“Given his outstanding significance as a representative of abstract art in Germany and Europe and his commitment to the artistic life of Wiesbaden, Otto Ritschl deserves to be honored with a burial plot of honor. He did a great deal for the arts, for independent artists, and for Wiesbaden,” announced Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende. 

Eduard August Ludwig Otto Ritschl was born on August 9, 1885, in Erfurt. Among his early patrons was the art collector Kurt von Mutzenbecher, who served as artistic director of the Royal Court Theater in Wiesbaden from 1903 to 1918. Wiesbaden had been the center of Otto Ritschl’s life since 1908. Ritschl’s first major success as an author was the premiere of his comedy “Der Rechnungsdirektor” in Hamburg in 1915. Afterward, he reoriented himself and shifted his artistic focus from literature to painting. In 1919, the Nassauische Kunstverein exhibited Ritschl’s works for the first time at the municipal museum. In light of the poor economic situation facing artists, Ritschl initiated a trade association in 1924 to improve artists’ financial circumstances. In 1925, he founded the “Freie Künstlerschaft Wiesbaden” (Wiesbaden Free Artists’ Association), serving as its chairman until 1933. He was also a co-founder of the Wiesbaden Adult Education Center, where he taught courses between 1926 and 1929. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Otto Ritschl’s works were removed from public exhibitions. Some of his works were shown in the traveling exhibition “Degenerate Art.” Otto Ritschl subsequently withdrew from public life. After the end of World War II, Ritschl resumed his work as a freelance artist. He trained various artists and began exhibiting his own work again. In recognition of his artistic achievements, he was awarded the Goethe Plaque of the State of Hesse in 1955. In 1960, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, First Class. In 1965, he received the Golden Medal of Honor from the state capital of Wiesbaden, in 1972 the Grand Cross of the Federal Cross of Merit, and in 1975 the Honorary Plaque of the City of Wiesbaden. Otto Ritschl died on July 1, 1976, in Wiesbaden. 

Honorary graves in the state capital of Wiesbaden are awarded to individuals who, during their lifetime, either rendered outstanding service to the state capital of Wiesbaden itself or whose outstanding achievements in the fields of local politics, the arts, culture, science, economics, or social welfare are being honored.