Feininger Radtour

On Two Wheels in the Footsteps of Lyonel Feininger Eighty artistic motifs are connected at a total of forty stops along a 56-kilometer route: this is the Lyonel Feininger Circle Route on the island of Usedom. The German-American painter Lyonel Feininger was a passionate cyclist. Since living in Germany, he regularly bought the latest racing bike model and covered thousands of kilometers each year. On May 17, 1908, he visited the island of Usedom for the first time. Until 1912, he explored the area on his Cleveland Ohio bike from Heringsdorf, Neppermin, or Benz, always searching for new inspiration. A hundred years later, the idea arose to discover all of Feininger's painting locations on Usedom, map them, and create a tourist cycling route – the 'Lyonel Feininger Tour.' Letters to his wife Julia confirm his stay in Neppermin; there, he painted signs with boat numbers for local fishermen. Here and in many other places, he created his 'Nature Notes' – sketches that often served as starting points for paintings. Examples include 'Moonrise in Neppermin' or a circus scene on the village square in Balm. His excursions also led Feininger to neighboring Benz. Even along the way, he painted the road lined with newly planted trees. In the church tower at Benz, he found a subject that fascinated him throughout his life; even shortly before his death in New York, he produced a watercolor of this church in 1955. The drawing of the Dutch windmill in Benz is now owned by the Rockefeller family and represents the first visual depiction of what is today a listed monument. The Lyonel Feininger Circle Route, which opened in 2009, leads through Mellenthin, Balm, Neppermin, Benz, Sallenthin, Bansin, Heringsdorf, Ahlbeck, Swinemünde, Zirchow, Korswandt, Gothen, and Neuhof. White and blue signs guide cyclists and art lovers on the trail of the German-American painter. Each painting site is marked with a bronze plaque. (cloned from route 2238901) (cloned from route 2238902)