Andor Ákos

Andor Ákos (born July 17, 1893 in Nagybecskerék ( German  Großbetschkerek ), Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; † July 1, 1940 in Vienna ) was a Hungarian-German architect, interior designer, painter and graphic artist.

The Catholic educated and German nationalist died as a victim of the Nazi racial ideology after the discovery of his Jewish identity as a result of an invitation to commit suicide . He took this step to uphold his officer's honor and to protect his family and friends from persecution. According to the current state of research, the background was the conversion to the Jewish religion at a young age through remarriage of his mother to a German Jew. When he comes of age, he must be converted to the Catholic faith .

He worked as an architect and interior designer in Kempten (Allgäu) from March 1920 ; As a master builder in the 1920s and 1930s, he shaped the cityscape as well as the architecture of the Allgäu and Swabia through numerous buildings (town hall and granary renovation, new church buildings, cemetery and memorial design in Kempten, town and country houses, inns, commercial and industrial properties as well as large ones Settlement projects) and designed almost 250 buildings and interiors in just 20 years in Kempten and all of southern Germany. His holistic way of working (turnkey building including interior design with complete furniture) as well as his striving to combine his building projects with art on and under construction were his trademark and especially popular with well-heeled private builders. His role as a designer of interiors and furniture only became known through recent research.

He was a representative and pioneer of the southern German country house style, especially in the Allgäu in the 1930s. He also appeared as a talented graphic artist and painter in the 1920s, and his portrait drawings of Kempten personalities are well known.

life and work

Banat, Munich, war fronts - youth, studies, First World War

Nothing was known about Ákos' childhood and youth until 2007. It was only since then that the following findings could be gained. In 1899 his parents, Michael Ákos, (* 1857; † unb.), Large landowner in the Banat, and Malwine Amelie Ákos (1870–1954), née Vág (Waag), trained him in the elementary school in Gyertyámos in the Banat (Ger. Gertianosch, Romanian . Cărpini), the birthplace of his mother. From there he moved in 1903 to the grammar school in Arad in what is now western Romania (until 1905). He then attended the high school in Temesvár for a school year . From 1906 on, Ákos was a high school student in Budapest for another five years, where he received the high school diploma from the Humanistic High School in Elisabethstadt (VII. District) on June 16, 1911. At that time, his mother must have been married to the Jewish bank director Max Klein, who was temporarily head of the Mostar branch of Privil. Landesbank of Bosnia and Herzegovina with headquarters in the Bosnian Banjaluka ("Mostarska Filijala Privil. Zemealsjske Banke za Bosnu i Herzcegovinu.") And later, during Andor Ákos' studies, worked in Vienna.

Since the winter semester of 1911 Ákos studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich . A sufficient reason for Ákos' choice of study location were the renowned professors Friedrich von Thiersch and Theodor Fischer who worked here and who particularly influenced him. This was particularly true of his favorite professor Fischer, who was known for his own style between historicism and art nouveau. He always tried to work with the local conditions and to delve into the regional characteristics. Above all, the social impact of his ideas and plans on future residents and users was important to him, ie he tried to incorporate a socio-cultural component into his work. His buildings, the style of which is at the turn from historicism to the newer, purpose-oriented construction method, are characterized by careful treatment of materials and detailed design. Although Fischer's view of the work cannot be applied congruently to his hard-working student Andor Ákos, his structural and formal language used in his professional life has its deeper roots here. At least many of the aspects mentioned can be found in a similar form, but with their own design, by the later Kempten architect. The Waltenhofen architect Willi Wollmann, himself the owner of a country house built by Ákos in Oberdorf / Martinszell, said the following: “His works radiate solidity and solidity. The proportions and choice of materials are balanced and harmonious. They should generally be assigned to the term 'alpine' […] This can still be seen today in his built works, which Mr Ákos has integrated harmoniously into the landscape and surrounding development ”.

