Schneider was born in
Saint Petersburg in 1870. During his childhood, his family lived in
Zürich, but following the death of his father, Schneider moved to
Dresden, where he became a student at the
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1889. In 1903, he met best-selling author
Karl May, and subsequently became the cover illustrator of a number of May's books including
Winnetou,
Old Surehand,
Am Rio de la Plata. A year later in 1904, Schneider was appointed professor at the
Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar. , 1904 During this period, Schneider lived with painter . Jahn began blackmailing Schneider by threatening to expose his homosexuality, which was punishable under
§ 175 of the penal code. Schneider fled to
Italy, where
homosexuality was not criminalized at that time. In Italy, Schneider met painter , with whom he traveled through the
Caucasus Mountains. He then traveled back to Germany, where he lived for six months in Leipzig before returning to Italy, where he resided in Florence. When the First World War started, Schneider returned to Germany again, taking up residence in
Hellerau (near
Dresden). After 1918, he co-founded an institute called
Kraft-Kunst for bodybuilding. Some of the models for his art trained here. , Dresden, a short distance from his sculpture (1916) for the grave of the painter
Oskar Zwintscher Schneider, who suffered from
diabetes mellitus, suffered a diabetic seizure during a ship voyage in the vicinity of Swinemünde. As a result, he collapsed and died in 1927 in
Swinemünde. He was buried in
Loschwitz Cemetery, Germany. ==In popular culture==