Biographical/Historical Information

Struck was a master of etching and book illustration. He taught the art of printmaking to Marc Chagall, Max Liebermann and Arno Nadel and his monograph on the art of etching is a classic in the field. Struck was both an Orthodox Jew and a Zionist, however, his outlook on the world was decidedly cosmopolitan. This is also evident in his countless portraits, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Sigmund Freud, and impressions from his wide travels. While on service in the German Army during WW I, he came into contact with the Jewish communities of Galicia and Lithuania. During this time he created a series of sketches in Eastern Europe, which he lated turned into a book together with Arnold Zweig, titled "The Face of East European Jewry". In 1923 he emigrated to Palestine, where he was among the Bezalel School in Jerusalem.

During World War One (1914-1918), Hermann Struck participated in an ethnological project with the anthropologist Felix v. Luschan that found full support of the Imperial German Ministry of War. Struck’s portraits of “orientalist” prisoners of war and other drawings were published in Berlin in 1917 under the title “Prisoners of War” [Kriegsgefangene; ein Beitrag zur Völkerkunde im Weltkriege / Einführung in die Grundzüge der Anthropologie; LBI Library call number GN 24 L8 Online].

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Citation

Struck, Hermann: Mahaman Chan von der Seite, Leo Baeck Institute, 81.374.