When the First World War broke out in August 1914, he was recruited to Innsbruck for the kuk I. Tiroler Kaiserjägerregiment , an elite Austrian force. This call-up as a one-year volunteer served for training to become a reserve officer. From January 1915 he served on the Eastern Front, then in Italy (especially on the mountain front); In 1917 he was appointed lieutenant and company commander; Promotion to lieutenant at the latest by early 1918. At the beginning of December 1918 he was demobilized and transferred to the reserve. Ákos was involved in countless skirmishes, which were extremely costly for his regiment, in which he - as written by himself in the hour of his suicide - constantly looked death in the eye. For his extreme bravery, he received one of the highest Austrian war awards, the " Order of the Iron Crown with Swords", awarded by Emperor Karl I of Austria-Hungary , whose bearers were raised to the hereditary knighthood until 1884.

In connection with an imperial decree on a war semester at the universities and colleges of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy for senior students in the field, Ákos completed one in the summer of 1918 as a visiting student at the Technical University of Budapest. From mid-January 1919 he finally continued his architecture studies in Munich. After passing the main diploma examination with distinction (grade average 1.5), he received the certificate from the Technical University of Munich on September 13, 1919 as a qualified engineer in the subject of architecture.

Professional perspective in the Allgäu

Ákos House, Maler-Lochbihler-Strasse, Kempten

Typical villa building by Ákos at the hooded lock in Kempten: Visible bricks set accents in the otherwise simple houses

Ákos was already working in the Allgäu shortly after completing his studies, ie in the last months of 1919, when he set up the apartment of the paper manufacturer Heinrich Nicolaus on his company premises in Seltmans ( Weitnau ) as an interior designer. He only moved from Munich to Kempten in March 1920, in order to acquire German citizenship in November of the same year . His settlement in Kempten was related to his employment as "Artistic Director" (interior architect, furniture designer) at the company Gebrüder Friedrich and Christian Botzenhardt (architecture office / carpentry / furniture factory) between 1920 and 1926. His first construction project so far proven for Kempten was the conversion of the Kempten town hall in 1920: Reconstruction for the purpose of creating new office rooms for Lord Mayor Otto Merkt (study and reception room) and some offices, including the redesign of the interior with furniture. In 1921/1922 Ákos worked together with a colleague on the renovation and refurbishment of the Kempten branch of the Allgäuer Vereinsbank, Bahnhofstr. 12 (today Bahnhof-Apotheke) and for the first time brought elements of art on / under construction into the design.

Numerous other objects that have already been implemented as a whole followed, including: Landhaus Heinrich Nicolaus, Seltmans (1922/1923: interior design and furniture; 1925 extension and supplementary design); in Kempten: House Dr. Leo Dorn, double dwelling on the hooded lock (still known today as "Ákos-Haus"), Maler-Lochbihler-Strasse 13 and 15: new building and furnishings, fresco on the house wall; Seidenhaus Betty Nast, Salzstr. 18 (remodeling); Hat and shoe shop Johann Durst: conversion with storey construction; Café and pastry shop Wilhelm Schmid, Salzstrasse 10: Extension with winter garden (all 1924); Shoe and fashion store Josef M. Sax, Fischerstraße 25: conversion of the former Kempten counter hall of the Bayerische Vereinsbank and furnishing as a modern shop; Country house villa banker Max Schellhorn, Lindauer Straße 29: construction and furnishings (both 1924/1925); Glass shop Salzmann (owner Josef Kolb), Fischerstr. 16: renovation (1925/1926); "Gasthaus zur Krone" Pfronten : conversion and furnishing (1924).

Company publications for Botzenhardt, which could ascribe the research to Áko, as well as national ambitions, such as when he participated with a competition design for today's Bonn Metropolitan Theater , which opened in 1926 as a variety and film theater (last large, listed cinema in Art- Déco style in Germany).

Andor Ákos stumbling block in front of his house and the restaurant Zum Stift in Kempten

Was Ákos in the 1926 redesign of the Kempten municipal granary (vestibule, large hall and small hall; the latter unofficially named in memory of its creator "Ákos-Saal"), an example still visible today in Ákos' work for the topic of "Art in Bau ”, with the draft ideas of the twelve half-sculptures incorporated into the six supporting pillars) still working as a Botzenhardt employee, he then works as a freelance architect (September 18, 1926: branch in Kempten; office and apartment according to his plans on the first floor of the Gasthof zum Stift , Stiftsplatz 1).

