Joseph Beuys

In 1940, the story goes, 19-year-old Joseph Beuys volunteered for the Luftwaffe. Three years later, while on a mission, his plane crashed on the Crimean Front, instantly killing the pilot. Beuys survived. According to Beuys, he only survived because some Tartars found him unconscious in the snow and took him back to their tents to care for him. They covered his body in fat and wrapped him in felt to keep him warm. As he regained consciousness the pungent smell of the fat and the felt appeared to awaken his inner artist. That's how he told it anyway. The truth was probably a little more prosaic; he was rescued by a German commando and taken to military hospital where there was no fat, no felt and in all likelihood, no Tartars.
It doesn't matter whether the story is true or not, it was important to Beuys. It inspired him to create several remarkable works of art such as The Pack (1969), which consists of a Volkswagen bus with 20 wooden sleds, each with a rolled-up felt, leather belt, fat, rope and flashlight. The Story, as it came to be known, wasn't just an inspiration for much of his work, but a statement of his optimistic belief in humanity's ability to survive if only we cared for one another.
 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/mar/05/joseph-beuys-homogeneous-infiltration