Otto Moroder (born 29 January 1894 inOrtisei in Val Gardena; died 27 July 1977 in Mayrhofen, Zillertal) was an Austrian sculptor fromSouth Tyrol.[1]
He was the last born son ofJosef Moroder, he learned his trade in his father's workshop. In 1919 he married the Grödner Anna Knottner and settled inMayrhofen in theZillertal. The marriage produced two sons, Klaus andAlbin, and a daughter Anne Marie. The girl died aged 10 weeks. The family adopted a boy named Rudolf Geisler-Moroder, who founded a woodcarving school inElbigenalp in theLechtal.[2]In 1916, on the occasion of the centenary of the TyroleanKaiserjäger, Otto made a created a statue on the subject of the traditional "Tyrolean firefighter", which was presented to the Kaiser on his birthday. The Emperor gave the artist in a private audience on 16 September 1916 in theSchönbrunn Palace and awarded him with a golden clock.In 1977 he was awarded the Cross of Honor for Art and Science of the Republic of Austria .[3]Because of his style and his motives, Otto Moroder was nicknamed the "Albin Egger-Lienz of Wood Carver".[4]
In the Viennese Museum of Military History, there is the Zirbenholz sculpture Kameradentreue, created around 1918 .
In 1964, the forest cemetery was built in Mayerhofen. The large wooden cross in the cemetery chapel was created by the sculptor Otto Moroder.[5]
For the Fatima pilgrimage church inDroß in the Waldviertel, he created a statue of the Virgin Mary.[6]
In theSt. Canisius Church in Vienna, consecrated in 2002, a Madonna carved by Otto Moroder in 1943 stands on the crescent moon, which was saved in 1995 during a major fire of the previous church.[7]
For the parishZwentendorf on the Danube, he also created a statue of the Virgin Mary.[8]