Ludwig Manzel

Ludwig Manzel, by Fritz Burger (1877-1916), the art historian. Karl Ludwig Manzel (3 June 1858, Neu Kosenow – 20 June 1936, Berlin) was a German sculptor, painter and graphic artist.

Life

His father was a tailor and his mother was a midwife. The family moved twice, first to Boldekow then, in 1867, to Anklam where he attended the Gymnasium. It was there that he first expressed a desire to study art, but this was not supported by his parents. In 1875, at the age of seventeen, he arrived in Berlin, penniless, with the intention of enrolling at the Prussian Academy of Arts.

He supported his education by teaching drawing at a commercial art school and providing illustrations to the magazines Ulk (Joke, or Spoof) and Lustige Blätter (The Funny Papers). Among his teachers at the Academy were Albert Wolff and Fritz Schaper. Under the aegis of a sculptor's association called "Am Wege" (On the Way), he had his first successes and obtained a one-year scholarship to Paris, where he actually remained for three years, working in a major art studio.

Successes in Berlin In 1889, he returned to Berlin, became a free-lance artist and developed a standing contract with the Imperial Family to produce busts and reliefs. His true breakthrough came in 1894, when he was commissioned to do figures for the Berlin Cathedral and the Reichstag. In 1895, he became a member of the Academy and, the following year, a Professor at the Museum of Applied Arts. Since 1932, it has been part of a grave memorial for F. W. Murnau in the Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf, not far from Manzel's own grave.