Physician and Patron
10/20/2026Karl-Heinz Weis, who passed away in 2025, was one of the University Hospital’s most distinguished figures. But the Martin von Wagner Museum also owes him a great deal – and is repaying that debt with an exhibition.
It is a long-standing tradition at the University of Würzburg for a member of the university to enrich its art collections: Had the ‘German-Roman’ Martin von Wagner not donated the approximately five thousand Italian drawings in his possession to the university in his home town shortly before his death in 1858, the graphic arts collection of the museum named after him would be far less significant.
A prominent physician at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität continued this tradition: Professor Karl-Heinz Weis (1927–2025), an anaesthetist of international renown, transferred ownership of a large number of works of art to the Martin von Wagner Museum over a quarter of a century, works which he had originally acquired for himself. He passed away a year ago at the age of 98, and the museum is now exhibiting a selection of his donations.
Doctorate after retirement
Weis had a very close relationship with art. Not only did he and his wife Ricarda surround themselves at home with a wealth of modern and contemporary paintings, sculptures and prints. After his retirement, Weis also studied art history, in which he was awarded a doctorate in 2008 with a thesis on the painter Karl Hofer.
His dissertation supervisor, Professor Stefan Kummer, was at the time not only holder of the Chair of Art History at the University of Würzburg but also, in a dual role, Director of the Martin von Wagner Museum. It was through this connection that the first donations were made, which gradually expanded the museum’s collection of modern art.
The most prominent pieces are now on display in a special exhibition – 44 works, ranging from drawings and prints by the Leipzig School to sculptures by Ernst Barlach and Igor Mitoraij. Naturally, the ‘Young Woman with a Vase of Tulips’, created by Karl Hofer in 1924/25 and acquired by the Martin von Wagner Museum in 2019, is also included. The painting is by far the most valuable new addition to the modern art collection, which has been expanded many times over thanks to Weis’s donations.
The exhibition is entitled ‘Conditio humana’. This reflects a particular interest of the collector, for whom the works he acquired were always an occasion to reflect on humanity ‘in itself’, its conditions and constraints. In the artworks he studied so intently, Weis’s own gaze comes to life once more.
Date and venue
The exhibition opens on Friday 23 October at 7.00 pm at the Martin von Wagner Museum. No booking is required. ‘CONDITIO HUMANA | Karl-Heinz Weis, Physician and Patron’ runs until 23 December and can be visited during the museum’s regular opening hours (Tuesdays to Saturdays 1.30–5 pm, Sundays 10 am–1.30, alternating with the antiquities collection).
