Merz oil

1937

Merz pictures in the ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition

That same year his Merz pictures are included in the Nazi-organised ‘Degenerate Art’ exhibition in Munich, making his return impossible.

2 January 1937

Flees Germany for Norway

Wanted by the Gestapo for an ‘interview’, he leaves for Norway to join his son Ernst, who had left Germany on 26 December 1936; his wife Helma stays in Hanover to manage their four properties.

2 June 1939

Last meeting with his wife Helma

At a joint celebration in Oslo of his mother Henriette’s 80th birthday and his son Ernst’s engagement, Kurt and Helma meet for the last time; until the outbreak of war Helma had visited him in Norway for a few months each year.

8 – 18 June 1940

Flees from Norway to Scotland

After the Nazi invasion he is interned, as a German citizen, by the Norwegian authorities at the Vågan Folk High School in Kabelvåg in the Lofoten Islands; after his release he flees with his son and daughter-in-law to Leith on the Norwegian patrol vessel ‘Fridtjof Nansen’, between 8 and 18 June 1940.

17 July 1940

Arrives at Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man

Officially an enemy alien, he is moved between various camps in Scotland and England and on 17 July 1940 arrives at Hutchinson Camp in Douglas; by the end of the month it holds some 1,205 internees, almost all German or Austrian, and it is soon known as ‘the artists’ camp’.

1941–1945

Mixes with Gabo, Moholy-Nagy and Nicholson in London

He makes contact with a range of artists in London, including Naum Gabo, László Moholy-Nagy and Ben Nicholson, and exhibits in a number of the city’s galleries, but with little success.