Gerhard Marcks (February 18, 1889 – November 13, 1981) was a German sculptor, who is also well-known for his drawings, woodcuts, lithographs and ceramics.

He was born in Berlin in 1889. At age 18, he worked as an apprentice to German sculptor Richard Sheibe.
In 1919, when Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus, Marcks was one of the first three faculty members to be hired, along with Feininger and Johannes Itten. Specifically, Marcks was appointed the Formmeister (Form Master) of the school’s Pottery Workshop, which was located not in Weimar but in an annex to the school in nearby Dornburg.
Marcks had made the models for a series of animal sculptures, which were reproduced in china by a porcelain factory. His interest in animal forms is reflected in the work he made for his first Bauhaus portfolio (Neue Europaeische Graphik I), such as Die Katzen (“The Cats”) and Die Eule (“The Owl”), both woodcuts. In time, his focus shifted to the human figure, and it was this subject that continued to hold his attention for the rest of his life.

In September 1925, the Bauhaus was relocated to Dessau, and its Pottery Workshop was discontinued. Marcks moved instead to the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Burg Giebichenstein near Halle.

During the rise of the Nazi government in the 1930s, which resulted in the harassment of many German artists, Marcks’ works were judged unacceptable to officials. Marcks remained in Germany despite the harassment and dismissal from his teaching position and confiscation of 24 of his sculptures, including several of his works that were presented to the public in the infamous exhibition of “degenerate art” (“Entartete Kunst”) in Munich in 1937, along with that of other Bauhaus artists.

Most of his life’s work was destroyed when his Berlin studio was bombed in 1943 and works he had hidden were plundered and mutilated. Following the war, Marcks taught four years in Hamburg and then moved to Cologne where he worked as a freelance sculptor. He was commissioned to create a number of memorials for soldiers and civilians who died during the war and his public works can be found in cities throughout Germany, including Cologne, Hamburg, Mannheim and Frankfurt. While principally known for his many sculptures, his works also include a large number of woodcuts, drawings and lithographs.

Marcks received countless honors for his work. He was awarded the Goethe Medal in 1949, and in 1952 he was elected Knight of the Order Pour le Merite. Three years later he was awarded a Prize of the City of Berlin, and in 1959 received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany. Late in life he was inducted as a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A postage stamp was issued by the German government to commemorate the centenary of his birth in 1989. Luther College also commemorated the centenary with a yearlong celebration including special exhibits, a catalog, and distinguished lecture.

Marcks was married to Maria (Schmidtlein) and the father of six children. He died in 1981 at the age of ninety-two. Permanent records of his works and a collection of his art are maintained at the Gerhard Marcks Haus in Bremen.

The Luther College Fine Arts Collection may be the largest repository of Gerhard Marcks works in the United States. It contains 68 drawings, 65 prints, and 9 bronze sculptures, most of which were donated to Luther College by his former student, Marguerite Wildenhain. Jutta Fischer (Herrmann) Anderson donated a portfolio of ten woodcuts by Marcks, printed in 1948, which illustrate the myth of Orpheus. Additional works, such as cookie molds and exhibit posters, were donated by others to supplement the collection. Of particular note is the monumental bronze statue of Oedipus and Antigone located on the southeast corner of the Center for Faith and Life. Created in 1960, the Luther statue is one of six castings of this sculpture. Only two are located in the United States. The work was given to Luther College by Wilfred and Ruth Jensen Bunge and formally received at a senior honors day convocation May 10, 2000. The Luther College Archives contains a large Marcks archival collection while Preus Library holds many exhibit catalogs and books illustrated by and about Marcks.