SCHRÖDER-SONNENSTERN, FRIEDRICH

Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern (September 11, 1892 Kaukehmen Russia – May 10, 1982 Berlin, Germany) was one of the most important representatives of Art Brut and Outsider Art.

Friedrich Schröder was already at an early age in educational institutions and asylums, which finally led to his incapacitation.

In 1919 he fled to Berlin, where he was concerned with occultism, divination, and curative magnetism.

In 1928 he had given himself the name Sonnenstern.

Then he was assign to the healing institute Neustadt in Schleswig-Holstein where he met the artist Hans Ralfs, who inspired him to draw the first pictures, but it was not until 1942, following spells in prison and a labour camp during World War II that his career as an artist really started.

At the Surrealist exposition in Paris in 1959 he was celebrated as one of the most impressive artists of the 20th century.