Otto Lessing (sculptor)

Otto Lessing (24 February 1846 – 22 November 1912) was a prominent German Historicist sculptor whose work largely shaped the appearance of Berlin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the son of history and landscape painter Carl Friedrich Lessing and the great great nephew of poet Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Lessing created sculpture and decorative architectural elements on the façades and interiors of many important buildings in Germany, such as the Reichstag, Berlin Cathedral and the Reichsgericht (Supreme Court) in Leipzig. In addition to large public contracts, he also designed commercial buildings and residential villas. At the height of his career in 1911, Lessing was appointed to the Senate of the Prussian Academy of Arts and awarded the Pour le Mérite in Science and Arts (German: Pour le mérite für Wissenschaft und Künste), Germany's highest civilian decoration.

Otto Lessing was born in Düsseldorf. His artistic education began with his father, who instructed him in painting. He then studied sculpture from 1863–1865 under Carl Steinhäuser at the Kunstschule Karlsruhe and then from 1865–68 with Albert Wolff in Berlin. After these years of training Lessing returned to Karlsruhe, where he worked at Carl Steinhäuser's studio until 1872.

At the founding of the German Empire, with the choice of Berlin as imperial capital, Lessing hoped for a busy career and in the autumn of 1872 moved to Berlin. There he opened a studio for decorative sculpture at Wartburgstraße 14 in Schöneberg. The then unknown sculptor benefited from recommendations of his uncle Robert Carl Lessing, principal owner of the Vossische Zeitung with contacts with influential politicians and artists. Lessing's father also moved to Berlin in 1880 and bought himself a prestigious residence in the Tiergarten district.

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