Wilhelm Tank

Wilhelm Tank (15 June 1888 – 29 September 1967) was a German professor of anatomy, artist and sculptor. His teaching activity over five decades combined with 14 books and more than a hundred articles on scientific and artistic subjects in academic journals, made him one of the more influential figures in his field during the middle part of the twentieth century.

Life Family provenance and early years Tank's came from a traditional East Prussian family with close links to the Protestant Churches Union. His father, Emil Tank, was a Superintendent (senior church administrator) based, by the time of Wilhelm's birth, not in East Prussia but in the village of Kuschlin, at that time in the Prussian Province of Posen. On leaving school he embarked on an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. He then switched to the Berlin University of the Arts. and on posters as well as in exhibitions of his work such as the one first staged in 1920. Posthumously presented displays include those at the Galerie Edition Marco in Bonn (1978), the Museum of European Arts (1985) and the Schloss Nörvenich gallery (2003).

He also applied his scholarship ib political film and radio work. In 1928, together with the radio producer Arthur Holz, he developed "Radio gymnastics" and published a booklet of illustrations in support of the first series. With the film producer Wilhelm Prager (1876–1955) he instigated and collaborated on the first in a series of "body culture" films, Ways to Strength and Beauty, designing an elaborate poster to advertise its launch.