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Josef Rotter

Caricature portrait of Josef Rotter

Josef Rotter (September 22, 1867–February 1, 1937) was a teacher, painter, illustrator, and editorial cartoonist of German or Austrian origin, most noted for his contribution to the Molla Nasreddin magazine.

Origins and education

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Rotter has been variously described as German,[1] German-born,[2] ethnic German,[3] and Austrian, without German necessarily referring to the German Empire, and with the term Austrian applied to Rotter in a meticulous, largely ethnographic work by Karl August Fischer [de].[4] The village of Ober Forst near Jauernig, where Rotter was born on September 22, 1867, was part of the Austro-Hungarian realm until its 1918 dissolution, and then Czechoslovakia until 1938.[5]

In 1885–6, Rotter enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, which recorded him as a native German speaker and Roman Catholic son of a stuccoist, studying painting under the supervision of Siegmund l'Allemand, August Eisenmenger, Christian Griepenkerl, and Franz Rumpler.[6]

Rotter is said also to have studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts,[7] but his name does not appear in the institution's 1809–1935 student matriculation books.[8]

Georgian Career

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In 1902 Rotter accepted an invitation to teach at the newly founded Tiflis Secondary School of Painting and Sculpture, the direct precursor of the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts.[9] The invitation was issued by Oskar Schmerling, a second generation Caucasian German artist and director of the school, with whom Rotter would remain in close contact for years—the two men not only teaching at the same institution, but also traveling together, and contributing to many of the same magazines.[10]

From 1906 to 1914 Rotter engaged in a remarkably intense and multicultural activity, creating over twenty three hundred illustrations for nine periodicals, all based in Tiflis but aiming at four linguistic groups over and beyond South Caucasia: the Armenian Hasker [hy] and Khatabala, the Azeri Molla Nasreddin, the Georgian Eshmakis matrakhi [ka], Nakaduli [ka], Nishaduri [ka], Shuamavali [ka], Tsnobis purtseli [ka], and the German Kaukasische Post.[11] Seven of these publications were launched in the wake of the 1905 Russian Revolution,[12] all took advantage of the subsequent relaxation of censorship,[13] and five were satirical magazines with pioneering content.[14]

Over eleven hundred of Rotter’s illustrations were published in Molla Nasreddin. Each issue of this weekly magazine, whose publication experienced multiple interruptions, had a close to eight-page editorial content, including four pages devoted to social or political cartoons. About a third of these fully illustrated pages in 1906–7, half in 1908–9, three-quarters in 1910–13, nine-tenths in 1914, and three-fifths over the entire 1906–14 period, were filled with Rotter’s work.[15] So Rotter’s role is seen as important in quantitative terms. Cartoons were meant to widen the audience of Molla Nasreddin, include the less educated, and cross linguistic barriers; and indeed, the magazine enjoyed a large circulation, with numerous schools and coffeehouses among its subscribers, and a geographic reach suggesting a far from exclusively Azeri readership.[16] So Rotter’s role is seen as important from a qualitative point of view and in tandem with Schmerling, the publication’s other prominent illustrator. Finally, to assess Rotter's impact in synergy with all of Molla Nasreddin's collaborators, one may refer to Alexandre Bennigsen's description of the magazine as an effective proponent of progressive ideas in the Muslim world, a model for the Armenian, Azeri, Georgian, Iranian, and Tatar press, and a significant force in the Persian Constitutional Revolution.[17]

In the same period, Rotter created illustrations for Abbas Ghayebzadeh [az]'s Azeri translation of Ferdowsi's Rostam and Sohrab.[18]

Austrian Career

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Rotter’s collaboration with Tiflis-based periodicals came to a sudden end in the summer of 1914, shortly before the onset of World War I.[19] His whereabouts during the next three to four years are unknown,[20] but he is found as having resumed his artistic career shortly after the war, this time in Austria. Tens of Rotter's illustrations were published in Vienna from 1919 onward, in a series of books including James Fenimore Cooper's tale of The Red Rover, two narratives of Dietrich von Berne’s exploits, and a selection of Friedrich von Schiller's poems.[21] Under the impulsion of Rudolf Hans Dietrich,[22] Rotter was commissioned in the mid to late 1920s by Viennese clients to produce large paintings representing fictional groups of the city's past or present figures of performing arts. Commissions of this kind comprised a set of murals in Etablissement Diglas,[23] another set in the Zur goldenen Glocke guest garden,[24] and a commemorative aquarelle of a ball of the Society for the Promotion of Viennese Folk Arts.[25] Finally, hundreds of drawings prepared by Rotter for J. Steinbrener [de]'s widely distributed almanacs[26] were sent in the 1930s from Vienna to the publisher's Bohemian headquarters in Vimperk.[27]

The last and somewhat atypical indication of Rotter's activity, from both a chronological and geographical point of view, is a 1939 publication of some of his work in Yerevan, as an album dealing with Armenian legends.[28]

Rotter died on February 1, 1937 in the Barmherzige Brüder hospital of Vienna.[29]