War memorial designed by Ákos on the Mariaberg in Kempten

Expressions of this are: new building project and artistic establishment of the Kempten Peace Church of Ascension Day (emergency church; inauguration 02/1927; most famous Ákos building, demolished in 1973); Redesign of the Kempten Catholic cemetery on Gottesackerweg (reconstruction: large cemetery chapel, cemetery level entrance, cemetery wall; new construction: grave chapel in the cemetery wall; construction: wall grave, war memorial chapel for those who fell in the First World War), construction of the war memorial on the Mariaberg in Kempten; Conversion of a former factory owner's villa in Kempten and its furnishing with a sophisticated interior and garden architecture as "Conditorei-Café Peuschel", Beethovenstraße 13.

Ákos' handwriting in the townscape of Kempten. Church builder and monument designer

His deep roots in the German intellectual world and Catholic religious culture are revealed in his turn to church builders and monument designers, which means that even during his lifetime he was allowed to leave his signature in the Kempten townscape. It is completely unknown today - then omnipresent - that the shape of the Catholic cemetery on Gottesackerweg goes back to Andor Ákos with numerous elements. He not only built the Church of Peace on Ascension Day , furnished it in his own way, so that its character as an emergency church completely faded, but also shaped his reputation as a highly valued church builder and monument designer with the new construction or renovation of other sacred buildings, as can be seen in the large cemetery chapel, the War memorial chapel, the large Marienbrunnen, the religiously motivated deer fountain, the military cemetery and the Kempten honor graves on the cemetery area, the church Maria Hilf in der Eich and the stations of the cross of the Kempten mother church St. Lorenz , whose installation and design go back to him.

Master builder in residential, commercial and industrial construction

Ákos left his signature in the Kempten townscape in a variety of ways, including as a master builder in settlement construction, in trade and industry. By the mid-1920s, Ákos had finally acquired the reputation of an extraordinary interior designer and architect, who was certified to be demanding, elegant and particularly well-done, as well as inexpensive work, as can be seen from the letters of reference from his numerous builders that were handed down in the estate. These include major projects such as the housing developments in the Haubenschloss (Ueblher- / Hermannstraße; 1927) and Lindauerstraße / Förderreutherweg (1928) in Kempten, where he built a total of 10 country houses and 10 semi-detached houses, as well as the Kempten war-damaged housing estate with five row houses, Westendstraße. 41, 42-44, 45-47 (1928/1929).

As a co-founder of the " Schlaraffia Cambodunum " in Kempten (1929), he built the monastery castle in 1928 and set it up at his own expense (as an advance payment) in the lower part of the Zum Stift brewery restaurant . In 1937, at the request of Lord Mayor Otto Merkt, he realized the restaurant of "Algovia" Kempten, an academic holiday association, founded in 1893 in the same part of the building. The Algovia room is nicknamed "Hose" because of its elongated floor plan.

By the beginning of the 1930s, Ákos built numerous commercial buildings or commercial and residential buildings in Kempten and in the Allgäu and furnished them for commercial and residential purposes: including the Catholic Gesellenhaus, Gesellenweg 7: conversion and extension; Catholic club house, Linggstr. 4: New construction of the meeting room; Gasthof “ Bayerischer Hof ”, Füssener Str. 96: Conversion with attic structure, interior design including artistic design of the facades based on draft ideas from Ákos, carried out by Rudolf Stolz from South Tyrol; Station hotel with Colosseum (owner: Kreszenz Walter), Mozartstr. 2 / Königstrasse 1: conversion and installation of the hall: vestibule and small hall (all 1927); Gruber dye works, Kempten, Haubenschloßstr. 31 and Adolf Nieberle bakery, Kempten, Kaufbeurer Str. 29: both new buildings with residential and commercial equipment; 2 rectifier stations [later: transformer stations] of the municipal power station Kempten, Wiesstrasse and Westendstrasse 44 [the latter with business and residential building Albert Uhl], Westendstrasse. 42; “Gasthof zum Ochsen”, Dietmannsried, Memminger Str. 2: Renovation and furnishings: café and wine bar (all 1928/1929); Eisenwarenhandlung Franz Tröger, Bahnhofstr. 14: Floor structure (1930); Paul Gebath bakery-confectionery, Oy (1934).

