Grethe Jürgens [1899-1981], Podbielskistraße in Hannover

Grethe Jürgens, was born in Holzhausen near Osnabrück in northern Germany. Starting in 1919, she attended the Hanover School for Artists and Craftsmen for three years. Probably influenced by her teacher, Fritz Burger-Mühlfeld, she and fellow students: Gerta Overbeck, Erich Wegner, Ernst Thoms and others formed a tight-knit, politically leftist and anti-establishment group. For economic reasons, Jürgens had to drop out of school. She worked as an advertising designer for six years; she also did illustrations for the trade magazine Der Manufakturist and illustrated books and articles by writer and close friend Gustav Schenk.

In 1931, Jürgens, Overbeck, Thoms and Wegner founded the magazine Der Wachsbogen, of which Jürgens was editor. The magazine was aimed not only at artists, but also at musicians, architects and writers, and covered Expressionism, Surrealism and abstraction. In an article she wrote for Der Wachsbogen, Jürgens explained the philosophy behind her art: when painting pots, piles of garbage, ordinary objects, workers, mothers, children, prostitutes, beggars or vagrants in houses, vehicles or landscapes, I do not aim to depict "interesting types" or appeal to social consciousness. Rather, my goal is to find in all these subjects the strongest expression of their time. The human face dominated her art; she paid less attention to landscape and urban scenery.

In the early 1950s, however, Jürgens abandoned her characteristic subject matter and turned to creating abstract drawings.

Jürgens participated in many exhibitions starting in 1932, and after 1961 her works were included in most of the exhibitions presenting the New Reality (Neue Sachlichkeit).

She remained in Hanover until the end of her life.