Wilhelm Wandschneider


Wilhelm Georg Johannes Wandschneider was a German sculptor.

Life

His father was a commercial decorative painter. At an early age, he began an after-school apprenticeship in the family workshop, taking advantage of a few free hours for more artistic endeavors. In 1885, after having served as an assistant on a trip to Rostock and Güstrow, his father gave him permission to go to Berlin and look for work.
The Mayor of Plau had seen some of Wandschneider's artistic work and was impressed, so he attempted to arrange a scholarship. After securing recommendations from Ludwig Brunow and Martin Wolff the Mayor sent a letter to Grand Duke Frederick Francis III, who granted Wandschneider a personal gift of 150 Marks to study at the Prussian Academy of Art. After passing the entrance exam in 1886, he studied with Albert Wolff, Paul Friedrich Meyerheim, Fritz Schaper and Gerhard Janensch. He also gained practical experience working in the studios of Burnow, Martin Wolff, and Ernst Herter and Martin Wolff. In 1895, he became a Master Student of Reinhold Begas but didn't remain long, having won a prize from the "Philip von Rohr Foundation" which enabled him to study in Italy for a year. While there, he met his future wife, Anna Kreß, who was working as a model.

Career in Berlin

Full of confidence upon his return to Berlin, he was determined to achieve success as a free-lance sculptor, participating in several contests for monument and fountain designs. By 1898, he had won three major commissions. In 1899, through his friend, he met Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg, who liked his work and placed several orders. His career truly took off after that point and the years 1897 to 1916 proved to be his most successful. Buoyed by the positive reception he received at the St.Louis World's Fair in 1904, he entered competitions for monuments in places as diverse as Manila, Cape Town and Quito, but to no avail. He finally received an order for a monument to Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly in Riga and was proffered an invitation to compete for a monument in St.Louis that would be dedicated to the German-American journalists Carl Schurz, Emil Preetorius and Carl Daenzer. He won the contract with a figure called "The Naked Truth".

Travel to America

In 1913 Wandschneider entered a design competition sponsored by the Preetorious-Schurz-Daenzer Memorial Association of St. Louis, Missouri. The association held the competition, sponsored primarily by Anheuser-Busch cofounder Adolphus Busch, to commemorate three German-American newspapermen of the same names. Wandschneider's entry, a single nude female statue entitled "The Naked Truth" was selected as the winner by the jury, which subsequently invited Wandschneider to St. Louis to collect his winnings.
Unfortunately the Memorial Association, as well as Adolphus Busch himself, were not pleased with the selection of a nude as the winner. Local residents were also upset, and sent the association over 250 letters of complaint. The association cabled Wandschneider, instructing him that they were rescinding the award and to stay in Germany. Wandschneider reportedly received the cable shortly before leaving but decided to go anyway. Upon arrival in St. Louis, Wandschneider met with the design committee and argued for the appropriateness of his design. Wandschneider's personal appeals were effective and his design, The Naked Truth, was selected for execution.
and dates from 1922.

Later years

After Germany's defeat in World War I, many artists entered a period of financial distress as public commissions and private clients were difficult to find. At times, he had to feed his six children at the local soup kitchen. His only work came from military societies, seeking to memorialize their fallen comrades. In 1925, he had to sell his home and studio in Berlin, returning to his birthplace of Plau to reduce expenses. The people there greeted their famous son enthusiastically, creating a display of his plaster casts in a room at the local schoolhouse. This mini-museum was in operation until 1947. Even though he was politically conservative, he joined the National Socialist party in 1930, perhaps to ensure his employability.
In 1994, the city of Plau established a new museum to house his works, the "Bildhauermuseum Prof. Wandschneider"; on the site of the original classroom. In 2014, the redesigned and enlarged collection was moved to the "Burgmuseum".

Selected major works

A complete list of his works may be found in the corresponding article on German Wikipedia.

Monuments