Lotte Reimers
Lotte Reimers, born 1932 in Hamburg, Germany, has made a tremendous contribution to the world of ceramic arts, not only by means of her own creations, but through a lifelong commitment to promoting public awareness of ceramics as art. Her passion was ignited in 1951 when she met Jakob Wilhelm Hinder, who was touring Germany with his exhibition, "Moderne Keramik." Reimers was 19 when Hinder arrived in the medieval town of Bad Gandersheim where she lived. Fueled by fascination with the pottery she saw, she embarked on her lifelong mission. She became an assistant to Hinder and traveled with him and his exhibition from city to city until 1961.
After ten years on the road, she developed a keen eye and a profound knowledge of ceramics. In 1961 with the impressive body of works she and Hinder had assembled, they founded the "Museum für moderne Keramik" in Deidesheim. With limited funds, but abundant enthusiasm and dedication, they worked on transforming an old wine storeroom into the first museum devoted exclusively to modern German ceramics, later incorporating works of international ceramists.
In 1965, in the midst of preparation for the museum's opening, Reimers driven by pure passion, found time in her schedule to start a career of her own as a ceramic artist. Her lack of traditional training, allowed her intuition to be her guide in forming her distinctive ceramic creations. Her technique represented a return to the origins of pottery making. She built all vessels by hand and created her glazes from natural raw materials found in her immediate environment. Hinder compared her approach to that "of one of the first human beings.. whose spirit and intellect must devise everything, whose eyes must discover everything and whose hands must make everything. Whom only Nature provides with the raw materials which (this person) can only work up and work out empirically"
The museum opened in 1971. Hinder spent years negotiating with the state of Rhineland-Palatinate on the future of the museum, but he had not come to a successful conclusion at the time of his death in 1976 and the museum closed. With the support of the city of Deidesheim, ceramists and ceramics enthusiasts alike, Reimers reopened the museum at a different address on Stadtmauergasse in 1977. The collection was acquired by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1993 and from that point on has been known as the Hinder/Reimers Collection.
In 1996 she established the Lotte Reimers Foundation for the Advancement of Ceramic Art, with the mission "to promote the ceramic arts through research, publishing, museums, galleries, and other work." Reimers has received worldwide acclamation for her museum leadership as well as her own extraordinary artistic achievements. She is still the director of the Hinder/Reimers Collection today.