Manfred Wedemeyer wrote the following in his book, "Codgers, Artists, and Connoisseurs –
The Hidden Side of Sylt" (Pomp & Sobkowiak, Essen 1986, p. 118)
Franz Korwan: One of Four Jews Living on Sylt
"The Jewish part of the population of Sylt was always small. The 7,521 inhabitants in 1933
included only three Jews, who lived in the town of Westerland, plus one more who lived in
Keitum. Their number had not changed since 1905; only these few Jews made their home on the
island. Nevertheless, once Westerland was discovered as a seaside resort, Jewish influence in
international tastes for seaside resorts of the Wilhelmine era played no small role. For numerous
Jews were to be counted among the guests of this summer resort, as can be gathered from the
resort lists, and a number of these opened seasonal businesses in Westerland.
Already before 1900, the Jewish painter Franz Korwan-Katzenstein (born in 1865 in Heinebach
near Kassel) had opened a studio on Strandstrasse (Beach Street) of the island metropolis. He was
a student of Eugen Dücker at the Düsseldorf Academy and had attended Eugen Bracht's master
class at the Berlin Academy. On Sylt he was often together with Eugen Dücker before settling
permanently on the island. His Westerland studio was visited by prominent resort guests, including
Heinrich von Stephan, the organizer of the German postal system. In 1896 the General Postmaster
had posed in Korwan's studio as a model for the production of a bust by the sculptor, Hugo
Berwald, of Berlin. After Stephan's death, a committee was formed in Westerland to make
preparations for a memorial for the deceased, and Franz Korwan was one of its members. For
some time he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Steamship Navigation Company
of Sylt. As a member of the town council he participated actively in the local politics of the
Westerland community. In Berlin he negotiated successfully with the Prussian Ministry of the
Interior for Westerland to be chartered as a town in 1905.
Two paintings by Korwan-Katzenstein are in the possession of the Federal Mail Museum in
Frankfurt am Main, including the oil painting, "Transporting the Mail Across the Ice to Sylt 1892."
In 1908 the artist restored the interior spaces of the Old Friesian House in Keitum, and in 1913 he
painted the Church of St. Severin in Keitum. In the 1920s Korwan worked in a studio in Keitum
in the house of the Jewish family of Julius Saenger, who was buried according to Jewish ritual in
Keitum in 1929. A Japanese stone lantern decorates the grave of this man, who was the co-owner
of an export business in Hamburg that still exists today, and which deals primarily in trade with
Japan.
Franz Korwan left the island of Sylt around 1936 and went to Baden-Baden. From there he
was deported to southern France, and perished in the Pyrenees in 1940."
