On Monday (October 5), Ulf Hinke, a descendant of Bayer, and his wife Gudrum met with Mayor Tadeusz Krzakowski and his associates. The conversation concerned the transfer of this valuable family collection. Prof. Siegfried Maser, chairman of the Legnica Friends’ Association in Wuppertal, also attended the meeting. “We want all the artist’s works in our family’s possession to be gathered and displayed in one place,” Ulf Hinke emphasized. “Legnica is the best place for this.”

Mayor Tadeusz Krzakowski assured them that he greatly appreciated the gesture and that the works would be displayed appropriately in Legnica. “I hope this will initiate broader cooperation with our German partners,” Mayor Krzakowski said, “and lead to the gathering in our city of Legnica’s works of art scattered around the world. The proposal also has an international dimension. I appreciate this gift all the more because it is part of the family’s achievements and heritage. It is something special and important.”

Let us recall that Mayor Tadeusz Krzakowski is seeking to have the collections relating to Legnica held at the museum in Wuppertal, our partner city, transferred to our city.

The collection of Legnica’s Copper Museum contains four paintings by Bayer, including one entitled “Mongolenschlacht.” Its acquisition for the Copper Museum’s collection enriched the collection of iconography related to the Battle of Legnica in 1241 and the documentation of the work of artists active in Legnica during the interwar period.

Walter Bayer (1883–1946) was a drawing teacher, painter and illustrator. The artist was born on October 28, 1883, in Legnica, as the 16th of Otto Bayer’s 18 children. Otto Bayer was the teacher who headed the former Dornbuschschule, that is, Evangelical School No. 3 (today’s Zofia Kossak Primary School No. 10) on Jaworzyńska Street.

In keeping with family tradition, Walter Bayer was destined to become a teacher. He attended the Teachers’ Seminary in Legnica. In 1904, he began working as a teacher, and four years later undertook one-and-a-half years of teacher training in drawing at the Academy of Art in Wrocław. After completing his studies, he worked, among other places, in Potsdam, East Prussia and Pszczyna. In 1914, he was appointed drawing teacher at the Municipal Gymnasium in his hometown of Legnica. However, his professional career was interrupted by the First World War, in which he served as an officer.

He returned to Legnica in 1919. He worked at the gymnasium until 1937, and later at the Prince Henry School (Herzog Heinrich Schule), in the building that now houses I LO. His students included Hubertus Breitkopf, Eduard Frey and, above all, Hans Jatzlau. In Legnica, Walter Bayer initially lived at 22 Scheibestrasse (today’s Orzeszkowej Street; the building no longer exists), and later, in the 1930s and 1940s, at 11 Albrechtstrasse (now 11 Poselska Street; the building survives).

In the 1930s, he served as secretary of the Liegnitzer Kunstverein association. In his work, he addressed historical subjects and captured the beauty of contemporary Legnica. He worked as an illustrator of books, music publications, advertising materials and propaganda prints. He published drawings and caricatures in the local press.

Legnica Municipal Office/Grażyna Humeńczuk, Copper Museum/ii