After attending a Jesuit school, he studied pottery like his father: Who is Josef Thorak?

He was born on February 7, 1889 in Austria (Salzburg). After attending a Jesuit school, he studied pottery like his father. He attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1910.

In 1915, upon the recommendation of Wilhelm Bode, he transferred to the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin for his master's degree to complete his education there. He worked freelance since 1920. While he was still studying, his works were deemed worthy of important awards, and finally, in 1928, he won the state prize of the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he was a permanent exhibitor.

In 1934, after the death of Anton Hanak, he undertook the construction of the Güven Monument in Ankara, among other works in Turkey. One of his greatest professional achievements was the sculpture he made for the Olympic Games held in Berlin in 1936. Thorak, who was given the title of professor by Adolf Hitler in the same year, became a state artist of the Nazi regime.

Josef Thorak (7 February 1889 in Vienna, Austria – 26 February 1952 in Bad Endorf, Bavaria) was an Austrian-German sculptor. He became known for oversize monumental sculptures, particularly of male figures, and was one of the most prominent sculptors of the Third Reich.

He worked as a lecturer at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts since 1937. He also made models for the grounds of the Imperial Party congress in Nuremberg and sculptures for the Imperial chancellery and participated in the Paris World Exhibition.

Although he was at the forefront of the Nazi regime's state artists, the Munich Criminal Court acquitted him in the denazification trial after World War II; but was banned from working and selling.

He lived a simple life in Salzburg until his death on February 26, 1952.