Alfred Thiele

Alfred Thiele was born in Leipzig. Carl Thiele (1859–1929), his father, was a book dealer. Alfred's initial training was in stonework and wood carving. Then between 1903 and 1908, he attended the Arts Academy ("Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst") in Leipzig. His teachers included Adolf Lehnert and Bruno Héroux.

After a short stay in Munich Thiele returned to Leipzig and embarked on a career as a freelance artist. Starting in 1910, his work involved medallions and wall-mounted plaques. From 1911 he became more focused on figurines and participation in exhibitions. His early style reflected the naturalist and Jugendstil influences of the time, but during the 1920s he moved on through expressionism to so-called new realism. Influenced by Aristide Maillol and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, his artistic interest turned towards the presentation of physical movement and expressions of the human body. By 1928 he had become sufficiently well known to justify a newspaper headline that read "There is only one sculptor in Leipzig: Alfred Thiele!" ("Es gibt nur einen Bildhauer in Leipzig: Alfred Thiele!"). During the 1930s he began to apply the skills acquired working on small figures to much larger figures. Thiele applies his outstanding powers of observation, his sense for movement and other specialist abilities to developing a mastery of animal sculptures. Some of his designs were reproduced on an industrial scale by the Heinz Schaubach firm, offered as both glazed and unglazed porcelain figures. He also applied himself to statues other adornments for monumental grave stones.

As a teacher, and later as director for sculpture classes at the Leipzig Arts Academy between 1921 and 1953, Thiele exercised a great influence. One example (among many) was setting up a close collaborative relationship between the academy and the city zoo which created a tradition of animal sculpture in Leipzig which endures to this day. His pupils, in both a narrow and a broader sense, included Max Alfred Brumme, Hellmuth Chemnitz, Kurt Kluge, Rudolf Oelzner, Alfred Sabisch, Fritz Zalisz, Walter Arnold, Elfriede Ducke, Gisela Richter-Thiele, Hans-Joachim Förster, Bruno Kubas, Gunter Morgner, Rolf Nagel and Rolf Szymanski.