Richard Kuöhl

Richard Kuöhl (May 31, 1880 – May 19, 1961) was a German sculptor, specializing in providing architectural sculpture for the architects of the Brick Expressionism style in northern Germany in the 1920s.

Schumacher viewed architectural sculpture as particularly important, and so provided his former student with many government commissions.

Kuöhl worked prolifically in the 1920s and 1930s in terra cotta, stone, and ceramics, developing a weatherproof Baukeramik.

His work is incorporated in many buildings, bridges and monuments in Hamburg and other northern German cities.

The monument, with its almost mocking inscription, Germany must live, even if we have to die, continues to be swathed in controversy, with much public sentiment favoring removing it while others, particularly veterans groups, demand that it remain.