Barlach, Ernst

Barlach, Ernst (1870-1939), German Expressionist sculptor and playwright, born in Wedel. As a sculptor he worked in wood, terracotta and porcelain, and bronze and was chiefly influenced by the French artist Honoré Daumier and the Belgian sculptor Constantin Meunier and, after a trip to Kharkiv, (in modern-day Ukraine), in 1906, by Russian woodcarvings. For several German cities, Barlach produced monuments and memorials to soldiers killed in World War I. He was one of the few 20th-century sculptors to carve monumental works in wood, such as Shepherd in a Storm (1908, Kunsthalle, Bremen). He also made numerous portrait busts and illustrations (woodcuts and drawings) for books. Barlach was persecuted by the Nazis, and many of his works were removed by them in the 1930s. The Warrior of the Spirit (1928), in the city of Kiel, was deliberately mutilated by the Nazis, but was restored in 1954. After achieving recognition as a sculptor, Barlach also became a playwright. Among his best-known plays, some illustrated by him, are Der Arme Vetter (The Poor Cousin, 1918) and Die Sündflut (The Deluge, 1924).