Angelica Bäumer

Angelica Bäumer
Born(1932-01-13)13 January 1932
Frankfurt, Hesse
Died18 July 2025(2025-07-18) (aged 93)
Burial placeHietzing Cemetery, Vienna, Austria
Alma materUniversity of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
University of Applied Arts Vienna
OccupationsArt critic, art historian, and exhibition curator
EmployerÖsterreichischer Rundfunk
OrganizationInternational Association of Art Critics (AICA)

Angelica Bäumer (13 January 1932 – 18 July 2025) was an Austrian art critic, art historian, and exhibition curator who specialised in Art Brut and photography. She was also a survivor of the Holocaust.

Early life and family

Bäumer was born on 13 January 1932 in Frankfurt, Hesse.[1] Her father was the German painter Eduard Bäumer [de].[2] Her mother Valerie Bäumer (née Feix) came from a Jewish Viennese family of manufacturers.[2] They met in the 1920s whilst both students of the Swiss painter Johannes Ittenat at the Städelschen Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt.[2][3][4]

Bäumer was the eldest of three children in her family.[1] Her siblings were called Michael and Bettina.[5]

Bäumer's fathers painting were considered "degenerate art" by Nazi Germans[3] and her family's assets were confiscated once the Nazi Party came to power.[6][7] Her maternal grandmother, Ida Feix, was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Poland.[3]

Bäumer and her immediate family fled to Salzburg, Austria,[6] as it was safer there than in Germany until the annexation of Austria in 1938.[3] Bäumer's mother was denounced to the Nazis by a relative in 1943[1] and she was persecuted as a "full Jew."[5] Bäumer and her two siblings were considered "mixed race" and were not allowed to attend school.[1][5] Bäumer, her mother and siblings were forced to wear the yellow Star of David and their passports were stamped with a large "J" for "Jew."[5] Her parents were forced to labour.[3]

Bäumer and her family escaped from Salzburg and fled to the village Grossarl in August 1944,[5] where they were sheltered by Austrian Catholic priest Balthasar Linsinger.[1][3][8] They sheltered in Grossarl, with false identities,[9] and Bäumer's father painted a ceiling fresco in Linsinger's church.[8] They did not have ration cards, but Bäumer and her family managed to survive the war.[10] After the war, the family returned to Salzburg,[5] where Bäumer worked supporting Jewish children who had survived the concentration camps and wanted to emigrate to Israel.[1]

Bäumer spoke about her childhood experiences in World War II as a contemporary witness at live events, schools and for recorded interviews,[10][11][12][13] including for the Witness of Our Time series.[3] She also successfully campaigned for Balthasar Linsinger to be honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem and he was added to the list on 13 April 2011.[9][14][15]

Bäumer married urban planner and architecture critic Paulhans Peters.[15]

Career

Bäumer studied music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, then art history, architecture and tapestry weaving at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.[15][16]

From 1971, worked for the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF),[16] reporting on art and culture and making documentaries.[17] In 1984, she became secretary to the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) politician and then Minister of Education Herbert Moritz [de].[16]

As an art critic, Bäumer specialised in the Art Brut movement and photography.[16] Her feminist work about the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt and women was translated from German to English by the Czech translator Ewald Osers in 1986.[18][19] She also wrote about Austrian artists including Soshana Afroyim,[20] Otto Mauer [de],[21] Herbert Stejskal,[22] and Irma Rafaela Toledo [de], as well as the Austrian photographer Erich Lessing.[23]

As a curator, Bäumer exhibited with Harald Gfader [de] and Robert Kabas. She was commissioner of Biennial art festivals in Sydney (1988)[15][24] and Puerto Rico (1993, 1995 and 1997).[15][25]

In the 1990s, Bäumer was chairwoman and managing director of the Lower Austrian Cultural Forum, a member of the Lower Austrian Cultural Senate. She was also head of the Austrian editorial team of the German art magazine "neue bildende kunst."[15] Bäumer was also a board member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA)[4][26][27][28] (a UNESCO NGO based in Paris, France) and was President of the Friends' Association for the Vienna Künstlerhaus.[4]

Bäumer was honoured as a Berufstitel Professor [de] in 1988 and was a recipient of the Golden Medal of Honor for services to the state of Lower Austria.[15]

Later life and death

A multi-disciplinary symposium was held in Vienna in November 2012 in honour of Bäumer's 80th birthday.[29]

