Born on 20th May 1878 in Radevormwald, died on 23rd February 1976 in Radevormwald, Germany. He started his artistic education in the private art school of P.P. Bernhard in Barmen between 1902-1905. For a short time, he worked as a pattern designer in a wallpaper company. From 1907 until 1911 he studied art in the class of the Prof. Ludwig Fahrenkrog and Gustav Wiethuchter. He continued his art education at the Fine Art Academy in Dusseldorf between 1911 and 1913. Between 1913 and 1914 he studied fine art in Paris, where he was influenced by the French impressionism, particularly with the works of Paul Cezanne.
With the beginning of the Great War, he was drafted in the German army and sent to Macedonia as an official war painter between 1914 and 1918. Very little works have been recovered from this important artistic period of the artist. There is a gallery record that in 1916 he exhibited 13 oil paintings and 10 graphic works from his war period in an art gallery in Barmen. Despite being a war painter, he painted Macedonian landscapes and scenes. The war years have changed his style, he moved strongly toward the expressionism and social themes. In 1919 he got sick from malaria and he was released from Macedonia back to Germany.
In the 1920s he was a co-founded of the important art group “the Rhein Secessionists”, moving toward avant-garde styles attracting attention to progressive art public in Berlin. He mainly painted scenes from his village Radevormwald, but not as the growing National-Socialist German party wanted. In 1940 his art was labeled as “Degenerated Art” and removed from the museums. After the war, he continued to live and work in Radevormwald. He received many awards until his death in 1976
