Life in Bronze: Lawrence M. Ludtke, Sculptor

An Awakening

15 With baseball now behind him, Ludtke focused on settling into his life as a sporting goods salesman for Riddell. The life of a salesman often led to great outings on the golf course, and for Ludtke a golf course was always a welcome sight. Every aspect of the game brought him great pleasure—being outside, basking in Mother Nature, and enjoying the company of good friends. One friend in particular decided to play matchmaker. During their golf games, this friend often told Ludtke that he wanted him to meet one of his clients, a young woman who could “out-talk you and just as sharp a girl as any guy could want to meet.” In the fall of 1959, the details were settled for him to have lunch with this young German woman named Erika Lewandowski. He was to pick her up at her office, where she worked for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS Airlines). Erika clearly remembers the day when Ludtke walked into her office as she was sitting behind her desk. Her eyes kept going up, and up, and up as she thought to herself, “Oh, my God, it doesn’t end, he is so tall!” The date was a success, for when Ludtke asked her out for the following weekend, she said yes.1 Erika was unlike any other woman Ludtke had met before. The petite native of Berlin was a survivor of the Allied bombings in World War II. She was seventeen years old when the war ended. She said, “My generation had nothing to do with the Third Reich, except we had to clean up the mess it made.” Ludtke was captivated by the vivacious young woman and was not deterred one bit by the fact that she already had a young daughter, named Ellen. He found Erika to be intelligent, charming, and “the most beautiful girl I had ever An Awakening , 16 An Awakening Ludtke and his wife, Erika, beside an SAS Airlines aircraft during their honeymoon trip to Europe in 1960. Courtesy of the Ludtke family. dated.” He remembered praying, “Dear God, don’t let this beautiful woman ever get away from me. This is the one.” Erika herself was falling for the tall Texan, noting that he was “a real gentleman, so kind and honest.” She knew their relationship was becoming more serious when Ludtke invited her to his church to meet his mother, the pianist. This Denver Harbor church held a An Awakening 17 special place in his family given that it was named the Ludtke Methodist Church. The Ludtke brothers financed the complete debt on the church, and it was named in honor of Larry’s great-grandparents. Four months after they first met, Ludtke took Erika’s hand in marriage in this same church, surrounded by family and friends. A trip to Europe was the perfect honeymoon for the newlyweds, and it turned out to be an event that would shape their lives. The first thing Erika wanted to do was to have Ludtke meet her mother in Berlin, then travel to Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, and Greece. It was while touring the land of Michelangelo , Leonardo, and other Renaissance masters that, according to Ludtke, “a light went on.” The couple went from museum to museum, viewing the paintings, the sculptures, and the architecture. Ludtke found himself mesmerized by the sculptures, especially the works of Michelangelo, which brought on intense emotions he never had experienced. The more sculptures he saw, “the more excited I got,” recalled Ludtke. Erika recognized immediately that Ludtke presented a great natural understanding of depth and proportion, as well as a unique intuitive comprehension of the techniques and styles of the masters they were viewing. An overwhelming desire to become a sculptor began to take hold.2 ...