Hans Steger (12 June 1907 – 9 January 1968) was a German sculptor.

Life

Johannes Steger was born in

Zeulenroda Zeulenroda-Triebes is a German town in the district of Greiz in the state of Thuringia. Zeulenroda-Triebes is situated in the south of Greiz in the mountains of the Thuringian Slate Mountains (Thüringer Schiefergebirge), on the border with Saxon ...

, a small town in the

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

n countryside to the south of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

in central southern Germany. His father was a clock maker and the

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

of a free-church community. The boy grew up in a strict religiously oriented family. Between 1921 and 1926 Steger was apprenticed as a carver of wooden figures and then, on successful completion of the apprenticeship, was employed at this craft. Between November 1927 and the summer of 1928 he attended the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the product o ...

where he studied under

Georg Wrba Georg Wrba (3 January 1872 – 9 January 1939) was a German sculptor and graphic artist. He created some 3,000–4,000 works, including as a collaborator of the Zwinger (Dresden), Zwinger workshop. Life Wrba was born in Munich in 1872, the so ...

, a leading sculptor and graphic artist of the time. Then, between October 1929 and 1932, he attended the Combined National Academy for Pure and Applied Arts (''"Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst"'') in Berlin. Here he was taught by Wilhelm Gerstel. Between 1932 and 1937 he worked as a freelance sculptor. From 1934 he had his own studio in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

where, between 1937 and 1939, he attended classes with Emil Hipp at the Arts Academy.

War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

broke out in 1939: between June 1940 and June 1945 Steger undertook his military service. Between 1945 and 1954 he again worked as a freelance sculptor in his home region which, since May 1945, had been administered as the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...

and then, in October 1949, was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In 1954 he was appointed to a professorship at the

. In 1960 he won a

Trade Union Federation A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such a ...

Arts Prize. Hans Steger died at

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

on 9 January 1968.

Works

The focus of Steger's work was on portrait sculptures. In that respect he considered himself closely connected with the

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

tradition that had been a feature of German sculpture during the first half of the twentieth century. Important influences were Wilhelm Gerstel,

Hermann Blumenthal Hermann Blumenthal (31 December 1905, Essen, Rhine Province – 17 August 1942, near Kljasticy, Russia) was a German sculptor. He was a participating artist in the documenta 1. Awards * 1929: Preis der Stadt Köln anlässlich einer Ausstellung ...

Fritz Cremer Fritz Cremer was a German sculptor. Cremer was considered a key figure in the DDR art and cultural politics. His most notable for being the creator of the "Revolt of the Prisoners" (Revolte der Gefangenen) memorial sculptor at the former concentra ...

Waldemar Grzimek Waldemar Grzimek (December 5, 1918 – May 26, 1984) was a German sculptor. Grzimek was born in Rastenburg, East Prussia (now Kętrzyn, Warmia-Masuria) to a Silesian family, which moved to Berlin in 1925 when Grzimek's father Günther Grzimek ...

and

Wilhelm Lehmbruck Wilhelm Lehmbruck (4 January 188125 March 1919) was a German sculptor. Biography Born in Meiderich (part of Duisburg from 1905), he was the fourth of eight children born to the miner Wilhelm Lehmbruck and his wife Margaretha. He was able to stu ...

. However, he developed his own style which went beyond being merely derivative.

Personal

Hans Steger was married with four daughters and one son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steger, Hans 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists Artists from Dresden People from Zeulenroda-Triebes 1907 births 1968 deaths