Currently there is an exhibition of Lothar Grund's works in the library, where you can e.g. see drawings for the National Theatre's staging of The Man Outside in (Draußen vor der Tür) by Wolfgang Brochert in 1954.

Lothar Grund was born in Schwerin, Germany, on October 22nd, 1923. In 1950 he moved to Iceland in search of new opportunities. There he met actress Anna Þorbjörg Halldórsdóttir. They married on July 25th, 1952, and had three sons: Pétur Adolf Garðar, Atli Halldór and Alfreð. The family moved to Germany at the end of the 1950s and settled in Hamburg. Lothar died on November 15th, 1995.

From 1951 to 1958 Lothar worked on more than fifty theatrical productions in Iceland. They were of all shapes and sizes, for various theatre companies, both amateur and professional. His ambition, experience and artistry had unmeasured influence on Icelandic  scenography and costume design.

On September 18, 1954, the following announcement appeared in Morgunblaðið about The Man Outside, whose play was to be premiered at the National Theater of Iceland later that winter: "It is the first German play that the National Theater presents ... The director of this play will be Indriði Waage, a German, Lothar Grund, has been brought in to take care of the sets."

The Man Outside tells the story of a young German soldier named Beckmann, who returns to his home city of Hamburg after the war, but is greeted by nothing but closed doors and the closed hearts of his compatriots. Lothar knew Hamburg well and the tragedy of the play on his own skin, both the plot and the anguish of the soul, his brother died in the war, but Lothar got injured. These dark forces appear vividly in the set and costumes of the show. The compositions of the director Indriði Waage, the light designer Hallgrímur Bachmann and Lothar Grund were expressionistic, dark and heavy. The void seemed to swallow the stage, like the main character.

The premiere on October 30, 1954 provoked strong and different reactions from the critics who agreed on two things: Baldvin Halldórsson triumphed in the role of Beckmann and Lothar's sets were very good. The Man Outside was only shown seven times to 1,630 viewers, then presumably to a half-empty house most of the time, as there were only seats for 650 people at that time in the hall.

Lothar’s private archive (LMÍ 2022/6) spanning his work period within the Icelandic performing arts is preserved at the Theatre Museum of Iceland. In celebration of his centenary the National and University Library of Iceland and the Theatre Museum are exhibiting a selection of his drawings, placing them in the context of Icelandic performing arts during the 1950s.