He was to remain a faithful member of its Veteran's Association for almost 35 years. Felix’s father, Philip Nussbaum, had proudly served his fatherland during World War I as a solider in the Osnabrueck Cavalry.
Theirs was a close-knit, financially comfortable, and patriotic German family, one that epitomized the phrase “Germans of Mosaic faith” - with nationality taking precedence over religion. Nussbaum was born in 1904 in Osnabrueck, Germany, to Philip and Rachel Nussbaum, the second son after his brother, Justus. Later, as a hunted exile, he returned yet again to reaffirm this identity. Through his artwork, we see a young man who began his artistic journey with an affirmation of his Jewish identity, before embarking on a path of exploration of his own artistic vision. The way in which Felix Nussbaum viewed himself as a Jew, a German, and an artist is fascinating. In the end, he was murdered by people who saw him only as an object of hatred - a Jew - rather than as an extraordinarily talented human being with a gift to bring beauty into the world. However, external factors like war, upheaval, and social change can rob an artist of the ability to freely pursue his inner calling, and cause him to use his art as a vehicle to record and attempt to contextualize the chaos enveloping him.įelix Nussbaum was such an artist: a German Jew caught in the relentless downward spiral of Nazi persecution, an artist who in the prime of his creative life had to focus on his own survival. Throughout his artistic life, an artist grows, learns his craft, explores, and matures in a very personal process. Creating art can be an exhilarating yet painful process for an artist as he grapples with his emotions, his vision, his message, and his limitations.
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