German sculptor, mainly of portrait statues and busts in a neo-baroque style. He was born in Düsseldorf and studied, 1891–1900, in the city’s academy of fine art under Karl Janssen. Baucke’s first success was The Victorious Boxer, a bronze statuette, 1897, now in the Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf.
In 1903, he moved to Berlin and won several commissions from Kaiser Wilhelm II, including, for the terrace of the pleasure garden of the royal palace at Berlin, the statue of Wilhelm III. In 1907, the Kaiser presented a replica of the statue, via his cousin King Edward VII, to the people of Britain; this was erected outside Kensington Palace.
Other significant commissions include a bust of Wilhelm I (1900) for his monument at Rotthausen; and statues of The Electress Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau (1904), Moers castle, and King Frederick I of Prussia and Queen Sophie Charlotte (1909), Charlottenburg Gate, Berlin.
He also executed marble busts of Helmuth von Moltke and Otto von Bismarck (Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld). Baucke died on 12 or 13 April 1915 in Ratingen.
