Fritz Baumgarten

He acknowledged that his style of anthropomorphized animals, small beings, and plants was influenced by the illustrator Ernst Kreidolf. Baumgarten himself inspired the artist Lore Hummel. He used light pen strokes painted with watercolours. His style was modern for the time, loose and impressionistic, but was grounded in figure drawing, animal drawing and academic composition.

• Name — Fritz Baumgarten • Birth Name — Friedrich "Fritz" Karl Baumgarten • Born — 18 August 1883 • Birthplace — Reudnitz (now part of Leipzig) • Died — 3 November 1966 • Place of death — Leipzig • Spouse — Elsa Baumgarten (nee Hollburg) • Children — 2

Fritz Baumgarten studied at the Fine Arts academies in Dresden and Munich, then completed military service, before returning to Leipzig in 1908. He initially earned his living as a freelance designer and illustrator mainly of postcards. During World War I, he fought in France, including at Verdun. For his services, he received the Iron Cross Second Class (Eiserne Kreuz zweiter Klasse). Fritz Baumgarten married Elsa Hollburg in 1926. After a stopover in Sachsenberg-Georgenthal, where the artist was conscripted to work in an armaments factory, the Baumgartens moved to Reichenbach. In the summer of 1946 the family returned to the Connewitz district of Leipzig. Fritz Baumgarten, who joined the Free German Trade Union Confederation around the mid-1950s, immediately made contact with various publishers in West and East Germany, such as Lange & Meuche Verlag, Scholz Verlag, Engelbert Dessart Verlag, Titania Verlag and others. Disguising them as "small pictures for the little nieces and nephews" the artist sent his illustrations to West Germany. The fee was sent to him in kind or credited to accounts in the West. Around the beginning of the 1960s, his creative power waned, Fritz Baumgarten was soon 80 years old, and the number of his annually published children's and picture books decreased significantly.

Books that were translated into English include: • Spring In The Enchanted Forest, published by Crescent, ISBN 9780-517469804 • Summer In The Enchanted Forest, published by Crescent, ISBN 978-0517469811 • Autumn In The Enchanted Forest, published by Crescent, ISBN 978-0517469798 • Winter In The Enchanted Forest, published by Crescent, ISBN 978-0517469828 • Adventures of Timothy and Nicky, Marilyn Nickson (Author), Fritz Baumgarten (Illustrator), published by Ward, Lock & Co., ISBN 978-0706362336

For a list of printed material in German see Fritz Baumgarten (German Wikipedia page). Fritz Baumgarten illustrated books written by Albert Sixtus, Märchen von Erich Heinemann, Helge Darnstädt, Lena Hahn, Liselotte Burger, Rose Pflock, Friedrich Zöbigker, Hamster und Igel, Eine lustige Geschichte, Wolfgang Männel, Christine Groß. His publishers included Esslinger, Alfred Hahn, Parabel, Beltz & Gelberg (Verlagsgruppe Beltz), Titania, and Terzio.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count. Recorded with the occupation painter. Institutional cataloguing adds that fritz Baumgarten is recorded with the occupation lithographer. Recorded as a citizen of Germany. Recorded with the gender male. Born on 18 August 1883. Institutional cataloguing adds that fritz Baumgarten died on 3 November 1966.