Otto Wilhelm Sohn-Rethel (1877–1949)[1][2] German lepidopterist and a painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting art movement.

[6] In 1902, Sohn-Rethel started his travels in Rome, followed by Frascati, and finally in 1904 to Anacapri a city on the island of Capri.

[9] In 1906, he met up in Rome with his brother Karli, his brother-in-law Werner Heuser, and artists Karl Hofer, Hermann Haller and Maurice Sterne.

Villa Lina became a meeting place for the expatriate community including his nephew Alfred Sohn-Rethel, writer Norman Douglas, among others.

At the end of the war, the house and all the paintings that it held were however not returned and Sohn-Rethel was forced to live with his friend and neighbour Hans Berg.