Waldemar Raemisch

Waldemar Raemisch (19 August 1888 – 16 April 1955) was a German-born American sculptor and educator.^[1]

Waldemar Raemisch was born 19 August 1888 in Berlin, Germany. In 1919, he married metalsmith and enamelist, Gertrude Ruth (née Gallad).^[2] After marriage his wife went by the name Ruth Raemisch.

His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.^[3] Prior to World War II, he taught at the United State Schools for Fine and Applied Arts [de] in Berlin.^[4] In 1937, Raemisch was forced to leave Germany due to the rise in Nazi power, his wife was Jewish.^[5]

The same year, starting in 1937, Raemisch began to teach at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).^[5] He later served as the head of the Sculpture Department at RISD from 1946 to 1954.^[6] Raemisch had many notable students including Peter Muller-Munk,^[4][7] Gilbert Franklin,^[8] Cornelius C. Richards,^[9] and Wolfgang Behl.^[10][11]

He had traveled to Rome in 1955, to complete a 19 figure sculpture that would be public art in Philadelphia.^[12] On 16 April 1955, he died at Salvator Mundi Hospital in Rome after an emergency surgery on his intestines.^[12]

After Raemisch's death, Raemisch's former student and a sculpture professor at RISD, Gilbert A. Franklin (1919–2004) completed the 19 figure sculpture commission.^[13]

His work is included in the public museum collections including at the Smithsonian American Art Museum,^[14] Rhode Island School of Design Museum,^[6] Harvard Art Museums,^[15] Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,^[16] McNay Art Museum,^[17] Currier Museum of Art,^[18] among others.

• Waldemar Raemisch at Olympedia

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