Abstract

Sculptor William Ernst Ehrich (1897-1960) was born in Königsberg, Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia, and lived at Beydritter Weg 11 until emigrating to the United States in 1929. He was educated at the State Art School in Königsberg under Professors Hermann Brachert, Franz Andreas Threyne, and Erich Schmidt- Kestner. After serving in WW1 and after 1½ years as prisoner of war in Ukraine, Ehrich created numerous works under the supervision of Schmidt-Kestner, Threyne, and Stanislaus Cauer of the Art Academy. These included a war memorial in Insterburg, 4 large bronze tablets in the Tannenberg National Monument, relief figures over the doors of the main train station, heads of Copernicus, Corinth, Herder, and Kant on the façade of the Neue Burgschule, and a fountain cherub at the art school, all of which were lost in WW2.

After establishing his career in Buffalo, New York he moved to Rochester, New York in 1941 where he was Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the University of Rochester and instructor at the Memorial Art Gallery. His works are widely held privately and at institutions across western New York.