Georg Kolbe
Sitzende / Hockende, 1926

Alfred Flechtheim and Georg Kolbe

Georg Kolbe initially studied decorative painting at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dresden from 1893–94. In 1895 he attended a private school run by the Hungarian painter Simon Hollósy and studied painting at the Kunstakademie in Munich from 1895–1997. In 1897 he switched to the Académie Julien to Paris. After meeting Louis Tuaillon in Rome in 1899 his interest turned towards sculpture. After periods spent in Bayreuth and Leipzig Kolbe moved to Berlin in 1904. Through the intervention of Max Klinger, he participated at the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904 and became a member of the Berlin Secession in 1905. He was represented by the Galerie Paul Cassirer. He spent 1905 in Florence as the winner of the Villa Romana prize awarded by the Deutscher Künstlerbund (Association of German Artists). He later took a close interest in the work of Aristide Maillol, participated in the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1909 and met Auguste Rodin. In 1912 the Nationalgalerie Berlin acquired his sculpture ‘Die Tänzerin’ (1911–12). In 1918 he was appointed professor and accepted into the Preußische Akademie der Künste in 1919. He joined the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Workers council for art) and was president of the Freie Secession from 1919–21. The bust of Friedrich Ebert that he made for the Reichstag in 1925 caused a furore and it was not allowed to be shown. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Marburg in 1927.

His works were exhibited on several occasions at the Galerie Alfred Flechtheim from 1927 onwards. His sculpture ‘Der Morgen’ was shown at the World’s Fair in 1929 in the German pavilion.

Kolbe’s ‘Heinrich Heine Memorial’ (1913) in Frankfurt/Main and the ‘Rathenau Fountain’ (1929) in Berlin were dismantled between 1933–34. From 1937–44 he exhibited at the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich.

In 1945 he became a member of the Kulturbund zur demokratischen Erneuerung Deutschlands and submitted a design for a competition in 1946 for a memorial to the victims of Fascism.