Bernhard Hoetger

Vocation

German sculptor, painter and handicrafts artist of the Expressionist movement. The son of a blacksmith, he studied sculpture in Detmold from 1888 to 1892, before directing a workshop in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. After a spell at the Düsseldorf Arts Academy, he journeyed to Paris, where he was deeply influenced by Auguste Rodin. Later he familiarised himself with the work of Antoni Gaudí. In 1911, Hoetger joined the 'artistic colony' in Darmstadt. In 1914, inspired by Paula Becker-Modersohn, he went to Worpswede where he met with Ludwig Roselius, with whom he would go on to make his masterpiece, Bremen's Böttcherstraße, in an Expressionist style. Like his patron, Roselius, Hoetger sympathised with the Nazi ideals and joined the Nazi Party. He tried, in vain, to instill himself into the party through his art, but in 1936 Hitler declared his work to be degenerate. Expelled from the party, he settled in Switzerland, where he died on 18 July 1949 in Interlaken. Link to Wikipedia biography