Arno Breker was Germany’s best young sculptor during the period of the Weimar Republic. In 1927 he went to Paris for further training, made friendships with the best artists of the city and won the 1932 Rome Prize of the Prussian Ministry of Culture, so that he could work a few years at the Villa Massimo. In 1934 he again worked in Germany. Germany’s best known sports administrator Carl Diem introduced Breker to the 22-year-old decathlete Gustav Stührk, who became Breker’s favorite model. The sculpture “Decathlete” with which he earned the silver medal at the 1936 Olympic Games, today still stands in the Berlin Olympic Stadium in front of the entrance to the dome room. Reichs Chancellor Adolf Hitler was excited by Breker, who was first “decadent” for the Nazis, and gave him highly paid public jobs since 1935 and appointed him professor in 1937. Breker became the sculptor who best represented the Aryan people and shaped the new German monumental style. For the Nazis he was the best German sculptor of their age, and was given a large studio room in Berlin.
After World War II Breker was de-Nazified despite his commitment as a supporter of the Nazi regime. He settled in Düsseldorf, and although he could no longer gain public orders, he had many private commissions from industrialists and politicians. He also created sculptures of major German sports people, such as Jürgen Hingsen, Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth and Walter Kusch.
Germany