Die Collage zeigt den Rattenfänger von Hameln mit Flöte und zwei Ratten. Es ist ein Scherenschnitt aus schwarzem Karton auf Papier. Der Rattenfänger trägt einen gelben Hut, einen pinken Umhang und einen hellblauen. Für die Farbigkeit sind eingefärbte Seidenstoffe benutzt worden. Der Rattenfänger hebt das rechte Bein hoch und spielt die Flöte. Die Ratten tanzen zusammen zur Musik. Das Papier ist vergilbt.

Collage by Erich Seer, before 1941.

ArEGL 184.

ERICH SEER (1894 – 1941)

Erich Seer was a graphic designer and artist. He came from Neubrandenburg. His father, Johannes Richard Seer, was a dentist. Erich had an older brother, Max. Little is known about Erich Seer’s life. He married Berta Paula Seer (née Niebengall), but the marriage was dissolved in 1933 at the district court in Eisenach (Thuringia). As Erich Seer was in the Ellen institution (Bremen) between 1928 and 1938, the divorce was finalised without him. In November 1938, he was transferred from Ellen to the Lüneburg institution in a collective transport. It cannot be ruled out that his early dementia was triggered by »syphilis«. Until 1928, he worked as a graphic artist and painter. His best-known works are collages in which he combined the paper-cutting technique with various materials. On 7 March 1941, he was transferred to the Pirna-Sonnenstein killing centre and murdered with carbon monoxide.