Wilhelm Kaufmann
1901-1999
Wilhelm Kaufmann was born on 18th March 1901 in Salzburg. After his final exam he attended a school for applied arts – today academy for applied arts – in Vienna. In 1923/24 he was the assistant of Anton Faistauer.
Between 1938 and 1945 he lived in "inner emigration", as he called it, mostly in Pinzgau. After war he helped energeticly and with great idealism to reconstruct culture in his mother country.
As soon as travelling was possible again he visited England, where he had become a famous portraitist already before the war.
In 1952 Kaufmann he was appointed by the Westtown School in Pennsylvania as an artteacher. Later he relocated to Canada, where he worked as a teacher an freelanced painter.
After his return to Europe he became acquainted with Albert Schweitzer, who invited him to his jungle hospital in 1962.
After three rich periods of creating in Lambarene he visited Africa again and again. In 1984 Wilhelm Kaufmann was one of the founders of the "Sister Cities Salzburg – Singida".
