Alexis Langer

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Alexis Langer
Pokoyhof in Wroclaw
St. Michael, Breslau, after the tower collapse (1869)

Alexis Langer (* 2. February 1825 in Oława , Silesia ; † 21st September 1904 in Breslau ) was a German architect of the Gothic Revival .

life and work

Alexis Langer came from a Protestant family. Since the family did not have the financial means for a high school education and study, he began an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in his hometown Ohlau at the age of 14. From 1840 he worked in Glatz . In preparation for his master craftsman examination, he attended the Royal Building, Arts and Crafts School in Breslau from 1845 to 1846 and received his master craftsman certificate in Glatz in 1848. He returned to Breslau as a master mason, where he worked for various architects until 1852.

In 1852 Langer executed his first own design with a neo-Gothic corner building for the Pokoyhof in Wroclaw. In the competition for the Votive Church in Vienna in 1855 he made a name for himself with an award. With the new church in Thule, he planned his first church building for the diocese of Breslau . He was then called in for many other church building projects and found an important sponsor in the Prince-Bishop, Bishop Heinrich Förster . During his reign, Bishop Förster developed a great deal of construction activity and wanted to counter the dominant arched style in Protestant Prussia with an independent, self-confident Catholic church architecture. Converted to the Catholic denomination in 1858, the master mason Langer rose to become an unofficial diocesan architect with his concise implementation of the neo-Gothic style. In 1862 Alexis Langer was entrusted with the prestige project of the Michaeliskirche in Breslau. As the largest church building in Wroclaw since the Baroque era, it was financed exclusively from church funds and was intended to set an example of strength in the Kulturkampf . At the same time, another mighty sacred building was built in Langenbielau, which Langer also designed in the shape of a cross, but with a front tower that, with a height of 101 meters, became the second highest in Silesia.

On May 8, 1868, due to a construction error, the north tower of the completed double-tower facade of the Michaeliskirche collapsed, whereupon Langer was deprived of construction management and Carl Johann Lüdecke was transferred. After the tower collapsed, Langer did not receive any new orders from the church. His other activities were limited to work for Kurt von Ohlen and Adlerskron in Osseg as well as church building outside of Silesia, in the province of Posen . It was not until the turn of the century that he was able to build a new church on Silesian soil with the large Guardian Angel Church in Waldenburg . Langer died shortly after the church was completed and consecrated in 1904.

Alexis Langer was buried in the Laurentiusfriedhof in Breslau. The grave is no longer preserved.

style

Study trips to the important German Gothic buildings, including above all to the Cologne cathedral building site , established his closeness to German Romanticism and the teachings of August Reichensperger on “Future Gothic.” Alexis Langer's aim was not a formal imitation of the Gothic models, but a reinterpretation and perfection of the medieval Gothic. The Rhenish Gothic and Silesian brick Gothic with their spring vaults were formative for his work. Its village churches in particular are characterized by an extreme emphasis on the vertical. The slender church towers, often heavily sculpted, and the unusually narrowly proportioned choirs give the buildings a picturesque appearance. He used brick almost exclusively as a building material. The rich building sculptures were made in ashlar, more often in molded stone. He based his name on that of Albrecht Dürer's . Executed as a stone sculpture, it completed the complex symbolism in its sacred buildings.

buildings

Frankenstein town hall
The church tower in Langenbielau is 101 meters high
  • 1853, some buildings of the Pokoyhof in Breslau
  • 1854–1857, parish church of St. Our Lady of Sorrows in Thule , Upper Silesia
  • 1855–1856, facade of the Gothic parish church in Schwiebus
  • 1858, chapel in the Laurentiusfriedhof in Breslau
  • 1857–1861, new construction of the parish church of the Holy Trinity in Lauban
  • 1859–1861, Marienkirche in Konstadt , Upper Silesia
  • 1859–1864, Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception in Klarenkranst near Breslau ( Chrząstawa Wielka )
  • 1861–1863, parish church in Schmograu , Upper Silesia
  • 1862–1865, town hall of Frankenstein , Silesia
  • 1862–1870, St. Mary's Church in Katowice
  • 1862–1871, Michaeliskirche in Breslau (Am Lehmdamm)
  • 1865–1866, Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Breslau
  • 1868–1876, Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Langenbielau , Silesia
  • 1869, design of the main altar for the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Namslau
  • 1868–1870, Trinity Church choir founded by the von Hatzfeld family in Trachenberg , Silesia.
  • 1874, victory monument in Breslau to commemorate the wars of 1864, 1866 and 1870/1871 - only preserved today as a brick stump.
  • 1877–1883, redesign of the castle by Kurt von Ohlen and Adlerskron in Osseg ( Osiek Grodkowski ) near Brieg - today neglected.
  • 1883, burial chapel in Osseg - today in ruins.
  • 1885–1886, parish church of St. Barbara in Gryżyna near Lissa
  • 1887–1890, redesign of the Gothic parish church of St. Laurentius in Wonieść near Lissa
  • 1888–1894, Maria Schnee parish church in Klein Kreutsch near Lissa
  • 1896–1900, parish church of St. Valentin in Pakosław near Rawicz
  • 1889–1891, parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Tuczno near Inowrocław
  • 1898–1901, parish church of St. Johannes Baptist in Kołdrąb near Bromberg
  • 1898–1904, Guardian Angel Church in Waldenburg , Lower Silesia
  • 1899–1901, Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Obernigk near Breslau
  • 1900–1904, Trinity Church in Liegnitz , Lower Silesia
  • 1902–1907, parish church of the Annunciation in Rawicz

literature

  • Agnieszka Zabłocka-Kos: Sztuka - wiara - uczucie. Alexis Langer - śląski architect neogotyku. [Faith, Mind and Sacred Art. Alexis Langer - a Silesian neo-Gothic.] Wrocław 1996 ISBN 83-229-1396-6
  • Dehio Handbook of Art Monuments in Poland Silesia . Munich Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-422-03109-X , pp. 125, 232, 429, 537, 554, 640, 680, 719, 964, 1043, 1104, 1125f., 1175 and 1208.

Web links

Commons : Alexis Langer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d See biography of architect naszego kościoła. on bielawa.archidiecezja.wroc.pl; down. on February 26, 2011
  2. ↑ a b c d Cf. Agnieszka Zabłocka-Kos: Catholic and Protestant church building in Silesia in the 19th century as a reflection of denominational confrontation. In: Joachim Köhler, Rainer Bendel (ed.): History of Christian life in the Silesian region. Part 2, Münster 2002
  3. ↑ See article and photo gallery on dolny-slask.org.pl ; down. on March 10, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Langer, Alexis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Ohlau
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1904
Place of death Wroclaw