Egon Altdorf (1922–2008)

German sculptor, printmaker, stained-glass artist and poet.

Altdorf was born at Treptow an der Rega (now Trzebiatów, Poland) and spent his earliest years in East Pomerania. In 1924 his family moved to Berlin. Leaving school, in 1941, he was drafted into the Afrika Korps under Rommel and served as a non-commissioned officer in communications until his capture and internment, for three years, in Texas, in the United States. By the time he was released, in 1946, he knew that his parents were dead. He chose to start a new life in Wiesbaden, where he worked as assistant editor of the Wiesbaden Kurier and studied art in Mainz with the sculptor Emy Roeder (1890–1971).

In 1954 Altdorf married the Scottish artist Diana Wilson, with whom he had a son, Dorian. When the marriage ended in 1959, Diana returned to England with Dorian. Altdorf lived and worked in Wiesbaden until his death in 2008.

Altdorf was a founder member in 1950 of the Wiesbaden group of artists, Gruppe 50, and in 1955 a founder member of the professional artists’ association, BBK Wiesbaden. He taught for thirty years as a lecturer at the Volkshochschule Wiesbaden.

Among Altdorf’s finest achievements is his artistic scheme for the new synagogue in Wiesbaden (1966), which has been described as one of the most significant examples of synagogue design and architecture in post-war Germany.