Erwin Friedrich Baumann
Swiss architect and sculptor (1890-1980)
Erwin Friedrich Baumann (October 27, 1890 – February 8, 1980) was a Swiss architect and sculptor.
Life and work
Erwin Friedrich Baumann was born in 1890 in Bern as the second of four children of the master builder and politician Friedrich Baumann (1835–1910) and Marie-Louise Baumann-Bigler (1856–1937). Right before starting school he got diphtheria, and the medical treatment at Rotbad (Diemtigtal) led to severe problems at school. Baumann writes in one of his biographical notes: "With the lowest quarter of my class I managed to get into the high school and may as well have slipped into the lecture-halls of the universities."
Because of obstinacy towards one of his teachers, Baumann had to leave the high school.
After a year of practical work with an architect in Vevey followed his basic and non-commissioned officer training in the cavalry, then his high school graduation from the Minerva School in Zurich, and studies in art history and mathematics at the University of Bern. In 1911 he joined the students fraternity Rhenania, which regularly met at the restaurant Bubenberg in Bern. Here, Baumann often joined a table of Bernese artists (where he met among others Ferdinand Hodler). This company promoted his decision "to carve in the future not only heraldry and statuettes with his army knife." Insufficient and negligent care of his wounds after a fall from a horse during his training as non-commissioned officer, resulted in tuberculosis, what lead at last to his release from the army.
In spite of this incident, Baumann dared to join the department of architecture of the Institute of Technology in Darmstadt. The decorative sculpting course of Professor Augusto Varnesi as well as the Darmstadt Artists' Colony Mathildenhöhe inspired him.
The public source identifies “Erwin Friedrich Baumann” as swiss architect and sculptor (1890-1980). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Erwin, Friedrich and Baumann.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q116727. VIAF identifies the subject as 88596318. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890, 1980, 1835 and 1910.
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This entry incorporates text from “Erwin Friedrich Baumann” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.