Ursula Merchant Ursula Merchant Ursula Merchant (born September 10, 1932 in Rostock) is a German Las Vegas-based performance artist, conceptual artist, carpenter. She is probably best known for her series 'Forkin' Hell'. Merchant was born "Ursula S. Wernerberger" in post-war Rostock. Her parents were of Russian extraction. Her father abandoned Ursula and her mother early in Ursula's youth, when he returned from a prisoner of war camp after World War II. Her family moved to a remote village in the Black Mountains of Switzerland after the house next to theirs was destroyed during the bombing at the close of World War II.
Ursula Hoff completed her primary and secondary education. In 1930, Ursula Hoff commenced academic studies spread between the universities of Frankfurt, Cologne, and Munich; later the same year, she commenced studies at the University of Hamburg; among her teachers were Erwin Panofsky, Aby Warburg, Ernst Cassirer, and Fritz Saxl. Upon Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany and the introduction of anti-Jewish measures in January 1930, Ursula Hoff's father, Leopold Hoff, left immediately for London; Ursula and her mother Tussi followed him shortly in July. Because she was born in England, Ursula was able to take up British citizenship, and due to