Hans Trimborn

During World War I, he served as a field surgeon, set poems by Stefan George to music, and devoted himself intensively to music. After the war, he abandoned his medical studies, married pianist Marta Trapp in 1919, and settled on Norderney, where he became known as a pianist, composer, and silent film accompanist.

Trimborn maintained close ties with the Worpswede artists’ colony, particularly with the sculptor Bernhard Hoetger. In Hoetger’s studio, he became acquainted with the works of Paula Modersohn-Becker, which had a profound influence on him. His art from this period depicts North German landscapes, symbolic portraits, and religious motifs. In 1924, he and Hoetger founded the “Kaffee Worpswede” on Norderney, which served as a cultural meeting place. At the same time, he became involved in the free economy movement and initiated the alternative WÄRA currency project with Dr. Anton Nordwall.

As a staunch pacifist, Trimborn processed the horrors of war in haunting paintings and musical works such as “Voices from the Mass Grave.” Despite his stance, he was drafted into the Volkssturm in 1945. After his divorce in 1948, he married organist Maria Immer in 1950, with whom he had a son. In Arle and later in Norden, he created colorful, light-filled paintings.

In the 1940s, he intensively studied the works of Max Beckmann, Picasso, Matisse, and once again Modersohn-Becker. He participated in competitions in the field of applied art. Trimborn created murals for public buildings, including the ceiling of the Marienhöhe café on Norderney (before the war and again in 1947) and murals for the Kreissparkasse Norden and schools in Aurich and Norden.

In 1963, he was granted citizenship of the East Frisian region. In his final years, music once again became the focus of his work. Hans Trimborn died on October 10, 1979, in Norden at the age of 88.