Berthold Müller-Oerlinghausen

Berthold Müller-Oerlinghausen, gen. BMO (1893-1979) was a sculptor, draftsman and mosaicist. Expressive expression and religious themes became lifelong guidelines for him early on through Hans Perathoner in Bielefeld. Experiences as a soldier in World War I pushed him to convert to Catholicism with a great passion for Italy. He devoted himself to a renewal of Christian art in expressive forms. However, ethnic-minded priests destroyed his church decorations. Although he could have pleased the Nazis with his stylistic possibilities between Barlach and Etruscan sculpture, this was abhorrent to him. Like so many German artists, he withdrew to Lake Constance in 1940, where he led his mosaic workshop, still founded in Berlin, to great prosperity during and after World War II.