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  • Khatabala, Oct. 8, 1911, no. 41, p. 489
    Khatabala, Oct. 8, 1911, no. 41, p. 489
  • Khatabala, Dec. 3, 1911, no. 49, p. 588
    Khatabala, Dec. 3, 1911, no. 49, p. 588
  • Khatabala, June 2, 1912, no. 21, p. 249
    Khatabala, June 2, 1912, no. 21, p. 249
  • Molla Nasreddin, Jan. 10, 1910, no. 2, pp. 4–5
    Molla Nasreddin, Jan. 10, 1910, no. 2, pp. 4–5
  • Molla Nasreddin, Nov. 13, 1910, no. 36, p. 8
    Molla Nasreddin, Nov. 13, 1910, no. 36, p. 8
  • Molla Nasreddin, May 15, 1911, no. 18, p. 5
    Molla Nasreddin, May 15, 1911, no. 18, p. 5

Notes

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  1. ^ Guliyev and Rza (1976–84, 8:187), Javadi (2009), Anar et al (2008, 243).
  2. ^ Grant (2020, 8).
  3. ^ Slavs and Tatars (2011, 6).
  4. ^ Fischer (1944, 20–21, 80).
  5. ^ Rotter Project (2025)
  6. ^ Rotter Project (2025)
  7. ^ Guliyev and Rza (1976–84, 8:187), Anar et al. (2008, 243).
  8. ^ Based on the digital edition's (ABKM 2015) search engine results. As observed by Jooss (2010, 10) the books "contain only partially accurate information, and in some cases, demonstrable errors." But on the other hand, sources affirming that Rotter studied at the Munich academy (Anar et al. 2008, 272; Guliyev and Rza 1976–87, 10:555) say the same of his colleague Schmerling, in contrast again with not only matriculation data but also Schmerling's autobiography and résumé in Caffee et al. (2019).
  9. ^ TSAA (2017) Archived 2022-03-31 at the Wayback Machine, SovLab (n.d.).
  10. ^ Caffee et al. (2019), Slavs and Tatars (2011, 7), Sovlab (n.d.).
  11. ^ Based on Habbibayli and Karimli (2017-8), and online resources provided by the National Library of Armenia and Parliamentary Library of Georgia, the numbers of Rotter’s illustrations first published in Hasker, Eshmakis Matrakhi, Kaukasische Post, Khatabala, Nakaduli, Nishaduri, Molla Nasreddin, Shuamavali, and supplements to Tsnobis Furtseli are 117, 16, 3, 840, 144, 16, 1162, 18, and 22. What was counted as an illustration is a picture numbered in the original publication or a bordered picture including no other bordered one, with borders materialized by lines, margins, or ornaments whose compound expands no adjacent scene. The count for Eshmakis Matrakhi includes Rotter’s contributions to the magazine’s avatars Matrakhi, Matrakhi da salamuri, Salamuri, Chevni salamuri, Eshmaki, and Eshmakis salamuri. Similarly, the count for Nakaduli conflates the illustrations published in either its children’s or teenager’s editions.
  12. ^ Abashidze (1984, 452), Fischer (1944, 14), Svanidze (2018).
  13. ^ Daly (2009), Rigberg (1966).
  14. ^ Bennigsen (1962, 505, 512), Svanidze (2018).
  15. ^ Habbibayli and Karimli (2017–8). Based on this reedition, the number of Molla Nasraddin issues published in each year from 1906 to 1914 is 37, 49, 52, 52, 42, 47, 9, 27, and 25. Each issue comprised just eight pages, with commercial content in negligible amount, except in the late 1908 to late 1909 interval, during which four additional pages were reserved for advertizing.
  16. ^ Bennigsen (1962, 507, 514), Grant (2020, 5, 8–9), Slavs and Tatar (2011, 5). While reported circulation numbers range from 2,500 to 25,000, and are commonly described as impressive, comparisons are made difficult by the uncertainty surrounding the proportion of Azeris, or more generally Turkophones, in Persia.
  17. ^ Bennigsen (1962, 505, 508–512, 514).
  18. ^ Ferdowsi (1908), including nine illustrations.
  19. ^ Karimli, Nabiyev, and Mirahmadov (1996–2010), and online resources provided by the National Library of Armenia and Parliamentary Library of Georgia. The last issue of Molla Nasreddin with Rotter's illustrations is dated July 23, 1914 (Julian calendar).
  20. ^ Except for F. Fischer’s (1930, 12) meaning that  Rotter fled Georgia because of the war.
  21. ^ Or more fully, SADU (1919), Cooper (1922), Grillparzer (1923), Kuthmayer (1923), Ricek (1923), Schiller (1923), Ricek (1924), Gaulhofer and Streicher (1932).
  22. ^ Succinct biography provided by Hilscher (2002).
  23. ^ Neues Wiener Tagblatt (1924, 8).
  24. ^ Die Bühne (1925, 25–26). See Rotter Project (2025), n. 25, for comments on Rotter's portrait in Die Bühne's report.
  25. ^ Rotter Project (2025)
  26. ^ Dalbello (2002, 69–75).
  27. ^ Rotter Project (2025).
  28. ^ Rotter (1939), comprising twelve engravings
  29. ^ Rotter Project (2025)

References

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  • Rotter Project's Josef Rotter website, including references to primary sources, links to relevant digital collections, and over ninety illustrations.