(b Isny, Allgau, 5 Oct 1865; d Munich, 15 Oct 1939). German sculptor. He trained first with the German sculptor Johannes Hoffart (b 1851) in Munich and then from 1891 under Wilhelm von Rümann at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich. After working independently for a number of years he taught at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from 1911 to 1930, though he retained his studio in Munich throughout that time. In 1931 he moved back to Munich. In the works created during his early years in Munich, Netzer, as a product of the naturalist, neo-Baroque school centred on Rümann, fluctuated between Neo-classicism as preached by Adolf von Hildebrand and the stylizations of Jugendstil. While both the Triton Fountain (inaugurated in 1893) in Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse in Munich, with the god of the sea resting on a projecting rock, and the picturesquely animated Prometheus Group (1896), on the gable of Würzburg University, have features suggestive of the Baroque, the Narcissus Fountain (1896–7; Munich, Bayer. Nmus.), with its more concisely controlled forms, clearly reveals Netzer’s familiarity with Hildebrand. On the other hand the effects of Jugendstil can be observed in the Fountain of the Norns in Munich, completed in 1907 and originally intended for Karlsplatz but now standing on Maximiliansplatz, with the sweeping curves of the pool of water, the ornamentation of twining plants and the block-like silhouettes of the three Fates. In the choice of theme there is also nostalgia for the Germany of the past, which was then very widespread and later came to be tinged with nationalism.

• Netzer, Hubert
  • Breker, Arno