Life Events

1898 Carl Strüwe is born in Bielefeld on December 2, the first of Wilhelmine and Carl Strüwe’s five sons.

1913 Lithography apprenticeship at E. Gundlach AG, Bielefeld.

1917 Journeyman examination. Continues to work as a lithographer until he is drafted into the army on June 18.

1919 Discharged from the military. Returns to Gundlach. Resumes the studies he began during his apprenticeship at the »School of arts and crafts«, Bielefeld.

1923 Marries Hedwig Strüwe, née Haase. Annual journeys through Europe and North Africa.

1924 Begins work on the »Hohenstaufens in Italy«.

1926 First microphotograph, »White Floating above Gray«; begins work on »Microcosmic Forms«.

1939 Drafted into the military.

1940 Discharged from the army. Commissioned to produce a photographic piece for »The armed forces and schools«.

1945 Home and studio destroyed by bombs on February 24. Large groups of works are lost.

1947 First solo show: »Microcosmic Forms« in Hamburg, Lübeck, and Stuttgart.

1948 First solo show in Bielefeld: »Photographs and Prints«, after the destruction in the war of the Städtisches Kunsthaus in the Rudolf Oetker Hall.

1949 First solo show in the United States: »Microphotographs« at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, and at four other locations on the East Coast.

1950 »Microcosmic Forms« is shown at the first Photo-Kino-Ausstellung Cologne.

1951 Second exhibition of microphotographs in the science department at the renamed photokina Bilderschau in Cologne. Otto Steinert invites him to participate in the exhibition »subjective photography, international exhibition of modern photography« in Saarbrücken. Is invited to become a member of the German photographic society.

1955 Publication of »Microcosmic Forms« in book form, with texts by the artist.

1956 Exhibition titled »microcosm: forms of nature« at the Städtisches Kunsthaus, Bielefeld.

1957 Begins collaboration with Monkmeyer Press Inc., in New York.

1963 Retires from Gundlach.

1982 Exhibition titled »Carl Strüwe retrospective: the photographic work« at the Waldhof cultural history museum Bielefeld. 426 photographs from all groups of works are presented to the city as the basis for a photography collection at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld.

1986 Strüwe receives the cultural prize from the cityof Bielefeld. Publication of his book, »The Hohenstaufen in Italy: pictures and words« with an essay by the artist.

1988 Strüwe dies in Bielefeld on January 7.