Oskar Thiede

Oskar Thiede was an Austrian sculptor and medalist. He was trained in metal crafts and studied in Wien (Vienna) at the School of Applied Arts and at the Academy. During this time he made several study trips to Western and Southern Europe. After that he worked as a freelance artist. In World War I he worked as a medalist in the war press quarters and later as a teacher at the technical school for chasers. In 1915 he became a member of the Künstlerhaus, and was later its vice president. He created many sculptures for public spaces, buildings and residential complexes, besides also portraits, small busts and medals. In 1932 he became a professor at the Technical University in Wien. After the “Anschluss” of Austria, Thiede became a member of the NSDAP. In 1945, he was then deleted from the list of members of the Künstlerhaus, but reinstated three years later.

Thiede participated in four consecutive Olympic Games. He was awarded the silver medal in the 1948 Art Competitions at the London Olympic Games for his plaster models of Eight Sports Plaques in the category Sculpturing, Medals and Plaques. At both the 1932 and 1936 Olympics, he probably submitted sports statues both times. The Runner was first shown in 1933 in the annual exhibition of the Künstlerhaus. The _ Swimmer at the start_, a bronze sculpture first exhibited in the 1936 Olympic art competition in, was shown in the following years at the Great German Art Exhibition and the anniversary exhibition of the Künstlerhaus. In 1944, it was bought by the city of Wien and erected in 1955 before the new Theresienbad in Wien-Meidling. All three bronze sculptures – including the discus thrower - were presented at the Great German Art Exhibitions (between 1937 and 1939).

In 1952 he participated again at the art exhibition with two sculptures, the Freestyle wrestlers (a plaster sculpture from 1952) and the Football players (bronze from 1951). In 1955 Thiede created a stone relief showing two soccer players for a facade decoration of a housing complex in Wien (Vienna). For the 1940 Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which then fell victim to World War II, Thiede had already designed the winner’s medal.