian offices for the employment of prisoners of war. The city of Wiesbaden and companies that used prisoners of war as workers requested them via the employment office and not directly via the Wehrmacht. Overbeck's assignment took place at this interface between the POW camps and the allocation via the employment offices. During the war, Overbeck was awarded the War Merit Cross I. and II. Class with Swords for his efforts.

Fred Overbeck was seriously injured in a car accident shortly before the end of the Second World War. He lived to see the end of the war in a military hospital and was therefore not taken prisoner of war.

In his trial after the war, Overbeck tried to exonerate himself in a written statement. He claimed to have helped a Social Democrat. Overbeck also claimed to have helped another family, in which the mother was "fully Jewish", by protecting both sons from persecution and violence. The graphic artist also stated that he had seized Jewish art possessions and returned them. Overbeck did not provide names or evidence for any of these alleged actions.

Overbeck's trial was dropped due to the Christmas amnesty in 1947. In the post-war period, Overbeck continued to work as a freelance commercial artist, including for Henkell, Uhu and the engineering company Noris. Among other things, he created advertising posters for the International May Festival (opens in a new tab) for the state capital of Wiesbaden. Overbeck also increasingly turned to painting in the post-war period. Overbeck initially created late Impressionist flower and landscape paintings, then turned to an Expressionist language of color and form between 1947-60 and finally arrived at a style of painting that led to expressive, two-dimensional compositions by increasingly abandoning representational and color accuracy. Overbeck was of the opinion that abstraction was a way, but not a way out in painting. In December 1971, he showed a selection of his more recent works in an exhibition at the Hotel Rose (opens in a new tab).

Fred Overbeck died in Wiesbaden on November 9, 1972.

By resolution of the city council on September 14, 1978, a street in the south-east district was named after the graphic designer and artist Overbeck.
The historical commission appointed by the city council in 2020 to review traffic areas, buildings and facilities named after people in the state capital of Wiesbaden recommended renaming Oberbeckstraße because of Overbeck's membership in the NSDAP; he was also a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture and the NSKOV for professional reasons. As a block and propaganda leader, he was a functionary of the NSDAP and thus actively supported the National Socialist state. In addition, Overbeck effectively supported the Nazi regime through his work in the Wiesbaden district propaganda leadership and expressed his support for the Nazi movement. In his military service as head of the department for the deployment of prisoners of war at the commander for prisoners of war in military district XII, he took part in the deliberate harming of prisoners of war.

[This text was written by Gloria Bergner for the 2017 printed version of the Wiesbaden City Dictionary and revised and supplemented by Dr. Katherine Lukat in 2024].