The sculptor and medalist Eberhard Encke, son of well-known sculptor Erdmann Encke, first studied in München and in Berlin before going to Roma (1906-1908), but eventually returned to Berlin. After World War I he mainly created war monuments. He also sculpted the two pugilists each at Fehrbellinerplatz in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and at the Town Hall Square in Hamburg-Harburg. His monumental group Rosselenker (Steeds steerer) at the former German Embassy in St. Petersburg was destroyed in 1914. The two submitted statues for the art competitions in 1928, which were bronze sculptures approximately 2.35 m tall of two football players in the public park Jungfernheide at Berlin-Siemens City, were melted in 1942 as important war material for weapons by the German Reich. Among his final works were sports sculptures, including the two 4 m high groups of runners for the 1936 Olympic Summer Games. He died in 1936 during a spa stay in Bad Nauheim. At the end of World War II his house, including its inventory, his studio, and his works of art, was plundered or destroyed by vandalism.
Germany