# Georg Wrba

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**Georg Wrba** (3 January 1872 – 9 January 1939) was a German sculptor and graphic artist. He created some 3,000–4,000 works, including as a collaborator of the [Zwinger](/source/Zwinger_(Dresden)) workshop.

## Life

Wrba was born in [Munich](/source/Munich) in 1872, the son of a smith. His younger brother [Max Wrba](/source/Max_Wrba) became an architect in [Dresden](/source/Dresden).

Wrba began his training with Jakob Bradl the Elder and his son [Jakob Bradl the Younger](/source/Jakob_Bradl). From 1891 to 1896, he studied at the [Akademie der Bildenden Künste München](/source/Akademie_der_Bildenden_K%C3%BCnste_M%C3%BCnchen) under [Syrius Eberle](/source/Syrius_Eberle).[1]

After some time spent in Italy (with [Egon Rheinberger](/source/Egon_Rheinberger)), a trip made possible by a travel award from [Prince Regent Luitpold](/source/Luitpold,_Prince_Regent_of_Bavaria), he settled in Munich as an independent sculptor in 1897 and became director of the city's school of sculpture.

In 1906 and 1907, he worked in [Berlin](/source/Berlin), where he created sculptures for buildings for the architects [Ludwig Hoffmann](/source/Ludwig_Hoffmann_(architect)) and [Alfred Messel](/source/Alfred_Messel).

Wrba then moved to Dresden, where from 1907 to 1930 he taught at the [Dresden Academy of Fine Arts](/source/Dresden_Academy_of_Fine_Arts). He brought the Dresden school of sculpture into contact with the reforming ideas of the [Deutscher Werkbund](/source/Deutscher_Werkbund) and was a founding member of the Dresden Artists' Association, known as "Die Zunft" ("The Guild"). The basic aim of the "Werkbund", and also of "Die Zunft", was to achieve a collaboration between and integration of various forms of art, rejecting ornamentation for its own sake: painting and sculpture were to form integral parts of architecture.

In Dresden he made, among many other works, the Marie Gey Fountain near the [Dresden Hauptbahnhof](/source/Dresden_Hauptbahnhof) in the *Südvorstadt*, which was donated by a Dr. Heinze for his wife, a student at the Kunstakademie, who had died young. In 1910 Wrba agreed a contract for the restoration and completion of the missing parts of the [Zwinger](/source/Zwinger_(Dresden)), for which he directed the work of 53 sculptors from 1911 to 1933, and himself created many groups of figures modelled from the life.

Wrba died on 9 January 1939 in Dresden, where a street is named after him. He is buried in the [Munich Waldfriedhof](/source/Munich_Waldfriedhof).

## Selected works

Georg Wrba's works principally comprise sculptures for buildings and fountains, and small-scale figures.

