Fritz Klimsch

Fritz Klimsch (10 February 1870 – 30 March 1960) was a German sculptor, and the younger brother of the painter Paul Klimsch.

Klimsch was born on 10 February 1870 in Frankfurt am Main to a family of artists, studying at the Royal College for the Academic Fine Arts in Berlin, and was then a student of Fritz Schaper. In 1898, Klimsch was a founding member of the Berlin Secession.

During the Nazi Germany era, Klimsch was highly regarded as an artist, and created busts of Adolf Hitler, Erich Ludendorff and Wilhelm Frick. According to a diary entry by Joseph Goebbels, Klimsch was the most mature of our sculptors. A genius.. In September 1944, Goebbels added Klimsch to the Gottbegnadeten list, a list of prominent artists considered crucial to Nazi Culture, and became one of only 12 visual artists to be featured on the list. After Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II, Klimsch and his family settled in Salzburg, Austria, but in 1946 was deported by the local burgermeister, Richard Hildmann, for being a German citizen. The family moved to Freiburg im Breisgau, in Baden-Württemberg, West Germany. Klimsch's former membership of the Nazi Party and his closeness to the Nazi regime made him a controversial post-war figure, and led to his expulsion from the academy of the arts in 1955. However shortly before his death in 1960, Klimsch received the Federal Cross of Merit from Hans Filbinger, the Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, on his 90th birthday.

Kilmsch died on 30 March 1960 in Freiburg im Breisgau, and was buried in Saig bei Lenzkirch, where he was an honorary citizen.