Part-Estate of Heinz Ohff

Heinz Ohff was chief features editor at the Berlin Tagesspiegel from 1961 to 1987. He wrote numerous critical reviews of Berlin exhibitions and artists in Berlin. Besides his work as a journalist, he also wrote several biographies, e.g. of Hannah Höch (1968), Queen Luise (“Ein Stern in Wetterwolken. Königin Luise von Preußen”, 1992), Hermann Pückler-Muskau (“Der grüne Fürst. Das abenteuerliche Leben des Hermann Pückler-Muskau”, 1993) and Heinrich von Kleist (“Heinrich von Kleist: Ein preußisches Schicksal”, 2005). His book “Pop-Art und die Folgen!!!” (Pop Art and the Consequences, 1968), which Wolf Vostell “visualised”, developed cult character. Ohff was a member of the P.E.N. Centre Germany and for many years president of the German section of the Association of International Art Critics (AICA).

In 1989 Heinz Ohff – who was a close friend of Eberhard Roters, the founding director of the Berlinische Galerie – donated his archive to the museum. It contains manuscripts and material on Ohff’s books, his correspondence, and his articles that appeared in newspapers and magazines. In addition, in the Heinz Ohff Archive it is possible to find numerous portraits of artists taken by his wife, photographer Christiane Hartmann. The Berlinische Galerie also holds Ohff’s “Fluxus” library, which includes many texts that were published in only very small editions.