Heinrich Vogeler

Artist. Born in Bremen in Germany (1872). Studied painting at the Düsseldorf Akademie der Künste (1890–95). Founding member of the Worpswede group of artists. Contributed to the development of Jugendstil in Germany. Participated in the Bremen revolution (1919). Member of the German Communist Party (1924). Married Sonja Marchlewska, whose father lived in Moscow (1923). Invited to help design rural settlements for the collectivisation programme in the Soviet Union (1929). Emigrated to Moscow (1931). Worked as an architect and art critic, wrote and illustrated books and newspaper articles, curated exhibitions. Member of the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists (1934). Wrote texts and drew illustrations for anti-Nazi leaflets following the German attack on the Soviet Union. Broadcast appeals to the German Army and citizens of the Third Reich over Moscow Radio (1941). Exiled to the village of Korneyevka in Kazakhstan (September 1941). Unable to earn a living due to poor health. Died of hunger and disease in the rural hospital of the Semyon Budyonny Soviet Farm near Karaganda (1942).