Stages of his life
Michel Koch was born on November 6, 1853 in Edingen as the eighth child of the master shoemaker and farmer Johann Peter Koch (1806 – 1871) and Karoline Diesbach (1811 – 1899).
The family home at Neckarhäuser Str. 11 – today Hauptstr. 125 – was demolished in 2022. A new building has since been constructed on the site, which was occupied in 2025.
New construction from 2023
Completion in 2025
He attended the elementary school in Edingen, then the Grand Ducal Citizen School in Ladenburg from 1867 to 1870.
– III. Class (1867 / 1868): Class teacher Riegel
– IV. Class (1868 / 1869): Class teacher Löser
– V. Class (1869 / 1870): Class teacher Schmerzer
Information about the Edingen elementary school is no longer available. The corresponding report cards from the Grand Ducal Citizens‘ School could not be found in the Ladenburg city archives. Further research is being conducted. The existing, relatively poor copies of the report cards, created in 1991, are being prepared in parallel.
Apprenticeship as a merchant in Mannheim.
Further information about the training centre and employer is not yet available.
From 1881 to 1888, he studied at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts under Theodor Poeckh and Carl Hoff.
In the commemorative publication on the history of the Grand Ducal Academy of Fine Arts in Baden, Michel/Michael Koch is listed among the students from 1881 to 1888 (see Sources: Adolf von Oechelhäuser, p. 163).
During his studies in Karlsruhe, he was financially supported by his brother-in-law Heinrich Gött (see account book of the rent administrator Heinrich Gött; private property); his apartment in Karlsruhe was at Bahnhofstr. 42.
Creation of the painting ‚Homecoming of the son‚ / ‚Meet again (Young Man at His Mother’s Deathbed)‘ / ‚Too Late‘.
1890 Move to Munich; various exhibitions in the Glaspalast; apartment at Blutenburgstr. 132, 3rd floor
1890 Laufenburg, Switzerland (May to mid-July)
1891 Studies at the Académie Julian in Paris, France (from January for a few weeks)
1891 Gut Schaffhausen (March to mid-June)
1892 (February) to 1893 (February) Gut Buck near Breisach
1892 Move to Munich; apartment at Linprunstr. 75, 3rd floor
1900 Move to Mannheim to K1, 13 (from 3.10. to 12.10. in U4, 13); shared a flat on the 3rd floor with his nephew and godson Prof. Michael Gött, whom he had previously portrayed.
Nephew, godson and roommate of the painter
K 1, 13 is the right-hand part of the middle building
(Historical postcard from 1899, taken in 2025)
Thanks to Elvira Dirschnabel from the Facebook group ‘Alte Bilder Mannheim’
(‚Old Pictures of Mannheim‘) for providing the historical city map.
The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim „Am farbigen Abglanz haben wir das Leben“ („At the colored reflection we have life“) caused a sensation and enthusiasm in 1912.
Each painting has a size of 130 x 165 cm.
The sixth painting ‚Irises‘ (purple) was destroyed after the estate was distributed. Apparently, the heirs could not agree on who should receive the ‘Irises’. An image of this could not be traced.
The biography of Georg Jakob Best mentions that Michel Koch ran a portrait painting school in Mannheim in 1915. He taught oil and pastel painting there.
Second from the right (above) presumably his nephew Prof. Michael Gött (1869 – 1962)
Photograph from the exhibition in 1991, Repro: Thomas Werner
1923 Appointment as 1st honorary citizen of Edingen on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Death on November 30 or December 1, 1927 in Mannheim (heart attack).
Michel/Michael Koch was found by his nephew Michael Gött in front of his easel.
The grave of honor at Mannheim Central Cemetery was dissolved in 2009 after neither the family / heirs nor the municipality of Edingen-Neckarhausen had commissioned an extension.
Last update: August 24, 2025
Facebook
Instagram