Hans Baur

Hans Baur (26 February 1829 – 5 June 1897) was a German sculptor.

Life Hans Baur was born in Konstanz. His father, Johann Baur (1789–1837), was also a sculptor, originally from Thurgau, across the lake in Switzerland. The son completed his schooling in 1846 and went on to become a pupil of Johann Jakob Oechslin in Schaffhausen. Oechslin evidently recognised Baur's talent, but there was also a personal connection, in that Oechslin's second wife, Adelheid, was Hans Baur's half-sister.

In 1862, having left the Fine Arts Academy, he moved back to Konstanz where he married Albertine Robert (1842-1926). Based in Konstanz, he would be able to pursue his career as a sculptor from now on. There was an interlude during 1863/65, however, during which he undertook an extended study tour to Paris and Rome. Two life-sized marble figures which he produced for the Villa Weschsler in Ulm on his return show clear signs of his study of Italian sculpture.

The celebratory unveiling of his final work took place on 30 October 1897, nearly five months after his death. The imposing "Kaiserbrunnen" (loosely "Emperors fountain") in the Market Square in Konstanz features a niche on each of its four sides. Each contains a life-sized statue of an emperor: Henry III, Barbarossa, Maximilian I and Wilhelm I. The political message lacked subtlety: the recently deceased Hohenzollern Emperor of the united Germany could be ranked with three of the most celebrated Holy Roman Emperors of the second millennium.