Art stele Walther Baedeker

Walther Baedeker clearly felt at home in Kampen, not only in his private life but also in his professional life: the accomplished architect constructed 28 buildings here between the 1920s and 1950s, including the predecessor of today's "Sturmhaube", which was designed like the stern of a ship and was demolished in 1969. The prominently located "Kliffende" house, which hosted prominent guests such as Thomas Mann and Emil Nolde, was also his design: "Walther Baedeker built us the house - quite large and with two kitchens, a small stable for the horses close to the house and a hayloft above it. In the spring of 1921 the house was finished, ninety steps in a bathing suit to the sea," recalled the landlady Clara Tiedemann in her memoirs. In addition to Kampen, Walther Baedeker worked primarily in Hamburg's Elbe suburbs, where he designed buildings for the upper middle class that combined comfort with prestige. But even here, he incorporated Sylt into his work: in 1935, for example, he built a country house on Eichendorffstrasse in Hamburg for a respected Hamburg wine merchant – "Baedeker was inspired by Frisian farmhouses," the client's son noted. One of the houses Baedeker built in Hamburg even has a direct connection to Sylt. It is a villa that was initially owned by a factory owner and has been the home of Circus Mignon since 2006, which performs every summer in Wenningstedt with its spin-off "InselCircus." In architectural design, however, Walther Baedeker was not committed to a particular style throughout his life: his repertoire of forms ranged from historicist echoes to New Building influences. Baedeker deliberately chose not to enter the public eye through publications or competitions, but was a sought-after private architect in the best sense of the word. In 1914, the architect acquired an old Frisian house in Kampen, now known as Sjipwai, and carefully converted it to suit his needs. A report on this Frisian gem stated: "The charm of the house, built in 1763, lies in the fact that the old living area, with its Dutch tiled walls, alcoves, and doors with hand-carved profiles and brass fittings, has been preserved unchanged." Baedeker later sold the house to his fellow architect Hans Poelzig. In 1959, Walther Baedeker died in the Black Forest. He was laid to rest in the Keitum cemetery, and his descendants maintain close ties to the island of Sylt to this day.