After an apprenticeship at the wood carving school in Bad Warmbrunn (today: Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój) in the Giant Mountains, Herbert Volwahsen studied from 1925 to 1931 at the Academy of Arts in Dresden. From 1929 onwards he was also a master student of the sculptor Karl Albiker. Together with Karl Hofer, Will Grohmann, Josef Hegenbarth and Max Pechstein he organised the First General German Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1946. His large relief Passion (1946–1948) for the Gertraudenfriedhof cemetery in Halle an der Saale incorporated his experiences during the Dresden bombing raid in February 1945 and his encounters with former concentration camp inmates. In 1953 he emigrated to the West. In 1956 he taught at the Bielefeld School of Applied Arts, then until 1972 at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences. In 1972 he moved into a studio in Murnau. The focus of his work was the human figure: monumental, life-sized or as a small sculpture. The little ice skater seems completely absorbed in himself. With his head held high and his arms skillfully folded behind his back, he seems to be completely absorbed in his skating.