Industrial buildings

As the preferred architect of the factory owner Heinrich Nicolaus, he realized several projects (general development plan) for his paper mills in Seltmans and Kempten between 1931 and 1936, built a large housing estate in Seltmans for company employees (around 20 single and semi-detached houses) and reconstructed the Nicolaus'sche Gut Oberzeismering on the west bank of Lake Starnberg.

For industrial clients in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg he worked in the 1920s and 1930s, among other things, building and equipping the Aitrang , Ollarzried and Radolfszell dairy plants and the Meggle dairy in Wasserburg a. Inn and the Camenbertfabrik Defloria in Tegernsee (both new buildings), the paper mill in Baienfurt i. Württemberg (general development plan), the Bavaria publishing house Gauting near Munich (renovation and new construction).

Another major industrial project is the new building of the Carl Deiring building complex (heating, ventilation and gas protection systems), Immenstädter Straße 83-85, including the owner's villa in the country house style, Haslacher Berg 2.

Some of the Ákos industrial buildings mentioned fell victim to structural reconstructions, including the Aitrang dairy factory.

Restaurant construction

As a builder for trade and commerce, Ákos was particularly successful in building restaurants. Here, too, it is only possible to name a few outstanding examples in addition to the examples already mentioned. The “Löwen” hotel inn in Oy, newly built after a fire in 1929, plays a special role . It was the first new inn that Ákos designed in a country house style and equipped with a new type of furnishings.

Restaurant Zum Stift , design by Ákos

The number of restaurants that were newly built or rebuilt in the 1930s should also include:

Kempten: "Hotel zur Post", Poststr. 7–9: Conversion, interior design, furniture, lighting, technology, art under construction (intarsia door based on designs by Ákos, created by Franz Xaver Unterseher , Kempten) and “Gasthof zum Stift”, Untere Stiftshallen, Stiftsplatz 1 and 3, Kirchberg 3 and 3a: Reconstruction of interior design, furniture, lighting, technology, art in the building (figure reliefs made in ceramics by Ákos friend Eugen Mayer-Faßold, Munich as well as bowling alleys in the cellar vault [tons] of the old monastery brewery under the collegiate halls, access to which artist Franz Weiß with thematic corresponding frescoes, each based on designs by Ákos); Oberstdorf : Parkhotel Luitpold, Freiherr-von-Brutscher-Str. 5: Reconstruction of the hotel vestibule and pension "Altes Forsthaus" [today Kurparkhotel], Prinzenstr. 1: Conversion and extension; Krumbach : Gasthof zur "Goldenen Traube", Marktplatz 14: New building, interior design, furniture, lighting, technology, art under construction (typical Ákos object with a rich work of art on / under construction: "Traube-Ma", "Spiess der Sieben Schwaben" ); Nesselwang : Brauereigasthof "Bären", Hauptstr. 3: Conversion and expansion with a new hall, interior design, furniture, lighting, technology (oak paneling in the "ÁKOS-Stube" with elegant inlay panels, again created by FX Unterseher according to Ákos designs); Babenhausen : Gasthof “Bräustübl” (Seiler brewery [formerly Fürstl. Fuggersche Brauerei]): conversion, interior design, furniture, lighting, technology, art on / under construction (frescoes by painter Franz Weiß , Kempten); Oy : Café "Sonnenterrasse", Tannenhofstr. 9 and Kurheim Pension Leo Vogl (each new building in country house style, interior design, furniture, etc.); Bad Hindelang : Hotel Hotes, Rosengasse 10: conversion and extension in country house style, interior design, furniture, etc .; Rieden am Forggensee : "Gasthof zum Morgenstern", St.-Urban-Str. 10 (destroyed by fire in 1988): conversion and extension, interior design, furniture, etc .; Jungholz / Tyrol : Hotelgasthof “Sorgschrofen”: new building in country house style, interior design of exceptional craftsmanship; Woodwork with ceiling inlays, decorations and fittings, furniture. The “Sorgschrofen” hotel inn (1938) can be seen as the highlight of Ákos' interior design.

