Third Reich Military Art: HANS LISKA

Liska's war paintings are striking. They catch the attention even of someone totally ignorant about art .

LIFE SKETCH OF HANS LISKA

Liska wanted as a boy to be a draftsman, but first he attended trade school and then worked as an office boy. Besides, he played piano in a dance school. There, at a big event, he replaced a failed musician and was hired by the popular singing group. Now, he was earning more than before, and he began to realize his old dream.

Liska attended the Vienna School of Applied Arts at Alfred Roller , where he was student of Berthold Löffler. He then worked as a commercial artist in Switzerland. He then attended the School of Applied Arts in Munich , where he was a pupil of Emil Praetorius and Walther Teutsch. From 1933 to 1944 he served as apprentice for the cartoonists Berliner Zeitung Illustrirte newspaper and propaganda sheet Signal.  Liska was promoted by the Ullstein company. In 1933, he attended the United School of Fine and Applied Arts as a student under Ferdinand Spiegel . In 1939, he was drafted as a soldier and an artist in a propaganda unit and special squadron. His drawings of the various war fronts appeared in many newspapers, even in neutral countries. Two of his sketch-books from the years 1942 (Junkers) and 1944 (Hans Liska) are now a rarity.

After the war Hans Liska stayed at Schesslitz near Bamberg in Germany, married in 1948 and resumed his drawing for the magazines Quick and Hörzu . He worked for many years in the advertising creating drawings for the automotive industry, Daimler-Benz, Cologne Ford and Mühlens were his clients. 

Hans Liska had always been an avid lover of Mozart operas, and in 1982, came  his book "Magic of the Stage". On 26 December 1983 Hans Liska suffered a heart attack, he died shortly afterwards.

In an autobiography in the picture book Picturesque Kulmbach. Liska declared himself as an admirer of Oskar Kokoschka , Pablo Picasso and Max Ernst .

Below are some of Liska's drawings depicting the Second World War.....

The German "Katyusha", Nebelwerfer in action

German soldiers on a railway train fire at the enemy. Partisans?

Removing mines in Sevastapol. 

Each white stripe on the barrel 88-mm cannon, the "Tiger" - the destroyed enemy tank

Morser heavy gun fires. In the foreground, radio operators at work (apparently talking to artillery fire spotters)

A Panzer 4 and German Grenadiers attack

"Attack"

Supply vessels

Dieppe beachhead, 1942. The strangest British operation during all of World - an attempt to land troops and capture the French port of Dieppe, launched August 19, 1942.

Fighting in the woods

SdKfz 250 armored personnel carriers in the attack

Ju-52 transports - "Aunt Jumo," as the Germans called them

JU-87. Stuka Dive Bombers

German planes over Athens

"Mountain Arrow"

Related
German Military Paintings During WW2

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MORE HANS LISKA PAINTINGS