Hans Godo Fräbel is one of the first American flame- workers to have been part of a major art movement. In the early seventies, he produced sculptures in the pop aesthetic that set him apart from the other glass artists at this time. Fräbel was born in Jena, East Germany in 1941. After World War II, the family ed the communis- tic regime in East Germany and they settled in Mainz am Rheine in West Germany. As a young man, he was trained as a scienti c glassblower at the prestigious Jena Glaswerke in Mainz am Rheine, West Germany. In his spare time, he had the opportunity to focus on his real passion, art, and attended di erent art classes, to learn how to paint and draw.
In 1965 he came to the United States and settled in Atlanta. He obtained a position at the Georgia Institute of Technology in its scienti c glass blowing laboratory. ere he also continued his art studies at Emory University and Georgia State University.
While working at Georgia Tech, Fräbel’s creative talents were often sought after by professors and acquaintances alike to create glass sculptures as gifts for friends, part- ners and business associates. With so many people enjoy- ing the beauty of his glass sculptures, Fräbel felt strength- ened to continue his quest to become an artist.
In 1968, Fräbel established his own glass studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the next 40 years, he would follow in ac- cordance with the European tradition of apprentice and mentoring studio master: as the master artist he would pass his skills on to a handpicked group of apprentices (such as Ginny Ru ner), who after many years of training would become master artists in their own right.