The high standard that Ákos applied here also applies to the new or converted commercial and residential buildings that were built in the 1930s, such as: Optik- und Fotohaus Kössel, Immenstadt, Bahnhofstr. 16 (remodeling); Bus company Josef Schapfl, Krumbach, Robert-Steiger-Str. 48 (new building: business premises, garage and workshops, residential building); Baur department store, Fischen, Hauptstr. 7 (conversion).

Doctors' offices and pharmacies

Ákos also built a number of medical practices and pharmacies, almost all of them new buildings in the country house style as a residential building with a practice or pharmacy, including furniture and technical equipment: In Kempten ophthalmologist Dr. Hans Giulini, Ueblherstr. 7 (1927); Dentist Dr. med. Ludwig Eberth, Förderreutherweg 7; Dr. med. Wilhelm Sepp, Legau, Hauptstr. 22 (both 1928); Dentist Dr. med. Carl Fischer, Bad Hindelang, Unterer Buigenweg 6 (1935); Dentist Dr. med. Eugen Kühlewein, Nesselwang, Birkenstr. 4; Dr. med. Julius Oberndorfer, Landsberg a. L., Katharinenstr. 21/3 (both 1936/1937); "Pharmacy Am Kurplatz" (Wilhelm Düll), Oberstdorf, Freiherr-von-Brutscherstr. 1 (1934/1936) and "Falken-Apotheke" (Valentin Schneller), Bad Hindelang, Bad Oberdorfer Str. 16 (1935).

The "Apotheke Am Kurplatz", built in a country house style, still has an interior that, according to expert reports, is considered to be a unique cultural gem in the Art Deco style in Germany . The master builder and interior designer, who in turn was in league with the artist Ákos, furnished the rooms with cherry veneer and the adapted inlays that refer to the function of the institution. The master's original freehand drawings, including the designs for all accessories such as hanging lamps or sign holders for the shop windows, are found under the building's construction documents. As in other cases, these interior accessories, which are characterized by wrought iron decorations, are also still in their original form. This irreplaceable cultural asset should fall victim to the chainsaw in 2008. This could be prevented through the work of Gerlinde Hagelmüller ( Heimatbund Allgäu ) and Ákos researcher Dieter Weber.

Banks

Ákos also demonstrated his versatility as a bank builder. If he had redesigned the Allgäuer Vereinsbank at the beginning of his work in Kempten, further financial institutions were added at the end of the 1930s, and in these cases, too, his efforts to incorporate elements of architectural art into the design were evident.

The renovation of the Allgäuer Vereinsbank must have been a challenge for the young Ákos in terms of both the scope and the redesign. The fact that he successfully passed this together with a colleague who was primarily responsible for the technical work with complex structural calculations underlines the fact that the rebuilding of the bank has been reported in the national specialist literature.

This is supported by the functional renovation as a banking business with decorative and furniture interior design of the business premises as well as the move in of a mezzanine floor and the installation of a company apartment with built-in fireplace and the redesign of the building facade. When using art in architecture, he worked for the first time with artists he had met during his studies: artistic decoration by Josef Wackerle with sculptures and ornamentation as well as picture decorations by sculptor Eugen Mayer-Faßold, both in Munich.

In the years 1938/1939 Ákos was busy building three savings banks: Stadt- und Bezirkssparkasse Kempten, Bahnhofstrasse 19 (new building as the Sparkasse headquarters); District and Stadtsparkasse Günzburg ad Donau (so-called Brentanohaus), Marktplatz 8 (conversion with furnishings); Bezirkssparkasse Schongau, Münzstraße 36 (conversion or partially new building with furnishings).

