Art stele Anatol Buchholtz

His home in Kampen, which he himself called the "Fox's Den," was hidden behind trees and into which he increasingly withdrew in the last years of his life. After his wife died in 2009, he was left with two greyhounds as his trusted companions. Due to Anatol Buchholtz's passing, his efforts, supported by the municipality and the Kampen Tourist Service, to permanently open the "Fox's Den" as a meeting place and landmark on the "Kampen Art Trail" could ultimately not be realized. "In my house, life should develop, people should be able to learn and work," Buchholtz had previously proclaimed. Just a few weeks before his death, he had also notarized a foundation that supports artists in the fields of visual arts and architectural culture. The honorary chairwoman of the Sylt Art Association described Anatol Buchholtz as an "absolutely lovable loner." His thatched "fox den" was also uniquely designed, with a sculpture path running through it, where living and working areas merged. Anatol Buchholtz and his wife used to take in injured or neglected dogs here and lovingly care for them.

Born in 1927 in Sensburg, East Prussia, Buchholtz studied sculpture in Braunschweig and Munich immediately after the end of the war. This was followed by architecture studies in Braunschweig. After various professional positions, Buchholtz and his wife moved to Kampen in 1968, where he had already purchased a property on Möwenweg in 1958 and spent his summers. From then on, he worked as a freelance sculptor and – until 1975 – also as an architect. Many of his sculptures, which are characterized by their strict form, were installed as "art in public spaces," including in Kiel, Braunschweig, and Bremen. But Buchholtz also addressed environmental problems in his works, for example by artistically reworking washed-up civilizational waste. In addition to art, the Kampen native had a special interest in animals: as the founder and long-time chairman of the Sylt Animal Welfare Association, he was awarded the St. Francis of Assisi Medal by the German Animal Welfare Association in 2002. He also left an artistic mark at this place of work by installing a work consisting of numerous ceramic elements depicting an impressive bird migration at the animal shelter. Anatol Buchholtz was also socially and politically active, serving, among other things, as chairman of the Federal Association of Visual Artists.