- 1899: Seal Fountain (*Seehund-Brunnen*) (bronze), Berlin, in the inner courtyard of the Rudolf Virchow Clinic
- 1899: sculptural decoration on the fountain of the Bismarck Tower (*Bismarckturm*) on the [Starnberger See](/source/Starnberger_See)[2]
- c. 1900: figures and carvings in [St. Maximilian's Church, Munich](/source/St._Maximilian's_Church,_Munich)[3]
- 1900: *Diana auf der Hirschkuh* ("Diana on a Doe"), [Kunsthalle Bremen](/source/Kunsthalle_Bremen)
- 1900: *Europa auf dem Stier* ("Europa on the Bull"), Kunsthalle Bremen
- 1902: Warriors' Fountain (*Kriegerbrunnen*) in [Nördlingen](/source/N%C3%B6rdlingen)
- 1902: façade decoration on the extension building of the [Kunsthalle Bremen](/source/Kunsthalle_Bremen)
- 1905: St. Mang Fountain in [Kempten](/source/Kempten)
- 1905: marble bust of [Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria](/source/Luitpold,_Prince_Regent_of_Bavaria)
- 1906: equestrian statue of [Otto I von Wittelsbach](/source/Otto_I_Wittelsbach,_Duke_of_Bavaria), [Wittelsbach Bridge](/source/Wittelsbach_Bridge), München
- 1906: Chicken Fountain (*Hennebrunnen*) in [Aschersleben](/source/Aschersleben)
- 1906–1908: putti for the [Villa Wollner](/source/Villa_Wollner) in Dresden
- 1906–1911: contributions to the decorative building sculptures on the [Altes Stadthaus](/source/Altes_Stadthaus,_Berlin) in Berlin, including "Allegories of the Civic Virtues" and the decor of the banqueting hall (*Bärensaal* – "Bears' Hall")[4]
- 1907: allegorical bronze group on top of the [Charlottenburg Gate](/source/Charlottenburg_Gate) by the [Charlottenburg Bridge](/source/Charlottenburg_Bridge), Berlin (melted down)[5]
- 1907: two marble portals with allegories in the entrance hall of the [Kaufhaus des Westens](/source/Kaufhaus_des_Westens) in Berlin
- 1907: portraits of [Georg Treu](/source/Georg_Treu), [Hans Erlwein](/source/Hans_Erlwein), [Otto Gussmann](/source/Otto_Gussmann), [Cornelius Gurlitt](/source/Cornelius_Gurlitt_(art_historian)), [Fritz Schumacher](/source/Fritz_Schumacher_(architect)), [Martin Dülfer](/source/Martin_D%C3%BClfer)
- 1908: altar figure of "The Good Shepherd" in the [Church of the Reconciliation, Dresden](/source/Church_of_the_Reconciliation,_Dresden)
- 1909: Bismarck Fountain on the market place in [Arnstadt](/source/Arnstadt)
- 1910: group of "Bacchus on a Drunken Donkey" and two sitting bronze lions with shields on the east side, and the Hietzig Fountain on the west side, of the Neues Rathaus in Dresden[6]
- 1910: figure of [Aphrodite](/source/Aphrodite) on the Marie Gey Fountain in the Friedrich-List-Platz in Dresden
- 1910: relief of "Siegfried's Entrance into Worms" on the Cornelianum in Worms[7]
- 1910: bronze lions in front of the Neues Rathaus in Dresden
- 1911: Rathaus Fountain at the Neues Rathaus in Dresden
- 1912/1913: contributions to the [Märchenbrunnen](/source/M%C3%A4rchenbrunnen) in the [Volkspark Friedrichshain](/source/Volkspark_Friedrichshain) in [Friedrichshain](/source/Friedrichshain), Berlin
- 1911–1933: artistic director of the restoration works on the [Zwinger](/source/Zwinger_(Dresden)), Dresden
- 1917: "Large Bathing Figures" (*Große Badende*) on a mussel shell (bronze) for a country house in [Klein Flottbek](/source/Klein_Flottbek) owned by [Max Emden](/source/Max_Emden); since 1928 on the Roman-style bathing pool of the palazzo of Max Emden on the [Brissago Islands](/source/Brissago_Islands) on [Lake Maggiore](/source/Lake_Maggiore), Switzerland
- 1911: bronze bust of [Peter von Klemperer](/source/Peter_von_Klemperer)
- 1912: sculptural decorations on the Erker, the doorways and the fountain in the courtyard of the *Rappolthaus* in Hamburg[8]
- 1918: Diana on a Doe, Stadtpark Hamburg
- 1918: Large Bathing Figures (*Große Badende*), [Aschersleben](/source/Aschersleben)
- 1918: portrait bust of [Max Klinger](/source/Max_Klinger)
- 1921: statuette "Longing of Love" (*Liebessehnsucht*), Gera Art Gallery
- 1922: bronze bust of [Carl Zeiß](/source/Carl_Zei%C3%9F)
- 1922: Europa Fountain on the Königsheimplatz in Dresden[9]
- 1922: statuette "Naked Dancer" (*Nackte Tänzerin*), Bleichert Collection, Leipzig
- 1922: bronze bust of [Gerhart Hauptmann](/source/Gerhart_Hauptmann)
- 1922: "Small Sitting Figure arranging her Hair" (*Kleine Sitzende, Haar ordnend*)
- 1923: bronze bust of [Alfred Tiedemann](/source/Alfred_Tiedemann)
- 1924: "The Kiss" (*Der Kuss*), in private ownership
- 1925–1930: monument to the fallen of [World War I](/source/World_War_I) in the old graveyard in [Wurzen](/source/Wurzen), with [Oswin Hempel](/source/Oswin_Hempel) and [Arthur Lange](/source/Arthur_Lange_(sculptor)) (1875–1929)
- 1926: [Mönckeberg Fountain](/source/M%C3%B6nckebergstra%C3%9Fe#Die_Bauten) in Hamburg (WV 273); construction of the fountain (to designs made in collaboration with the architect [Fritz Schumacher](/source/Fritz_Schumacher_(architect))) 1914–1920; completion of the side bronze figures 1926 (badly damaged in 1944; the lion was reconstructed by the Hamburg sculptor [Philipp Harth](/source/Philipp_Harth) in 1965)[10]
- 1927: "Contemplating Figure" (*Die Sinnende*), in private ownership
- 1927: group of figures "Widow with two Children" (*Witwe mit zwei Kindern*) for the war memorial in [Radebeul](/source/Radebeul)
- 1928: "Runner" (*Läufer*), in private ownership
- 1929: "Death the Cutter" (*Der Schnitter Tod*) for the crematorium in [Forst](/source/Forst_(Lausitz))
- 1929: market fountain in [Rochlitz](/source/Rochlitz)
- 1930/1934: gravestones for [Bruno Steglich](/source/Bruno_Steglich) and the Wiede family in the graveyard of [Trebsen](/source/Trebsen)
- 1932: large group of architectural sculpture inside the cathedral (Dom) in [Wurzen](/source/Wurzen)