Agricultural buildings

Kurzberg manor with the manor house of the cheese manufacturer Alois Fischer, Oberdorf [Martinszell municipality] on Lake Niedersonthofener See, and Markelsdorfer manor, Hölzler's No. 171 Kürnach (each new building and furnishings after a major fire (both 1932)); Gutshof Oberzeismering (factory owner Heinrich Nicolaus, Kempten and Seltmans): production halls and “retainer house” (1934); Animal breeding branch, Günzburg ad Donau: Extension and new building (1938).

Country houses

Andor Ákos received from the Oberallgäu district home keeper Albert Wechs from Bad Hindelang - based on his role in the spread of the aforementioned alpine country house style, in its creation and expression as an Allgäu country house type - the honorary title of "leader wolf that many then imitated".

Taking into account the research that has now been carried out over several years, especially in the evaluation of the empirical basis, we must unreservedly agree. According to Wechs's experiences, the triumph of the Allgäu country house style would be unthinkable without Ákos, although many of his imitators did not reach the level of the master and certainly did not correspond to his credo. Not every expert may agree with this judgment, but the conclusion that can be drawn unequivocally is that the Kempten architect achieved a prominent position in this area in the region.

The model for this type of house was the Allgäu farmhouse. When building his country houses, Ákos always took the surrounding buildings into account. He preferred - as far as this was technically possible and supported by the client, who mostly gave him a free hand because of his quality work - almost exclusively local building materials, such as wood typical of the country for cost reasons, but these were always refined to a high quality. Split arched windows with stained glass of different designs as well as shutters often structure the rough plastered and yet calm facade. Other characteristic features of his buildings were natural stone and clinker brick, ceiling beams - often massive, but appearing in an ensemble - stepped gables, arched doors and windows. Outer doors made of oak, inner doors mostly made of softwood and wrought iron accessories on outdoor buildings and in the interior are often used. In addition to wood and natural stone, the most shape-defining building materials, rustic-looking wrought iron in many forms and for various purposes was a popular material for him; in the outdoor area as railings and window security; Decorative elements and wall lamps, as chandeliers, room lamps and suspensions in the interior. The aspects of his formal language and stylistic devices mentioned here apply in particular to the alpine country house style, which he largely influenced, but not exclusively because he also used them in sacred and even commercial buildings.

His holistic way of working, i.e. the turnkey handover of the building, including interior fittings with complete furniture, was generally used in the construction of his country houses. In the case of well-heeled builders, he was also usually able to express his striving to combine his building projects with art on / in construction. However, Ákos was by no means exclusively the darling of this group of builders. He also built country houses for the smaller budget with the same holistic, accurate approach, with a slightly reduced footprint. One example of this is the beautiful Speiser house in Wildpoldsried (1937).

Here, only a selection of the new buildings or conversions in country house style created by Ákos can be mentioned as examples, whereby inns and commercial and residential buildings, such as doctors' offices and pharmacies, which were built in this style, remain unmentioned:

• Landhaus Schellhorn, Kempten, Lindauerstr. 29 (1924/1925)
• Landhaus, Seltmans, Heinrich-Nicolaus-Str. 9 and 11 (1925)
• Landhaus Albert Rinker, Kempten, Ellharter Strasse 55 (1927)
• Landhaus writer Irma Schwarzenauer, Bad Hindelang, Jahnstr. 10
• Country house post office clerk Gilbert Rohmoser, Bad Hindelang, Jahnstr. 8th
• Landhaus Geschwister Thanner, Nesselwang, Blumenzsteig 6
• Landhaus Alois Fischer, landowner and manufacturer, Oberdorf [Martinszell municipality], Seewiesenweg 3 (all 1935)
• Landhaus Michael Pröbstl, sawmill owner, Altenstadt near Schongau, Reiterweg 9
• Summer and hunting lodge, cheese factory owner Alfred Hindelang, Steingaden, Welfenstraße 13c
• Country villa bank director Dr. Walter Seidel, Oberstdorf, Plattenbichlstr. 11
• Landhaus Birkeneck (Dr. Otto Boeckner), Oberstdorf, Ludwigstrasse 3,
• Landhaus Bank Director Fritz Schmid, Katharinenstr. 3 (all 1936)
• Country house villa Johann Konle, brewery owner (grape brewery), Günzburg, Christa-Wall-Straße 27
• Landhaus Wilhelm Witzel, owner of the “Grünland” cheese factory, Kempten, Haubensteigweg 29
• Landhaus Studienrat Gottlob Schüssel, Leichtleweg 9 (all 1939).

