Childhood, Youth and Student Days at the ETH

Eduard Imhof was born in Schiers in the Grisons where his father, the geographer Dr. Eduard Imhof, taught at the Evangelische Lehranstalt, an Evangelical teachers' training college. In 1902 the family moved to Zurich to Rötelstrasse no. 100, later to no. 102 on the same street. After passing his school-leaving examination at the Kantonsschule Zurich Imhof studied surveying at the ETH from 1914 - 1919. During WW I his studies were sometimes interrupted because of military duty at the Swiss border. His teachers at the ETH were Fridolin Becker, Fritz Baeschlin and Jakob Früh.
This period of his life is illustrated by a drawing of his father of birthplace and school in Schiers, schoolboy drawings of Imhof himself and some examples of Imhof's drawings during the topographical exercises in the ETH under the direction of Fridolin Becker.