Wend von Kalnein

Background

Wend Kalnein was born on May 24, 1914 in Ludwigslust, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, in the family of Erhard and Ema (Reichel) von Kalnein. He grew up in Austria.

Education

Wend attended University of Grenoble in 1932, and University of Heidelberg in 1933. In 1955 he received Doctor of Philosophy at University of Bonn.

Career

The prisoner of war he spent in Soviet Georgia in the Caucasus, where he was - mainly thanks to his Russian knowledge - employed in the administration. The prisoners built the steel plant in Rustavi in unspeakable conditions together with Soviet forced laborerson. Von Kalnein had to interpret in 1949 in the investigation against German prisoners for "war crimes", which were accompanied by ill-treatment and extortion.

Von Kalnein wrote his camp experience in the Caucasus immediately after his release to Austria in 1950. They were the basis for his "Georgian Journal", which was published in 2002 by the author himself.

From 1957 he was director of the Zähringer Museum in Baden-Baden, then curator at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel in 1964. Until retirement in 1979 he held the position of Director of Kalnein of Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf. In 1979 he still received an honorary professorship for art history at the University of Salzburg.

Achievements

• Wend von Kalnein is famous as the author, with Michael Levey, of the respected work "Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France."

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France 1973
  • SALEM; PAST AND PRESENT -- ABC 1958
  • Georgisches Tagebuch 2003
  • Das Kurfurstliche Schloss Clemensruhe in Poppeldorf, Ein Beitrag zu den Deutsch-Franzosischen Beziehungen im 18. Jahrhundert. 1956

Membership

• Art Historians Association of Austria

• Corps Borussia Bonn

  1934

Interests

• Languages, history, archaeology

Connections

Wend married Livia von Thielmann in 1959. The marriage produced the three children, Heinrich von Kalnein, Albrecht von Kalnein and Alexandra von Kalnein.

Father:

Erhard von Kalnein

Mother:

Ema (Reichel) von Kalnein

Spouse:

Livia von Thielmann

Son:

Heinrich von Kalnein

Son:

Albrecht von Kalnein

Son:

Alexandra von Kalnein

Brother:

Graf Eberhard Leopold Karl Werner Wilhelm von der Recke von Volmerstein

Brother:

Graf Gerwin Georg Erich Leopold von der Recke von Volmerstein