1941

Born (March 23) in Quirl, District Hirschberg (Giant Mountains, Lower Silesia); Father Ewald Hallmann (1904-1950), mother Liesbeth

1946

Family has to leave their home and is sent via Rheine to an emergency shelter in Emsdetten

1950

Father dies at age 46

1954

Paints his first oil painting

1955

The town of Emsdetten awards Blalla a special prize for his sculptures and linocuts at a youth competition

1957-1958

Academy of Fine Arts, Dusseldorf

1958-1960

Painting apprenticeship in Emsdetten

1960-1965

  • Completes his apprenticeship in the fall of 1960
  • Art Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg under Prof. Fritz Griebel
  • Member of the artist trio around Herbert Haberl and Bernd Wangerin

1961

Trip to Paris for the hitherto most comprehensive Rousseau exhibition

1964

First exhibition in Vienna at the “Gallery in the Student Theatre” on Lueger Platz

1965

  • Formation of a traveling theater with fellow students, the later “Hoffmann’s Comic-Theatre”, which later became the rock band Ton Steine Scherben; Other founding members were Dietmar Roberg, Gert and Peter Möbius
  • Tour across Bavaria presenting mystery plays and Italian comedies

1967

Residency in the US (fall of 1967 to March 1969), meets Robert Crumb in San Francisco

1968

  • Invitation of Norbert Stiegelmeyer to San Francisco
  • Lecturer at the University of California, San Francisco
  • Several exhibitions
  • Deportation

1969

  • Returning to Germany in March 1969
  • Spends a few months in the psychiatric ward of the Nuremberg municipal hospital
  • Meets psychiatrist Titus Milech in a psychiatric clinic in Erlangen, who becomes an early collector of Blallas works
  • A further three months in the State Mental Hospital in Landeck-Klingenmuenster, Palatinate

1970

  • Destroys all his paintings accessible to him
  • Lives in West Berlin since spring

1971

May 28: Compulsory hospitalization into the psychiatric clinic Havelhoehe in West Berlin

1971-1972

  • Repeated destruction of all his accessible works
  • Stay in St. Joseph Hospital in Neheim-Huesten after having bouts of depression

1975

Two suicide attempts

1980-1981

Joint work with Rainer Zitta, Altdorf

1981

  • Lives and works in Wuerzburg in a garden shed at Leutfresserweg
  • In June 1981, Ingomar Oehler and some friends set up the “Blalla-Foundation”‘, a support organization on a private basis. Due to this financial support, Blalla is able to work financially secured for more than one year

1982-1984

Apartment and studio at the “Kunstverein” in Bruehl, in charge of etching and painting classes

1984

December: Relocation to Cologne-Ehrenfeld

1984-1992

Lives and works in Cologne

1992-1994

Lives and works in Berlin

1992-1995

Professorship at the Braunschweig University of Art

1994

Lives and works in Windsbach

1996

October: Diagnosed with cancer

2.7.1997

Died in Windsbach, (Middle Franconia)