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Alfons Kröner

* (unknown) in Breslau; † 1937 in Breslau; Moulangeur

Little is known about Kröner's biography. In 1897, he succeeded the moulangeur Paul Berliner (dates unknown) at the Dermatological University Clinic in Breslau, which had developed into an important center of German-speaking dermatology under Professor Albert Neisser (1855-1916) at the end of the last century. Neisser trained numerous students who subsequently worked as full professors at various dermatology clinics in Europe. After almost a decade at the Breslau clinic, Klingmüller was also one of his students before he accepted a call to the dermatology clinic in Kiel in 1906. In 1890, inspired by the moulages of Jules Baretta in Paris, Neisser began to build up his own collection of moulages, which was to develop into one of the largest collections in Europe. Kröner was characterized by enormous productivity over a period of forty years. He created a total of 2695 moulages, which were distributed at home and abroad through donations or sales. His moulages can be found in German collections in particular, as many ordinaries brought moulages with them to their new place of work after working in Wroclaw. There are still 313 moulages in Wroclaw itself. The 354 works preserved in Kiel make up the largest contingent of the collection and date from the period from 1897 to 1908 and from 1931. There is no explanation for the long break between 1908 and 1931, but it is possible that undated moulages can be assigned to this period. Both some dated and undated moulages by Kröner bear a company label with the inscription "Alfons Kröner, Atelier für medizinische Lehrmittel Breslau XVI". Since Kröner is listed as an artist and modeler in the "Address Book for Breslau" from 1910 to 1930, the undated moulages could date from this period. The high quality of detail, coloration and realism that characterized Kröner's work can be seen in Eduard Jacobi's atlases of skin diseases, which were highly regarded at the time. The "illustration of a clinical picture" (moulage) is used as a photographic model in Jacobi's atlases. Kröner's moulages make up the largest proportion of wax models illustrated in all editions. In the 5th edition of the Jacobi Atlas, Volumes I and II, 25 moulages that are now in the Kiel collection are illustrated. However, it is no longer possible to determine whether these are the original moulages or reproductions. There are no references in the atlases to explicitly Kiel moulages.

^{from: www.dermatology.uni-kiel.de/pages/forschung/moulagensammlung2.php}

He was one of the most important moulage artists of his time. As was customary at the time, many moulageurs kept their wax recipes, which were needed to produce the moulages, under wraps for fear of competition. Kröner was also considered secretive when it came to his wax mixture. According to Ute Euler (2000), it is all the more astonishing that Alfons Kröner owned a patent for "The process for modeling body parts in wax". The patent dates from January 4, 1902 and was completely unknown until recently. It not only describes the individual steps in the production of moulages in detail, but also specifies the detailed composition of the wax mass. There are 29 moulages by Alfons Kröner in Kiel which bear the white, handwritten inscription "DRP". The assumption that this abbreviation is a reference to a "German Imperial Patent" could be confirmed by a patent search according to Ute Euler (2000).

^{from: publicus.culture.hu-berlin.de/collections/detail.php?dsn=511&view=2}