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An owl, the first wood sculpture done in 1920 in Königsberg after return from WW1
where he served on the western front. This owl resembles the fieldstones he carved decades later,
which were among his signature pieces. |
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In 1410, Poland and Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Order at
Tannenberg (Grunwald), which lead to
the eventual decline of the Order. In 1914, however, von Hindenburg annihilated Russia's Second Army at
nearly the same place. In honor of this victory, the Germans, beginning in 1924, constructed an
enormous monument which held four tablets designed by Ehrich. The monument was partly destroyed by the
German army in 1945 to prevent it from falling into Russian hands at the end of WW2. Only a few
artifacts of the Tannenberg monument remain today. |
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In 1923 Ehrich carved a cherub riding on a duck from muschelkalkstein (shell limestone).
The fountain was completed by classmate Paul Kimritz in 1926 and placed in the garden of the art
school in front of the director's residence. In 1936 he carved a second one in Buffalo, New York
from Medina sandstone. The fountain was completed by his son in 1999 in Blacksburg, Virgina according
to his sketch. Note the finer detail in the second sculpture. The Kunst- und Gewerkschule and hence
probably also the original fountain were destroyed. |
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The Hauptbahnhof or main train station was completed in 1929,
and William Ehrich collaborated with his professor, Erich Schmidt-Kestner,
to carve the reliefs around the doors. The door posts were carved by
Schmidt-Kestner, while Ehrich executed the reliefs above the doors.
These were in travertine and represented travel by water, land, and
air and arrival and departure. The train station survived, but the
Brachert sculpture and door reliefs were removed. |
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The Kunst Akademie was located on the Königstraße until 1916 in a building shared
with the Kunst- und Gewerkschule. Unable to expand at that location, construction at a new
site on the west side of Königsberg was begun in 1910, a move that saved it from destruction.
After the move, the Kunst- und Gewerkschule took over the vacated space but
was destroyed by the Allied bombing of August 29-30, 1944. For details, see
Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung 40 (1) pp. 2-6, January, 1920. |