Bäumer died on 18 July 2025 in Austria, aged 93.[15][16][17][25] She was buried in the Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna, Austria.[30]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Birbaumer, Brigitte Borchhardt (26 July 2025). "Angelica Bäumer 1932 - 2025". artmagazine.cc. Archived from the original on 16 November 2025. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  2. ^ a b c Zaisberger, Friederike (2006). Leben über den Tod hinaus ...: Prominente im Salzburger Kommunalfriedhof (in German). Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde. pp. 80–82.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Fischer, Michaela Wilhelm (20 November 2025). "Zum Tode von Angelica Bäumer (18.7.2025): Zeugin der Zeit: Angelica Bäumer". Br.de (in German). Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  4. ^ a b c Birbaumer, Brigitte Borchhardt. "Angelica Bäumer 15.1.1932 – 18.7.2025". AICA Austria (in German). Archived from the original on 11 January 2026. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Biografie Valerie Bäumer". Gedenkstätte Stille Helden. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  6. ^ a b Zeitgeschichte, Verein Lernen aus der; Kuba, Andreas (2005). A letter to the stars: Holocaust, die Überlebenden (in German). Jugend und Volk. p. 32. ISBN 978-3-9501836-0-3.
  7. ^ Mitterrutzner, Christa (1991). Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934-1945: eine Dokumentation (in German). Österreichischer Bundesverlag. p. 463. ISBN 978-3-215-06565-1.
  8. ^ a b Huttegger, Andrea (23 May 2011). "Vor dem Holocaust bewahrt". DrehpunktKultur (in German). Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  9. ^ a b "Angelica Bäumer". Weitererzaehlen (in German). Archived from the original on 12 August 2024. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  10. ^ a b "Sendung verpasst? Zeuge der Zeit: Angelica Bäumer - Eine Kindergeschichte vom 17.07.2022 (ARD-alpha)". Sendungverpasst.at (in German). Archived from the original on 31 January 2026. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  11. ^ Salzer, Robert (8 November 2023). "Zeitzeugin: Das "Nie wieder" scheint vergessen zu sein". ORF.at (in German). Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  12. ^ "Erzählte Geschichte, St. Pölten: Angelica Bauer im Haus der Geschichte". MeinBezirk.at (in German). 8 November 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  13. ^ "Besuch der Zeitzeugin Angelica Bäumer". Bildungszentrum Kenyongasse (in German). 24 February 2024. Archived from the original on 13 January 2026. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  14. ^ "Israel ehrt Großarler Pfarrer Linsinger - oesterreich.ORF.at". salzburg.orf.at. Archived from the original on 26 August 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Nachrichten, Salzburger (23 July 2025). "Kulturpublizistin Angelica Bäumer 93-jährig verstorben". Salzburger Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  16. ^ a b c d e "Angewandte: neue Führung, Angelica Bäumer, Herbert Brandl". FALTER (in Austrian German). 29 July 2025. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  17. ^ a b "Kunstmanagerin Angelica Bäumer verstorben". salzburg.ORF.at (in German). 23 July 2025. Archived from the original on 23 July 2025. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  18. ^ Steiner, Peter (27 September 1987). "And a Painter in Vienna: 1862-1918 : GUSTAV KLIMT: WOMEN With an Essay by Angelica Baeumer; translated from the German by Ewald Osers (Rizzoli: $50; 144 pages, illustrated)". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  19. ^ Bauer, Esther K. (24 June 2014). Bodily Desire, Desired Bodies: Gender and Desire in Early Twentieth-Century German and Austrian Novels and Paintings. Northwestern University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-8101-2993-1.
  20. ^ Bäumer, Angelica; Schueller, Amos (20 January 2015). Soshana: Leben und Werk / Life and Work. Birkhäuser. ISBN 978-3-99043-363-8.
  21. ^ Böhler, Bernhard A. (1999). Reflexionen: Otto Mauer, Entdecker und Förderer der österreichischen Avantgarde nach 1945 (in German). Erzbischöfliches Dom- und Diözesanmuseum. p. 42. ISBN 978-3-902034-00-7.
  22. ^ Fuchs, Heinrich (1986). "Die" österreichischen Maler des 20. Jahrhunderts: S - Z. 4 (in German). Selbstverl. p. 122. ISBN 978-3-85390-006-2.
  23. ^ Crawford, Alistair; Lessing, Traudl; Bäumer, Angelica (2002). Erich Lessing: vom Festhalten der Zeit: Reportage-Fotografie 1948-1973. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (1. Aufl ed.). Wien: C. Brandstätter. ISBN 978-3-85498-194-7.
  24. ^ 1988 Australian Biennale: From the Southern Cross : a View of World Art C. 1940-88. ABC Enterprises for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1988. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-642-53094-3.
  25. ^ a b "Kulturpublizistin und -managerin Angelica Bäumer 93-jährig verstorben". kurier.at (in German). 23 July 2025. Archived from the original on 23 July 2025. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  26. ^ "Angelica Bäumer". Basis Wien (in German). Archived from the original on 16 January 2026. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  27. ^ ARTnews. Vol. 95. ARTnews Associates. 1996. p. 94.
  28. ^ "proHolz". Holzanstoß (in German). Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  29. ^ "Symposium honoring the 80th birthday of Angelica Bäumer Contemporary". National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
  30. ^ "Verstorbenensuche". Friedhöfe Wien (in German). Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2026.
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