Josef Thorak and Atatürk

Josef Thorak (7 February 1889 in Salzburg, Austria – 26 February 1952 in Hartmannsberg, Bavaria) was an Austrian-German sculptor. He was well known for his "grandiose monuments"


Mavi Boncuk | 


Hitler at Thorak's workshop. Hitler visiting Thorak's Munich workshop with bust of Atatürk behind him, February 10, 1937 (on the left, Goebbels and Thorak; in the background, the sculpture "The Family", later part of the German pavilion at the 1937 Paris World Exposition).
Photos by Heinrich Hoffmann; Hoffman Collection, Staatsibliothek Munchen  Munich, February 1937.

'Deutscher Mann und Deutsche Frau' figures for the German pavilion 'Deutschen Haus' at the Paris EXPO 1937.

Ataturk Bust by Joseph Thorak Chosen by Hitler as a Nazi Sculpture

1934 | Thorak Denizli Sculpture study. 

However, it was at the dawn of the Third Reich in 1933 when Thorak’s career as an artist reached its full splendor, although his success (together with Arno Breker’s) was not immediate. In 1935 the jury appointed to evaluate the sculptural works for the new Olympic installations in Berlin refused to take the works of an Austrian artist (that was three years before the Anschluss) however the German National Socialist Party interceded in favour of the artist, showing the value of Thorak’s work. 

By 1937 Thorak was appointed professor at the Art Academy of Munich. In Baldham (east of Munich) right in the outskirts of the city a giant workshop was built for the artist by Albert Speer himself, the largest known in the whole world by that time. The workshop is still in place nowadays; the studio consists of a central building with a height of 16 meters and a floor space of 700 m². On the front are three huge gates, by which the monumental statues would pass through. From 1937 onward many of Thorak’s works would be exhibited in all editions of German art exhibitions at the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art), Munich, up until 1944. Among the official art magazines of the time that highlighted works by Thorak is worth mentioning Kunst in Dritten / Deutschen Reich, issued monthly by the NSDAP since 1937.


Used for the cover of Kamal Atatürk, soldat und führer. 

by	Hanns Froembgen Publisher:Stuttgart, Franckh [1935]

SOURCE 


 ANTON HANAK (1875-1934) He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His only work is the Monument of Confidence in Kızılay, Ankara, which he produced with Josef Thorak. JOSEF THORAK (1889-1952) He studied in the studio of Mauzel at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin.



Ataturk Bust by Joseph Thorak Chosen by Hitler as a Nazi Sculpture 

Professor Josef Thorak (1939) by Fritz Erler (1913-1967)

Photo by Hoffman of Josef Thorak working on massive sculpture in the 1930s.