Adolf Gelius

Adolf Gelius (born June 2, 1863 in Eichstätt , † October 14, 1945 in Mainz ; full name Adolf Johann Georg Thomas Gelius ) was a German architect and municipal building officer . From 1892 to 1929 worked in the building administration of the city of Mainz, most recently in the rank of city building director.

Evangelical Gustav-Adolf-Church in Mainz-Amöneburg

Life

Adolf Gelius was born in 1863 as the son of Johann Georg Christof Gelius (1832–1902) and his wife Sophie Fridrika Albertine Adler (* 1839) in Eichstätt. He had nine other siblings.

No details are known about his training or his studies. In 1891 he took part in the architectural competition for the new town hall in Nuremberg. From 1892 he was the head of the building construction department in the Mainz City Planning Department under city architect Eduard Kreyssig . After Kreyziger's death, the building construction department was converted into an independent building construction department. In November 1909, Gelius was appointed building officer. Since 1923 he was the city planning director. He retired in 1929 at the age of 66.

Gelius falls with his work in the span between late historicism and early modernism . For a long time the achievements of this time, which sought a renewal of architecture on the basis of tradition, were not recognized. With his buildings, which were influenced by late historicism and neoclassicism to the Heimat style, Gelius was able to make a decisive contribution to the image of the growing city, first as an employee and then as the successor to city architect Kreyssig in the building department. Important building tasks based on principles of monument preservation were above all the city ​​theater , the former Reichklaren monastery and the Carmelite monastery.

Honors

• 1906: Silver Medal of Merit for Art and Science
• 1914: Award of the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Order of Merit of Philip the Magnanimous

Buildings

Frauenlobgymnasium Adam-Karrillon-Straße 35

• 1897/1898: Construction of the slaughterhouse and cattle yard, Kaiser-Karl-Ring (planning by Kreyssig; demolished after 1945)
• 1898/1899: Gas and electricity works
• 1904–1906: Oberrealschule (today Frauenlob-Gymnasium ), Adam-Karrillon-Straße 35
• 1904–1907: Higher school for girls and teachers' college (today Anne Frank Realschule ), Petersplatz 2
• 1908: Goetheschule, Leibnizstrasse 67
• 1906–1910: Natural History Museum (under renovation of the Reichklara monastery church), Reichklarastraße 1
• 1910: Reconstruction of the city theater (extension of the Moller building with Geliustürme)
• 1911–1912: Mainz City Library
• 1911–1914: Municipal Hospital (today University Hospital )
• 1916: Nail column on Liebfrauenplatz (with sculptor Ludwig Lipp senior based on a joint competition design)
• 1929: Planning of the Gustav-Adolf-Church (Mainz-Amöneburg)

Publications

• Natural science museum on the site of the former Reichklara monastery in Mainz. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 25, 1905, No. 86 (from October 25, 1905), pp. 533-536.
• The new buildings of the secondary school in Mainz. Mainz 1906.
• Shower baths in the elementary schools. Mainz 1909.
• The new buildings of the higher girls' school in Mainz. Mainz 1908.
• Building trade tariff for use by builders, architects, engineers, building tradesmen and those interested in building. Mainz 1930.

literature

• Joachim Glatz: The Mainz nail column. In: Die Denkmalpflege , Volume 72 (2014), Issue 1, p. 67 f.
• Wilhelm Huber: The Mainz Lexicon. Mainz 2002.

Web links

Commons : Adolf Gelius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Adolf Gelius in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database