The Shadow of the Academies Berlin, 1920. A child is born into a lineage that bridges the industrial heart of Germany and the colonial reaches of the Netherlands. Max Himpe grows up between the Silesian roots of his father, Oskar, and the Dutch heritage of his mother, Wilhelmina. His youth is shaped by the movement of people and the shifting borders of Europe. As the world descends into the chaos of the Second World War, Himpe finds himself navigating the intense, disciplined environments of art academies in Hamburg, Weimar, Berlin, and Munich. These years of study are not merely academic; t…