Charles Gottfried Bunge

Charles Gottfried Bunge was a German sculptor, enamel artist and painter in Emmering near Fürstenfeldbruck .

Charles Bunge was born in Munich, the son of metal artist Albert Gustav Bunge and Claire Mellin from London. He had a younger brother, Gustav, who died in France in 1944 at the age of 21. The parents ran a metal art workshop for brass, copper and bronze work in Emmering. Since both of them had to take care of their company intensively, the sons were often left to their own devices. The grandmother who looked after them was very religious and passed much of this on to the children. Charles was considered headstrong. He followed his father in his artistic career and became a painter, sculptor and enamel artist. At first he worked in his father's workshop. His education was more self-taught and from his friend and teacherWilli Baumeister (1889–1955) inspired. As a representative of non-representational painting in the 1920s to 1950s, he initiated Bunge's turn to abstraction. In 1952 Charles Bunge married the painter Elisabeth Wargau from Fürstenfeldbruck and together they founded the "Bunge-Wargau" workshop in Emmering. The marriage produced two children: Daniel (born 1956), who also painted, and Rena (1958–2014), who worked as a goldsmith.

From his war service on the Russian front, Charles Bunge suffered from war trauma , neurorheumatism and, as a result, sensitivity to the weather, as well as frozen feet. These experiences shaped his political and moral views as well as his social commitment. He was involved in the peace movement of the 1950s and 1960s, fought against the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany and helped conscientious objectors with their justifications. He was a member of the Communist Party and the Buddhist Society. Bunge was also a vegetarian. 

On December 25, 1964 he died at the age of 44 as a result of a heart attack.