Karl Clobes

Carl Clobes, born on July 27, 1912 in Kassel and died on January 15, 1996 in Tückelhausen, was a renowned German painter whose work included murals, paintings for public and sacred spaces, stained glass windows and mosaics.
At the age of eight, Clobes was encouraged by a drawing and painting course run by the city of Kassel for artistically gifted children. From 1926 to 1929, he learned the craft of painting while also attending the School of Applied Arts in Kassel. He continued his formal training from 1930 at the Berlin Academy, where he studied in the class of Professor Ferdinand Spiegel.
A formative experience for Clobes was a journey he undertook with his brother in a self-built sailing boat in 1934/35. This took them via Denmark to France, Italy and as far as North Africa. Back in Berlin, he became a master student at the Prussian Academy of Arts on Pariser Platz. There he made numerous friends, including artists such as Hubert Berke, Arnold and Paul Bode, Emy Roeder and Gustav Seitz.
From 1940 to 1941, Clobes received a scholarship from the Villa Massimo of the German Academy in Rome. In the same year, he married the painter Elisabeth Freitag and had four children from this marriage. During the Second World War, he served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht from 1943 to 1946 and was taken prisoner of war. After the war and the destruction of their home in Berlin, the family moved to Tückelhausen in Lower Franconia in 1947.
Clobes became known for his design of churches during the reconstruction of the diocese of Würzburg. He created frescoes, mosaics, stained glass windows and altarpieces in newly built churches as well as in renovation projects. His works were not only found in Lower Franconia, but also in other German cities such as Munich, Schweinfurt, Münster, Marl, Borken and Berlin. Even in 1990, he was still working on the restoration of a 14th century winged altarpiece in the Nikolausberg monastery church in Göttingen.
Clobes undertook numerous study trips through Europe, as far as the Atlantic coasts and the Middle East, exploring places such as Mount Athos, Greece, the Mediterranean islands and the Middle East.