Birgit Stauch (Born in Baden-Baden, (Germany), December 11, 1961) is a contemporary German sculptor who works in bronzes, sculptures, sketches and

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...

Life

Stauch was born in Baden-Baden,

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

, daughter of artist and sculptor, Alexander Stauch. Upon returning from compulsory service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

her father studied stone carving as a profession and sculpture as a passion thus inspiring his daughter to follow in his footsteps. She studied design at the

Johann Friedrich Böttger Johann Friedrich Böttger (also Böttcher or Böttiger; 4 February 1682 – 13 March 1719) was a German alchemist. Böttger was born in Schleiz and died in Dresden. He is normally credited with being the first European to discover the secret of th ...

Institute in

Selb Selb is a town in the district of Wunsiedel, in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the Fichtelgebirge, on the border with the Czech Republic, 20 km northwest of Cheb and 23 km southeast of Hof. Selb is well known fo ...

, Bavaria. She furthered her education as an understudy of

Arno Breker Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German architect and sculptor who is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where they were endorsed by the authorities as the antithesis of degenerate art. He was made official ...

(1900–1991) and sculptor Rudolf Alexander Agricola (1912–1990). Stauch also studied drawing under Clarissa Kupferberg (1907–1989). She worked as a creative director in the atelier at Strassackers', Europes' largest art

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

for some 14 years. Returning to Baden-Baden she took over her fathers' stonemasonry business as managing director all the while continuing to create a broad variety of works in addition to teaching sculpture.

Works

Her works include a wide variety of sketches, drawings, stone and bronze sculptures, bronze reliefs, busts such as

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''T ...

, portals, bronze coat of arms, miscellaneous works as well as commissioned pieces. Stauch created a

holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

memorial commemorating the deportation of 450 Jews from Freiburg to the concentration camp at

Gurs Gurs is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. History Gurs was the site of the Gurs internment camp. Nothing remains of the camp; after World War II, a forest was planted on the site where it stood. Geogr ...

, in France, close to the Spanish border on October, 22nd, 1940. Gurs was considered to be a transit point for detainees in transit to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

Public monuments

*Till Eulenspiegel, Water Work, Baden-Baden 1986"Birgit Stauch und Ihre Werke" Badisches Tageblatt, 5 Juli, 1988/Nr. 152 *Memorial, "17. June", Baden-Baden 1989 *"Monk"

Sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, Bad Herrenalb 1991 *Public Fountains, Rastatt Rauental 1992, 2002 *Public Fountain, Sandweier 1994 *Public Fountain, Giengen an der Brenz 1996 *Public Foutain Weyhr 1999 *Memorial for "Peace, Freedom and Friendship in Europe" Baden-Baden 2007

Bronze portals

*Government Palace of the

Emir Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cerem ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

1986 *Schmalbach water reservoir 1992 *Annaberg water reservoir 1998

References

*"Birgit Stauch und Ihre Werke" Badisches Tageblatt, 5 Juli, 1988/Nr. 152 *"Ihre Liebe gilt dem Pferd" BNN, Freitag 22 Mai, 1992/Nr.118 *Kunst "Off The Main Stream" ic?Boulevard Baden-Baden, Ausgabe Frühjahr 1994 *"Erinnerung an Deportation" Freiburger Zeitung, 21 Okt. 2003 *"Mantel Denkmal, Freiburg Wiwili-Brücke" Badische Zeitung, November 8, 2003 *"Kleinplastiken in Bronze und Silber" Badener Tageblatt, Freitag Sep 3, 2004/Nr. 204 *"Birgit Stauch kreirt Preis" Badener Tageblatt, Dienstag Sep 4, 2007/Nr. 204

External links