Location

Travels from one place to another, travels through Europe, Asia and North Africa, Travels to Chile – this was the life of the Dethleffs family.

First the three Dethleffs found their home in Ottersweier in Baden. In 1937/38, after the construction of their house, they moved to the upper Swabian town of Isny, the home town of the Arist family.

Yet they never had one single location. This kind of limitation was unfamiliar to them. Already the grandfather of Albert Dethleffs had been on the road through Europe and Asia looking for customers of his whip factory. All over the world, Arist and Fridel were looking for inspiration for their work and art later on. They never were bound to one location.

After selling the caravan factory, the parents built a big atelier with exhibition room beside their house for their daughter Ursula. It would have been nice if they could have found a home there, where they could have stayed together with the artworks. Yet this plan never became reality.

Ursula died early – some years before her father. After that, I tried a lot to maintain the estate for art exhibitions.

This however could not be successful without the economic background of a flourishing company, without the grateful support of the hometown.

In the mean time, many artworks of both artists have found their home with many collectors: in Germany, in Europe, even in the US. Thanks to the support of Rudolf Köberle, a friend of the Dethleffs family, we could preserve at least important artworks of Fridel Dethleffs-Edelmann and Ursula Dethleffs in my family.

Bernd Riedle March 2013