Klaus Bendixen (1924–2003) attended Baumeister’s class from 1951 to 1954. From 1961 to 1989 he was professor of painting at the Hamburg College of Fine Arts.
The two classrooms were in the attic of the Stuttgart Academy of Arts. The smaller room was the better one and those who stood at the easels were conscious of their importance. The attitude was ambitious, a little obstinate; the female students were scared off, no distractions. Wednesday morning there was reviewing, this date determined the work week. Everyone wanted to present themselves with their newest works. The pictures were hung on the long front wall, without names, but one hoped to be unmistakable.
Baumeister was not punctual, so we would wait a long time. At last his massive figure, brown camelhair coat, sports cap. Mood: cheerfully grumpy, benevolent. There were chairs, stools, and table edges, for Baumeister an unsteady wicker chair that he filled without difficulty. Baumeister loved cigars, he offered them freely, certain that they would be declined. [Then] the first cloudlets of smoke, the pictures were silently scrutinized, calm, and concentration filled the room.
I had many of these reviewings, and all were defined by Baumeister’s tolerance, by his warm-hearted understanding; he was never hurtful, he always sought out an approach to make an improvement, to increase a picture’s expression. One had to learn to understand him correctly. “Quite interesting” was already bad, “decorative”, that was fatal. He was not authoritarian; he had a calm composure and a stable self-esteem.
He needed the interaction with students, he observed precisely, he learned, too. When he retired, he could not let go off the academy [and] on Wednesdays gave reviewings in the painting hall. I once saw a small group from a distance, almost lost in the large, high room. Baumeister sat among the few students, thoughtfully sucking on his cigar and listening.
(Quoted from Hommage à Baumeister — Freunde erinnern sich an ihren Lehrer. [Homage to Baumeister — Friends Remember Their Teacher]. Exhibition catalog. Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau Schloss Dätzingen 1989, p. 53)