Hermann Wilhelm

Hermann Wilhelm (1897-1970), born on September 4, 1897 in Lauenstein (now part of Ludwigsstadt) in Upper Franconia, was an important German painter and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg.
During the First World War, Wilhelm served as a soldier from 1916 to 1918. He began his artistic training from 1919 to 1923 as a student of Rudolf Schiestl at the Nuremberg School of Arts and Crafts. He then continued his studies from 1925 to 1931 at the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst in Berlin, where he was a master student of Paul Plontke, among others. His talent and work were recognized early on, and he received a medal from the Vereinigte Staatsschulen in 1928.
Wilhelm forged close links with other artists, including Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann, and was actively involved in the founding of the Society for Drawing Arts in Franconia and the Upper Palatinate. His works met with widespread interest and were exchanged with important artists such as Ernst Barlach and Alfred Kubin.
During the Second World War, Wilhelm was drafted again in 1939 and married Wett Scharg in 1940. He served in the war service until 1945, and all of his work up to that point was destroyed by air raids on Nuremberg, particularly on January 2, 1945.
After the war, Wilhelm worked in Erlangen from 1945 to 1950 and was appointed to the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg in 1946. There, as a professor, he influenced a new generation of artists, including Oskar Koller, Toni Burghart and Christian Kruck. From 1960 to 1963, he served as vice president of the academy before he died on February 24, 1970 and was buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Nuremberg.