Walter Spies

Walter Spies was born in Moscow, Russia on 15 September 1895, of a large German-Russian family, which owned one of the largest wholesale corporations in Tsarist Russia before World War I, so he lived a privileged life during his childhood. After the outbreak of WWI, Tsarist government, suspicious of a corporate entity with so many German-sounding names (although nearly all had been born in Russia) seized his family's holdings. During this period, Walter was 'interned' far to the east of Moscow, where he was exposed to the alien ways of the peoples of central Russia, which kindled his interest in non-Western mores and art, which was to prove important to his later career. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended hostilities between Germany and Russia, his family was deported to Germany, where he initially settled in Dresden, now in his early 20s. Dresden was at the time a center of avant-garde art, but it was not long before he gravitated to Berlin, the center of the cultural turmoil of the Weimar Republic. His first exhibition in 1919 was met with interest, and he soon joined the cultural ferment. However, in many ways he was a very private person, and often would retreat from Berlin to the vacation spot in the Baltic Sea, the island of Sylt. When the tumult of Berlin finally became too much, Walter followed his desire for adventure and personal fulfillment by voyaging to Java, in the Dutch East Indies. He quickly mastered the native languages and after working as a musician in Java (including a stint as an accompanist to silent movies), he fell in love with Bali, which he first visited in 1925 and moved to permanently in 1927. Bali is a unique island, being itself Hindu but surrounded by a sea of Islam. Walter found this then virtually unknown backwater to his liking, being highly impressed with the richness and unselfconscious nature of Balinese art, dance and music. He rapidly "went native" but was somewhat surprised that the Balinese were practically unaware of the value of their own talents and set himself to the task of collecting and preserving works that otherwise would have merely decayed and disappeared in the heat and humidity of the tropical landscape. Walter's lasting gift to Bali was to open their eyes to the value of their own arts, and for this he is still revered. The Balinese did not have a moralizing attitude about interpersonal relationships, but their Dutch colonial masters did. Walter, adopted the easygoing practices of the natives, but was called to task for this and prosecuted and imprisoned by the Dutch for that they considered 'degenerate' behavior. Margaret Meade and her husband Gregory Bateson testified on behalf of Walter that his behavior was utterly unexceptional in Balinese life, which helped him to win his freedom. Not long after, the storm clouds of World War II began to weigh down on the Dutch, who had already been occupied by Germany, and the Japanese bore southward with their "Asia for Asians" and "Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" slogans. So Walter, still a German citizen, was put in the brig of a ship, along with others, headed for Ceylon. Reports vary--that the ship hit a mine, was bombed or was torpedoed--but in any case, as it was sinking, the captain failed to set the imprisoned men free. Because of this inhuman act, Walter Spies, along with the others, perished on 19 January 1942.