Richard Kuöhl (May 31, 1880 – May 19, 1961) was a German sculptor, specializing in providing architectural sculpture for the architects of the

Brick Expressionism The term Brick Expressionism () describes a specific variant of Expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s, primarily in Ge ...

style in northern Germany in the 1920s. After training in art pottery in his home town of

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

and study at the Dresden Arts and Crafts School, Kuöhl moved to Berlin, then in 1912 followed his Dresden architecture professor, Fritz Schumacher, to Hamburg. Schumacher viewed architectural sculpture as particularly important, and so provided his former student with many government commissions. Kuöhl worked prolifically in the 1920s and 1930s in terra cotta, stone, and ceramics, developing a weatherproof ''Baukeramik''. His work is incorporated in many buildings, bridges and monuments in Hamburg and other northern German cities. Kuöhl's Hamburg war memorial, erected to commemorate those of the Second Hanseatic Infantry Regiment number 76 who died in the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

and the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, is typical of the ones erected during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

and is one of the few remaining. The monument, with its almost mocking inscription, ''Germany must live, even if we have to die'', continues to be swathed in controversy, with much public sentiment favoring removing it while others, particularly veterans groups, demand that it remain.Young, James E. ''The texture of Memory:Holocaust Memorials and Meaning'', Yale University Press, New Haven, 1993 p. 337-38 Major work includes the

Chilehaus The Chilehaus (, "Chile House") is a ten-story office building in Hamburg, Germany. It is located in the Kontorhaus District. It is an exceptional example of the 1920s Brick Expressionism style of architecture. This large angular building is loc ...

in Hamburg for architect

Johann Friedrich Höger Johann Friedrich (Fritz) Höger (12 June 1877 – 21 June 1949) was a German architect from Bekenreihe, Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. Although never qualified as an architect, he became known for his Brick Expressionis ...

, 1922–1924, and the Davidwache police station on the

Reeperbahn The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also n ...

in Hamburg, for Schumacher. Upon his death, Kuöhl was buried in

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery ( or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemetery are c ...

in a tomb that he himself had designed. EF IR162 gesamt2.jpg, Lübeck, 1923 Hofgarten Coburg - 04.JPG, Coburg, 1926 Hamburg - Soldatenehrenmal.jpg, Hamburg, 1936 Denkmal Düsseldorf 39er 1.JPG, Düsseldorf, 1939

References

External links

bio and many photographs of Kuöhl's work (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuohl, Richard 1880 births 1961 deaths Brick Expressionism German male sculptors German architectural sculptors 20th-century German sculptors Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery