"Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach was arguably one of the most
eccentric artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The painter, born
in the small town of Hadamar in 1851, studied at the Munich Academy of Fine
Arts from 1872 and caused a sensation in the Munich area by the 1880s at the
latest. Typhoid fever caused him to refrain from partaking of alcohol and tobacco
and subsequently also from consuming meat. This made him an eccentric at that
time and brought with it the unflattering name 'Kohlrabi Apostle.' Diefenbach, the barefoot vegetarian, dressed in a robe and propagated free-love
relationships and nudity early on.
In 1885 he founded his first commune in the Bavarian quarry
Höllriegelskreuth. There he came into dispute with the authorities because of
the naked sunbathing of the community members, which led to the first nudist
trial in Germany.
His precarious financial situation prompted Diefenbach
to accept the invitation from the Austrian Art Association (Kunstverein) and to go to Vienna.
His exhibition there ended in a fiasco for him because the Kunstverein
embezzled funds. The conflict drove him to the brink of his existence, and
Diefenbach became penniless and homeless. Nevertheless, he stayed in Vienna and
founded the rural commune 'Himmelhof' in Ober-St.-Veit in 1897. The
provocative lifestyle and the authoritarian manner in which Diefenbach ruled
over the members of his community led to tensions, and the commune went
bankrupt in 1899.
Ultimately, after a short stay in Trieste, the artist landed
on the island of Capri. He stayed there until the end of his life without
making the artistic breakthrough he had longed for." D
