Wilhelm Wandschneider

After securing recommendations from Ludwig Brunow and Martin Wolff the Mayor sent a letter to Grand Duke Frederick Francis III, who granted Wandschneider a personal gift of 150 Marks to study at the Prussian Academy of Art.

In 1895, he became a Master Student of Reinhold Begas but did not remain long, having won a prize from the "Philip von Rohr Foundation" which enabled him to study in Italy for a year.

[2] Full of confidence upon his return to Berlin, he was determined to achieve success as a free-lance sculptor, participating in several contests for monument and fountain designs.

Buoyed by the positive reception he received at the St.Louis World's Fair in 1904, he entered competitions for monuments in places as diverse as Manila, Cape Town and Quito, but to no avail.

Wandschneider's entry, a single nude female statue, called "The Naked Truth", was selected as the winner by the jury, which subsequently invited him to St. Louis to collect his winnings.

[5] After Germany's defeat in World War I, many artists entered a period of financial distress as public commissions and private clients were difficult to find.