Thomas Buscher

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Thomas Buscher (7 March 1860 – 13 May 1937) was a German sculptor and wood carver known for church sculptures and memorials.

He was born in Gamburg, the son of a stonemason. His father died when Thomas was six, and his older brother Karl took over the family business. In 1876 his brothers Clemens and Sebastian moved to Munich to study, and with their help Thomas earned an apprenticeship with church architect Joseph Elsner. He also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich starting in 1880 under the sculptor Joseph Knabl.

In 1884 he went to Chicago to work as an ornament carver for Sebastian, who had moved there to run their uncle’s workshop. He returned to Munich in 1886, worked briefly for Elsner, and soon started his own woodcarving and finishing business, around 1888. He married Creszentia Maria Mamhofer in 1890. From 1891 he ran a studio on Karlstraße with sculptor Balthasar Schmitt and also taught at a crafts school.

In 1900 he bought a home on Nymphenburger Straße that also served as his studio for religious art. He became a Bavarian citizen in 1907 and was named Royal Bavarian Professor at the Academy in 1913, without teaching duties. He mainly created sculptures for churches, as well as grave monuments and war memorials, working in Neo-Gothic and Neo-Baroque styles.

Many of his works were damaged or removed after church reforms in the 1960s, especially in rural churches, though some have since been restored. In 2013, the Buscher family home in Gamburg was turned into a museum honoring him and his brother Clemens.