* 13 February 1901 in Cologne; † 4 April 1960 in Hamburg
 
painter and graphic artist
 
Fritz Kronenberg belonged to the Hamburg Secession as one of its leading members from 1931 until the forced dissolution of the artists' association in 1933. Again and again - and often together with his painter friend Emil Maetzel - Kronenberg sought the experience of nature in the vast North German landscape. He created watercolours from this direct experience, such as the painting "Treene", which goes back to a stay of the artist at this tributary of the Eider. He also drew a large number of sketches, which served as inspiration for his oil paintings.
In 1919 Kronenberg attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Cologne and from 1920 to 1923 he studied at the art academies in Düsseldorf and Karlsruhe. Afterwards he travelled to several countries; he retained his love of travel throughout his life. In Paris, where he stayed for a long time in 1925, he was particularly interested in the cubist works of Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and George Braque, who translated the three-dimensional environment into a two-dimensional picture while retaining the different views of a motif. In 1927 Kronenberg moved to Hamburg, where he worked as a freelance painter. The following year he took part in the 8th exhibition of the Hamburg Secession as a guest, before becoming a regular member in 1931.
After the National Socialists came to power, Kronenberg withdrew from the art world. In 1936 he began working with the Griffelkunst-Association Hamburg, which published parts of his extensive graphic work. In 1937, during the Nazi propaganda campaign "Degenerate Art", paintings by the artist were confiscated from the Museum for Arts and Crafts and the Kunsthalle Hamburg. In 1943, a bombing raid destroys the artist's flat and studio. After the re-foundation of the Hamburg Secession in 1945, Kronenberg became a member again. He is represented in the representative Mannheim exhibition "Non-Objective Painting in Germany" in 1952. In 1953 he became a member of the Free Academy of Arts in Hamburg. From the mid-1950s he presented the series "Painting with Fritz Kronenberg" on NDR. Paintings by the painter can be found in the School of Arts and Crafts Hamburg, the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Museumsberg Flensburg, the Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Schloss Gottorf and in private collections, among others.