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Fritz Seitz: Funeral Oration (1955)

The following funeral oration was delivered at the Stuttgart Prag Cemetery on September 5, 1955. Fritz Seitz (born 1926) attended Baumeister's class from 1948 to 1953. From 1962 to 1992 he was professor for the Foundation of Artistic Work at the Hamburg College for Fine Arts.

Revered Baumeister Family
Dear gathering of mourners

A large number of students - here and widely dispersed - in the midst of appreciations and expressions of friendship, would like to once more convey a word of gratitude:

to the significant painter who attracted us
to the unique teacher who convinced us
to the wonderful human who captured us.

Many of us, in a time, in an environment that had disappointed us, were fully compensated by the person of this man alone.

And thus, since he was completely on the side of the youth, he let us directly participate in a comprehensive work within which his own painting production appeared like a personal interpretation.

Because we were there, we could take part, for us Baumeister created a new, broadly conceived instruction of artistic design overall.

This took place in a humorous - unforgettable atmosphere of complete togetherness in which his personal authority remained something natural and totally self-evident.

He greatly preceded us on the path to continually new discoveries. Thus he was the youngest of us all. Whereas the outside world's lack of understanding annoyed us, he remained unfazed in mental superiority.

Now we are outwardly separated. The results - the gratitude - remain alive within us.

Alive remains in us the image of our unforgettable
W.B.

(Typescript in the Baumeister Archive)