Roman Zenzinger(16 July 1903 - 5 November 1990) was an Austrian artist and commercial designer best known for his intense portraits and sketches of soldiers during world war II.
The war painter Roman Zenzinger was born on the 16 July 1903 in Olmuetz, Maehren, formally part of Austria. He lived with his parents in Bruenn, Villach, Eisenstadt and St.Veit an der Glan. In Villach he studied at the higher school for architecture and was educated by Carinthian painters. In 1935 he moved to Vienna where he worked for a number of Viennese newspapers as a caricaturist and as a painter. He was a member of the “Wiener Neustaedter Kunstverein” (art association).From 1936 he worked with a partner as a commercial artist.
He was drafted on 7 April 1941 into the German army as a war painter. He worked mainly in Veldes/ Oberkrain now Bled in Slowenia, Triest and in Serbia and Kosovo. From 26 Feb 1943 until 10 Feb 1944 he worked in the film and picture office of the police “Film und Bildstelle der Ordnungspolizei” and from 11 Feb till the 7 April 1945 in the “SS Standarte Kurt Eggers” Kommando Adria in Triest. (rank "Oberwachtmeister der Schutzpolizei der Reserve" - sergeant in the reserve of the uniformed police) He often was called to Berlin to deliver his work personally to higher ranks. The SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers was a German war correspondent group which reported on the auctions of the Waffen SS combat formations. Some of his work was shown in an exhibition in Berlin 1943 and some of his paintings were printed in the catalogue I “Kriegsmaler der Ordnungspolizei”(war painters of the police)
His next assignment in Triest was work for the magazine “Adria-Illustrierte” (Adria magazine) until the end of the war. Some of his works was used for title pages of the Nazi Newspaper "Voelkischer Beobachter" (observer of the people).One of them carried his title painting "Berlin brennt" (Berlin is burning)
He saved a lot of his drawings showing the life of the soldiers during the war which his son inherited after his death. They were never shown to the public until 2011 when some of them were auctioned. He was never a member of the Nazi party. Zenzinger ensured that he obtained papers after the war to show that he was never involved in Nazi activities.
After 1945 he worked as a painter and commercial artist and owned his own firm with 14 employees. He also painted in a private capacity sometimes using his pseudonym Zero (shortening for Zenzinger Roman).
Zenzinger was married and in 1948 his son Gunnar was born.
Roman Zenzinger died on 5 November 1990 in Vienna.
Gunnar Zenzinger, son of Roman; Austria
catalogue "Kriegsmaler der Ordnungspolizei"(war painter of the police, 1943)
catalogue "Deutsche Kuenstler und die SS" 1944 (German artists and the SS)
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110417/spectrum/main7.htm
Waffen-SS, War correspondent