## Further reading

- Drago Bock: *Es sucht seinesgleichen.* In: *Leipziger Volkszeitung*, Ausgabe Wurzen, 10 May 2010
- Günter Kloss: *Georg Wrba (1872–1939). Ein Bildhauer zwischen Historismus und Moderne* (= *Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte*, Band 2.) [Michael Imhof Verlag](/source/Michael_Imhof_Verlag), Petersberg 1998 ISBN 3-932526-20-1
- Thomas Pöpper (ed.): *Georg Wrba (1872–1939). Im Schatten der Moderne* [Plöttner Verlag](/source/Pl%C3%B6ttner_Verlag), Leipzig 2009 ISBN 978-3-938442-67-8
- Rolf Günther: *Der Symbolismus in Sachsen 1870–1920.=* Dresden, Sandstein, 2005 ISBN 3-937602-36-4

## External links

- [article on Georg Wrba in *Stadtwiki Dresden*](https://web.archive.org/web/20130426011751/http://dresden.stadtwiki.de/wiki/Georg_Wrba) (in German)
- [www.cultuurarchief.nl: Ruud van Capelleveen – Georg Wrba (2006)](http://www.cultuurarchief.nl/kunstenaars/wrba-georg-1872.htm) (in Dutch)
- [www.bildhauerei-in-berlin.de: Information on five works by Wrba in Berlin](https://archive.today/20130210124355/http://www.bildhauerei-in-berlin.de/_html/_katalog/kuenstler-1625.html) (in German)
- [Gunther Trentzsch: *Brunnen in Dresden – eine Auswahl*](http://www.g-trentzsch.de/Brunnen%20in%20Dresden.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130917211549/http://g-trentzsch.de/Brunnen%20in%20Dresden.htm) 17 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
- [Historical photographs of Max Emden's villa on the Brissago Islands, Lake Maggiore; sculpture of "Bathing Woman" (*Die Badende*) at the Bagno Romano](https://web.archive.org/web/20130517010601/http://www.isolebrissago.ch/de/galleria-fotografica/storiche/)

## Notes and references

1. [Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, matriculation register](http://matrikel.adbk.de/05ordner/mb_1884-1920/jahr_1891/matrikel-00833)

1. ["Bismarkturm am Starnberger See"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110226112753/http://www.bismarcktuerme.de/ebene4/bayern/assenh.html). Archived from [the original](http://www.bismarcktuerme.de/ebene4/bayern/assenh.html) on 26 February 2011. Retrieved 18 May 2013.

1. [Figures and carvings in St. Maximilian's Church, Munich](http://www.st-maximilian.de/pfarrkirche/index.html)

1. [Return of the bear to the banqueting hall of the Stadthaus Berlin](http://www.berlin.de/sen/inneres/stadthaus/baer.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20131126163439/http://www.berlin.de/sen/inneres/stadthaus/baer.html) 26 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine

1. [Restoration of the Charlottenburg Gate in Berlin](http://www.bildhauerei-in-berlin.de/_html/aktuelles.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130723171333/http://bildhauerei-in-berlin.de/_html/aktuelles.html) 23 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine

1. *Kunst im öffentlichen Raum* (brochure produced by the Dresden City Council) 1996

1. [Gernot Schnellbacher: *Nibelungen-Denkmäler in Worms* (with a picture of the Nibelungen relief on the Cornelianum)](http://www.nibelungenlied-gesellschaft.de/03_beitrag/schnellb/fs06_schn.html)

1. ["Building decoration on the Rappolthaus in Hamburg"](https://archive.today/20120709210805/http://fredriks.de/Kuoehl/Rappolthaus.htm). Archived from [the original](http://fredriks.de/Kuoehl/Rappolthaus.htm) on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 18 May 2013.

1. [Wrba's Europa Fountain on the Königsheimplatz in Dresden](http://www.dresdner-stadtteile.de/Ost/Blasewitz/Strassen_Blasewitz/Konigsheimplatz/konigsheimplatz.html)

1. [Bildarchiv Hamburg, Möckebergbrunnen](http://www.bildarchiv-hamburg.de/hamburg/strassen/moenckeberg/index5.htm)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Georg Wrba](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wrba) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Wrba?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.