Rudolf Belling

He was the first, who took up again thoughts of the famous Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1570), who, at his time, stated, that a sculpture should show several good views.

His theories of space and form convinced even critics like Carl Einstein and Paul Westheim, and influenced generations of sculptors after him.

As his political opinions were also not in conformity with the Nazi regime, he was banned from working as well as from his membership of the Prussian Academy of Arts, Berlin.

In 1935, Rudolf Belling stayed for eight months in New York City, where he had an exhibition in the Weyhe Gallery with his most important works from the Modern Classic Period.

He returned to Germany because his nine-year-old son Thomas was in danger there since his mother, Rudolf Belling's first wife, had been Jewish.

In 1942, he married his second wife Yolanda Carolina Manzini, who was from an Italian-German family, and in 1943, his daughter Elisabeth was born.

He died in Munich in June 1972, being highly decorated by the German government with the Federal Cross of Merit with Star.