Josef Thorak

Sculptor and medalist Josef Thorak was listed in the Official Art Catalog of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics as a German, but he was actually Austrian. With Arno Breker, Thorak was considered among the most important and valued sculptors by the Nazis. The son of an East Prussian potter first learned this craft before studying at the academies in Wien (Vienna) and Berlin. Since 1920 he worked as a freelance artist. His penchant for monumental sculptures gave him several lucrative government contracts. Especially his friend Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production, promoted him with large sums.

Thorak created the Turkish Liberation Monument in Eskişehir and the bronze statue Faustkämpfer (Pugilist) of the boxer Max Schmeling for the Reichssportfeld at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. He was divorced from his Jewish wife in 1934 and followed the official Nazi notions of monumental art. In 1937 he became a teacher at the Art Academy in München (Munich). His wife Hilda and his son Peter went missing during the war. After World War II, Thorak was classified as “not affected” in a de-Nazification process and two appeal proceedings, and was eventually allowed to resume working and exhibiting. After the Second World War, he underwent de-Nazification and was allowed to continue working. After the war he lived alone at Salzburg and in Bavaria.

Most of his monumental statues were later destroyed. Boxer Max Schmeling was Thorak’s neighbor in Berlin and posed as a model for him as well as his wife, actress Anni Ondra. The 32 cm portrait bust of Schmeling made of bronze was created in 1931.