Bedeutender Ehrenschild aus dem Besitz Reichsmarschall Hermann Görings, gefertigt von Professor Herbert Zeitner, Berlin.
Heavy silver-gilt ceremonial hunting plaque with a hand-chased frieze on finely grained background depicting native game animals: stags, deer, buffalo, European bison, wild boar, and ibex against a forested background. Below, an inscribed band reading:
"THIS IS THE HUNTER'S SHIELD OF HONOR - THAT HE PROTECTS AND PRESERVES HIS GAME - HUNTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH HUNTING CUSTOMS - HONORS THE CREATOR IN HIS CREATION"
The line ending in the form of a sun wheel decorated with oak leaves. At the upper edge, a coat of arms bearing Hermann Göring's personal heraldic arms.
At the upper edge, maker's mark "Zeitner" and silver hallmark "800".
Diameter: 49 cm. Weight:
Undoubtedly, this artistically significant honorary plaque is an object associated with Hermann Göring's position as Reichsjägermeister (Reich Master of the Hunt).
Professor Zeitner was among Göring's preferred artists. For this reason, he also entrusted him with the direction of the Deutsche Goldschmiedewerkstätten Berlin (German Goldsmith Workshops Berlin), which had emerged from the former Prussian court jewelers Gebrüder Friedländer.
Significant object from the estate of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, crafted by one of the most important representatives of German silversmithing art of the 20th century, Professor Zeitner.
Curt Hermann Herbert Zeitner (* June 12, 1900 in Coburg; † October 14, 1988 in Lüneburg) was a German gold and silversmith.
He created vases, pitchers, chalices, bowls, crosses, tableware, the entire range of jewelry, as well as works for cities and public institutions. For his work, Herbert Zeitner was honored with, among others, the Lower Saxony State Prize for Creative Craftsmanship (1966), the Bavarian State Prize (1974), and the Lüneburg Prize (1981). The gold and silversmith works that Zeitner produced between 1918 and 1933 are characterized by such diverse stylistic movements as Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Bauhaus, while his later work of the 1960s and 1970s is marked by increasing abstraction.
Education and Professional Activity
Herbert Zeitner completed his training from 1914 to 1921 as a scholarship recipient at the State Drawing Academy in Hanau, which at that time was directed by Hugo Leven. His teachers included Reinhold Ewald. In 1924, Zeitner passed his master craftsman examination as a goldsmith in Hanau. That same year, he was appointed by the architect, designer, and graphic artist Bruno Paul as a teacher for artistic metalwork at the United State Schools for Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Among the gold and silversmith works that Zeitner produced in the 1920s is a long necklace of coral and porcelain worn by film actress Brigitte Helm in Fritz Lang's silent film classic “Metropolis.” In 1930, Zeitner became a member of the German Society for Goldsmith Art in Berlin.
Between 1933 and 1945, Zeitner also produced jewelry in Berlin for representatives of National Socialism; in 1935 he was appointed associate professor and in 1939 became director of a master studio for goldsmiths at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. After 1945, Zeitner distanced himself from National Socialism, but it is undisputed that between 1933 and 1945 he profited from his work for the rulers of the NS regime.
After the war's end in 1945, Zeitner left Berlin on a houseboat and settled in Lüneburg. In the first years after the war, he worked on the houseboat; from 1954 to 1959, he operated a workshop with journeymen as a master goldsmith in the old department store in Lüneburg. In 1955, Zeitner became chairman of the Lüneburger Heide Crafts Working Group in the Lower Saxony Crafts Association. Among the gold and silversmith works that Zeitner produced in the 1960s is the chain of office of the Lüneburg Lord Mayor, created in 1966. In 1969, he created the Silver Mask honorary award for the Hamburg Volksbühne.
In the summer of 2010, two exhibitions at the German Goldsmith House in Hanau and at the Chamber of Crafts Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Stade in Lüneburg commemorated Herbert Zeitner's life work.
Awards
1932 4th Prize in the competition "The Silver Beaker" of the German Society for Goldsmith Art
1937 Award at the Paris World's Fair
1943 Bestowal of the Golden Honorary Ring of the Society for Goldsmith Art
1952 Prize for a sports honorary gift (Olympic medal) at the Olympics in Helsinki
1954 Silver Medal of the X. Triennale, Milan for brooches (including moon brooch)
1958 Honorary Certificate of the World's Fair in Brussels
1962 3rd Prize in the competition "The Silver Mask" of the Society for Goldsmith Art
1966 Lower Saxony State Prize for Creative Craftsmanship[2]
1974 Bavarian State Prize
1975 Honorary Master Certificate for the Goldsmith Trade from the Lüneburg Chamber of Crafts
1976 Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Lower Saxony Order of Merit
1981 Bestowal of the Lüneburg Prize (Bronze Statuette) in the Princes' Hall of Lüneburg Town Hall
Zeitner's Works in Public Collections (Selection):
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Museum für Angewandte Kunst Köln
Museum für das Fürstentum Lüneburg
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum München
Neue Sammlung – Pinakothek der Moderne München
Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim
St.-Marien-Kirche in Lüneburg: Baptismal font mount with eight angels
Literature (Selection):
AMATE – Der Goldschmied Herbert Zeitner. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 2010, ISBN 978-3-86530-127-7.
Karl H. Bröhan (ed.): Kunst vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889 - 1939). Volume 4: Metallkunst: Silber, Kupfer, Messing, Zinn. Bröhan-Museum, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-9801525-3-7, p. 580f.
Anna Beatriz Chadour, Andreas Freisfeld (ed.): SchmuckStücke. Der Impuls der Moderne in Europa Klinkhardt und Biermann, München 1991, ISBN 3-7814-0294-0, p. 70, 73.
Hermann Schadt: Goldschmiedekunst. 5000 Jahre Schmuck und Gerät. Arnold, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-925369-44-9, p. 190ff.
Christianne Weber-Stöber: Schmuck. DuMont-Literatur-und-Kunst-Verlag, Köln 2004, ISBN 3-8321-7613-6, (DuMont-Taschenbücher 543 DuMont-Schnellkurs), p. 106