Sieger Köder RIP

Wiki image: Fromista

The German priest painter Sieger Köder has died in Ellwangen, Germany, on February 9th 2015, shortly after his 90th birthday.

Trained as a silversmith and painter, Köder was a prisoner of war during World War II and became an art teacher before studying theology in Tübingen and being ordained a priest. He combined his vocation as a parish priest with his work as an artist, producing numerous paintings, altarpieces and stained glass windows for churches within and outside Germany. He continued painting long into his retirement.

His work shows the artistic influence of Chagall and a distinctive theological and spiritual interpretation of biblical and abstract themes. His wartime experiences also profoundly influenced his depictions of the Passion of Christ and human suffering and evil. This can be seen particularly in his Stations of the Cross and the Misereor Hungercloth. Most famously he painted a fresco of the Last Supper for the German College in Rome which included, sitting at the table of the Eucharist, a Jew, a beggar and a prostitute.

In later life Köder's work became world famous and he won many awards, including, in 1985, the honorary title of Monsignor and the Order of Merit from Pope John Paul II. He himself was a modest man and in a newspaper interview once said, 'People come to Ellwangen asking to see the painter. If they're that interested in the painter, then they haven't understood the paintings'.

His works have inspired countless reproductions, books of meditations and posters and a fully illustrated Bible.