Artwork from the Beck Memorial Archives

Carl (or Karl) Hofer was an artist in Berlin when Maria Lowenstein lived there and they likely knew eachother. A Geman expressionist painter, his work was often politically charged. Hofer was also the director of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts.  Hofer was not Jewish but was considered a degenerate artist by the Nazi Party and lost his teaching position. By the end of his career, he was one of the greatest German painters of his era.

While we do not know the exact relationship between Maria Lowenstein and Carl Hofer, we do know the Lowenstein home was busting with artists and muscians during the lates 1920s and early 1930s. Somehow the Lowenstein family and Carl Hofer's paths crossed and when Maria Lowenstein's artworks were donated to the Beck Archives, this lithograph by Carl Hofer was mixed in with her pieces.