Alexander s. Buddeüs: a passagem do cometa pela Bahia

German architect Alexander Buddeus had already designed important buildings in Germany by the time he passed trough Brazil, around the 1930s, fast as a comet. He worked at first in Rio de Janeiro, where he was called by Lucio Costa, in 1930, to teach at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, during the failed reform in the architecture teaching. It was, nevertheless, in Bahia, that Buddeus left two of his most valuables contributions to brazilian architecture: The Instituto do Cacau (Bahia Cocoa Institute headquarters), from 1933, and the Instituto de Educação da Bahia (Bahia Institute of Education), from 1936, known today as ICEIA. Although it was not possible to find documents that could prove Buddeus authorship over ICEIA, it is remarkable the way that american art critic Philip L. Goodwin treats the subject, after visiting Brazil in 1943, in a NY MoMa mission. Goodwin talks about the eminent "German accent" of the building, although taking its author as a brazilian architect who had studied in German, in a wrong assumption. After that, there is little information about Buddeus destiny. A recently discovered document, found by the author, reveals the story of the architect after returning to Europe in 1938, wishing in vain to return to his "loving country", after World War II tragedy. This text not only reconstructs Buddeus's path, but also tries to follow the light track left at his appearance in the skies of Bahia.