Engelbert Kievernagel (1928 – 1987) Kievernagel was a typical outsider artist. In drawings and letters he expresses his extreme fantasies and anarchistic preferences. Most of his works never received attention, but he was admired by many other artists. He collaborated with artists like Käthe Be, Stefan Roloff and Miron Zownir.

Born 1928 in Berlin, Kievernagel was 8 years old when he was placed in an orphanage. He regularly wet his bed, screamed ad refused to eat and talk, and was transferred to the Karl-Bonhoeffer-clinic. On the 17th of June 1953 while participating in the demonstrations in East-Berlin, he was caught and sentenced to four years in jail Waldheim. There he spent three years on the psychiatric war.

In 1957 he moved with his sister to West-Berlin. The difficulties with police, doctors and authorities continued. The first drawings came to decorate the protest letters he sent to departments and government agencies: „I wrote that they shouldn´t always fuck around in the office, and instead take care of my business. “

Kievernagel had strong exhibitionistic inclinations which provoced and often he was not taken seriously, or people thought he was stupid. But he was clever enough to make use of his craziness. Deliberately, he challenged his environment. As nude model he combined exhibitionistic traits with work. In a letter dated 20. May 1983 he wrote: „ : „... I want to be your tabooless nude modell and would also like to model with female stockings and suspender belt ... it would aslo be hot in oil.“

In 1957 he tried to improve his critical financial situation with a series of extortion letters. In a letter dated 27. May 1981, he demanded 5000 Marks per month of the Blau Gold Tennis Club e.V. in Berlin. Kievernagel threatended to blow the clubhouse should the money not be forthcoming. He also threatened: „If you go to the police and make charges against me then I´ll have you killed.“ One day later, he arrogated a monthley sum of 20.000 Marks of the Private Clinic for Psychogenic Illness in Berlin. Again, he threatened to cause an explosion in the clinic if they wouldn´t pay. He was then sentenced to a yet another psychiatric clinic. In the same year Kievernagel was diagnosed with cancer. When he was supposed to undergo a second operation, he left the hospital and refused medical treatment. He started to draw intensively, until his death he produced hundreds of works, mainly with ball-point pen and felt-tip pens on DIN A4 size type writer paper, and later DIN A1 sized drawing paper. He always gave away his drawings. Kievernagel was one of the few artists, where the struggle for unity between life and work had distinctive conseqences.