Hermann Struck Orig. Lithograph of “Richard Dehmel, German writer” 

Ex. 8/45 signed in Pencil and in the Plate, Kowno, 1916

Signed and numbered in pencil and signed in the plate with initials, Magen David, Kowno 1916

Size: 28.5 x 22 cm. (11.2 x 8.6 inches)

Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel (18 November 1863 – 8 February 1920) was a German poet and writer.
A forester's son, Richard Dehmel was born in Hermsdorf near Wendisch Buchholz (now a part of Münchehofe) in the Brandenburg Province, Kingdom of Prussia.
He got his first impressions of nature wandering the oak forests tended by his father, and first attended school in his hometown. He then attended the Sophiengymnasium (a Berlin gymnasium) yet was expelled after clashing with the headteacher. He finished his school days in Danzig (today Gdańsk, Poland) and subsequently studied the natural sciences, economics, literature, and philosophy, first at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin and then at Leipzig University, where he obtained a doctorate in economics with a thesis on the insurance industry.[1][2] He then worked as a secretary at a fire insurance association, and remained in this position until, after the publication of his second volume of poetry, he turned full-time writer.[1]
In 1889, Dehmel married Paula Oppenheimer, sister of Franz Oppenheimer. He became active as a writer and co-founded Pan magazine in 1894. Dehmel divorced Paula in 1899 and traveled Europe with Ida Auerbach (née Coblentz), who had formerly been engaged to Dehmel's rival Stefan George. Dehmel married Ida in 1901, and that same year they settled in Hamburg.
Dehmel's poetic volume Weib und Welt (Woman and World) triggered a scandal in the late 1890s: denounced by the deeply conservative poet Börries von Münchhausen, Dehmel was tried for obscenity and blasphemy.[3] Despite being acquitted on technical grounds, the court condemned the work as obscene and blasphemous and ordered that it be burned.[4] Dehmel would again be prosecuted for obscenity and blasphemy, but again acquitted as earlier.
Dehmel was a champion of the rights of workers.[2] However, despite his record of fighting conservatives, Dehmel joined the many patriotic and pro-war German intellectuals who inveighed the masses to support the German Empire after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.[4] Fifty-one at the time, Dehmel volunteered in 1914 and served until 1916, when he was wounded. He called on the Germans to keep fighting right until 1918. Dehmel died in 1920 in Blankenese from the after-effects of an injury sustained during the war.

Hermann Struck [1876-1944] was the leading Jewish artist who ascended to the Land of Israel. He contributed to the development of graphic arts in Israel more than any other artist there. Honorable status is reserved for him in Israel’s cultural life. He was born to an Orthodox family in Berlin. At the beginning of his career as an artist, he became famous as one of the most important Jewish artists in Germany following the publication of his famous portrait of Theodor Herzl [Portrait of Theodor Herzl] in light of his deep impression of Herzl following their 1903 meeting in Vienna. He published The Art of Etching in 1908, which details the process of printing etchings. The book was very successful and made its author the leading name in the field of etchings in the entire art world. His students included Chagall, Max Liebermann and Jozef Israëls.
At the same time, he was a German patriot and volunteered for military service in World War I[2] serving as a translator, liaison officer and military artist.[2] He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class and promoted to an officer for bravery, in 1917 he became the referent for Jewish affairs at the German Eastern Front High Command.[4]
Struck was an enthusiastic Zionist activist. He ascended to the Land of Israel in 1922 and built his home on the Carmel. He continued visiting his studio in Berlin on an annual basis until 1933, when he started to deal with founding the new Bezalel in the Land of Israel.