Rudi Lehmann

Rudi Lehmann was born in 1903 in Berlin

Rudolf (Rudi) Lehmann was born in Berlin in 1903 to Elizabeth Sender, a non-Jewish German woman. In 1919 he was adopted by the Lehmann family.

In 1912 he studied wood sculpture with Ludwig Vordermayer. He later trained in mechanics as a blacksmith's apprentice, studied carving with Harold Isenstein, and studied sculpture and ceramics at an art school in Berlin. There he met Hedwig Grossman, whom he later married.

From 1928 he worked at the Holzmann stone carving company, and he also carved stone at the Pergamon Museum. In 1933 the couple moved to the Land of Israel, living in Haifa and Kibbutz Yagur before settling in Jerusalem in 1937. There he made small carvings in olive wood, ivory and other materials.

In 1953 he helped found the Ein Hod artists' village, where he taught sculpture to students including Yigael Tumarkin and Menashe Kadishman. In 1959 he moved to Givatayim and set up an art school for young people and adults. His work drew on the Canaanite movement and included woodcuts and sculptures in wood, stone, terra cotta and bronze.

Lehmann died in 1977.