Sascha Schneider

Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider, commonly known as Sascha Schneider (21 September 1870 – 18 August 1927), was a German painter and sculptor.

Schneider was born in Saint Petersburg in 1870. During his childhood his family lived in Zürich, but following the death of his father, Schneider, moved to Dresden, where in 1889 he became a student at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (Kreuzgymnasium). In 1903 he met best-selling author Karl May, and subsequently became the cover illustrator of a number of May's books including Winnetou, Old Surehand, Am Rio de la Plata. A year later in 1904, Schneider was appointed professor at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar.

During this period Schneider lived with painter Hellmuth Jahn. Jahn began blackmailing Schneider by threatening to expose his homosexuality, which was punishable under § 175 of the penal code. Schneider fled to Italy, where homosexuality was not criminalized at that time. In Italy, Schneider met painter Robert Spies, with whom he traveled through the Caucasus Mountains. He then traveled back to Germany, where he lived for six months in Leipzig before returning to Italy, where he resided in Florence. When the First World War started, Schneider returned to Germany again, taking up residence in Hellerau (near Dresden). After 1918, he co-founded an institute called Kraft-Kunst for body building. Some of the models for his art works trained here.

Schneider, who suffered from diabetes mellitus, suffered a diabetic seizure during a ship voyage in the vicinity of Swinemünde. As a result, he collapsed and died in 1927 in Swinemünde. He was buried in Loschwitz Cemetery, Germany.

• Mein Gestalten und Bilden. 1912. autobiography

• Sascha Schneider - Ideenmaler & Körperbildner/"Sascha Schneider - Visualizing ideas through the human body" (2013), Stadtmuseum Weimar
• "Nude in Public: Sascha Schneider - Homoeroticism and the Male Form circa 1900" (2013), Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art

• "Van-de-Velde-Jahr Thüringen 2013". Retrieved 2013-06-21. 
• "Leslie-Lohman Museum Website". Retrieved 2014-12-31. 

• Hans-Gerd Röder: Sascha Schneider - ein Maler für Karl May. Karl-May-Verlag. Bamberg 1995. 3-7802-0280-8.
• Rolf Günther / Dr. Klaus Hoffmann: Sascha Schneider & Karl May — Eine Künstlerfreundschaft. Karl-May-Stiftung. Radebeul 1989.
• Hansotto Hatzig: Karl May und Sascha Schneider. Dokumente einer Freundschaft. "Beiträge zur Karl-May-Forschung". Edition 2. Bamberg 1967.
• Annelotte Range: Zwischen Max Klinger und Karl May. Karl-May-Verlag. Bamberg 1999. 3-7802-3007-0.
• Felix Zimmermann: Sascha Schneider. Verlag der Schönheit. Dresden 1924.
• Sascha Schneider: Titelzeichnungen zu den Werken Karl Mays. Verlag von Friedrich Ernst Fehsenfeld. Freiburg. 1905.