Emy Roeder
(Würzburg 1890 - Mainz 1971)
Biography
Emy Roeder
Emy Roeder (1890–1971) was a German sculptor and printmaker whose work gave modern figurative sculpture a deeply human, introspective force. Born in Würzburg, she studied in Munich, then in Darmstadt with Bernhard Hoetger, before moving into the Berlin avant-garde, where she encountered artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Her sculpture focused on women, mothers, children, animals and vulnerable human figures, often reduced to compact volumes, quiet gestures and expressive inner tension. In 1937, her Pregnant Woman was confiscated by the Nazis and shown in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition, while her career was interrupted by exile, war and internment in Italy. After returning to Germany in 1949, Roeder taught, exhibited widely and participated in the first documenta in 1955. Her bronzes, drawings and terracottas preserve a language of dignity, endurance and compassionate modernism.