German sculptor August Kraus first became a stone sculptor and then studied at the Berlin Academy of the Arts. From 1895-1901 he worked on the monument groups Siegesallee in the Berlin Park Tiergarten, where 27 sculptors produced 32 statues of patriarchs depicting the history of Brandenburg and Prussia. The artistic direction of the overall project was done by his master Reinhold Begas. A stay in Roma developed him further, first moving to neo-classicism and then to modern sculpturing. He also created numerous sports sculptures and was a leading member of the Berlin Secession, later of the separation Freie Sezession. In 1933 he was on the Presidential Council of the Reich Chamber of Culture and Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts in the Academy of Sciences (by then cleansed of Jewish artists) and signed a hymn for Adolf Hitler.
Germany