Neptune Fountain in the Alter Botanischer Garten in MunichThe Three Fates in St Stephen's Green, Dublin, donated by the German government in thanks for Operation Shamrock.
Wackerle's grandfather was a wood carver, and his father was a builder. He was educated at the School of Applied Arts and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. At 26, he was appointed artistic director of the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory in Munich. From 1913 to 1917 he worked as a teacher at the Museum of Decorative Art in Berlin. He became a lecturer at the Munich Academy, where he taught until 1950.[2]
In 1937, Joseph Goebbels proposed Wackerle, who was the Reich Culture Senator, for the German National Prize for Art and Science. In 1940, on his 60th Birthday, Wackerle received the Goethe Medal for Art and Science after a recommendation from Adolf Hitler. He was highly rated as an artist by the Nazi rulers, and in August 1944 he was named by Adolf Hitler on the list of the most important German sculptors, which freed him from military duty.[2]
After the end of World War II Wackerle continued his artistic career and was still highly regarded in the Munich area. In 1953, he was awarded the Visual Arts Promotion Prize by the city of Munich.[3]
He died in 1959 and is buried in the cemetery of Partenkirchen.[4]
^ abErnst Klee: Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945 (The Cultural Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. 1945). S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, pg. 634.
^Gerd Otto-Rieke: Gräber in Bayern (Graves in Bavaria). Munich 2000. P.18.
Further reading
Robert Thoms: Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung München 1937–1944. Verzeichnis der Künstler in zwei Bänden, Band II: Bildhauer. Berlin 2011, ISBN978-3-937294-02-5.
Kurt Lothar Tank Deutsche Plastik unserer Zeit, Munich 1942
Reinhard Müller-Mehlis Die Kunst im Dritten Reich, Munich 1976, ISBN3-453-41173-0
Otto Thomae Die Propaganda-Maschinerie. Bildende Kunst und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit im Dritten Reich, Berlin 1978, ISBN3-7861-1159-6