The ten single-family houses in the Ueblher- / Hermannstraße estate, which were built by Ákos in 1927, should also be mentioned here, of which the two somewhat remote houses on Hermannstraße (commercial head teacher Anton Schall and businessman Jakob Diegel) correspond to the country house style that was later developed. The houses on both sides of Ueblherstrasse speak more of the formal language of the urban residential building.

Longing for home and integration

More recent research suggests that Andor Ákos dreamed of becoming a painter while still studying in Munich, although his artistic ambitions were in fact suddenly broken by his breadwinner Max Klein after graduating from high school, because he put the son in one Wanted to see a secure job. Whether Ákos considered the appointment as an architect to be final, however, cannot be left without counter-arguments - especially since the choice of the course of study, which requires certain drawing skills, was not made without his participation.

If you take a look at Andor Ákos's artistic work on the basis of the catalog raisonné, which is certainly still incomplete, with around 250 paintings, graphics and drawings, you will notice that the overwhelming number of them can be dated to the first half of the 1920s. At that time, he paid homage to his preoccupation with art, his ambitions as a draftsman, painter and graphic artist, in a wide variety of ways. It also served him - probably born out of need in the Allgäu in the post-war period - to improve his livelihood financially. This mainly affected his graphic commissioned work at the time. During this time, his professional life was based on two pillars. One could almost think that at that time he was still looking for his final professional destination - architect or artist. In the early days of Kempten, he still found a variety of inspiration and sufficient leisure for painting and drawing.

These indispensable prerequisites for being able to develop artistic talent were later taken from him by the stresses of the architectural profession. In view of the abundance of construction contracts in the period from 1934 to the outbreak of war in 1939, when he put on his tunic again, the prime example of reliability had to compromise on the terrain of artistic self-realization that he loved so much. It also seems that the transfer of power to the Nazis and the anti-art, intellectually narrowing atmosphere that has spread since then in Germany were partly responsible for his artistic abstinence that was recorded at the time, but no concrete evidence for this can be found in the sources. The source-critical overall view, however, necessarily leads to this question. It must therefore not be disregarded in further research.

The course for the final professional determination as an architect was finally set - as already mentioned - through practice. Because it soon put the stamp of the decision on him - also because of the high demands on his own performance. His appointment as an architect was made easier by the rapid public recognition of his work. The more he found himself in this role, the less he perceived art as a real profession, but rather as an inclination, combined with the desire for artistic reflection on his intellectual and cultural values ​​in his architectural works. Professionally, he used his artistic talent to a sufficient extent to allow it to flow into his master builder tasks.

Andor Ákos soon liked his new home, the Allgäu, very much and repeatedly conquered it by painting. He quickly came to appreciate many of the people living here, and they in turn came to appreciate him. You can call it the longing for home, integration and social recognition that drove him here. At the same time, he revealed his social conscience with willingness to make sacrifices and Christian charity towards the weak and underprivileged. Thanks to this, but of course also through his artistic talent and his tireless diligence and his achievements as a construction specialist and not least through his winning, amiable manner, he was able to overcome the reluctance of the Allgäu people towards foreigners relatively quickly. He was soon considered a popular citizen.

Both his striving for integration and his social streak can be seen in his painting in the early 1920s as well as in his voluntary public engagement at the time. This and his rise into the elite of the city of Kempten are reflected in the contemporary press. In the course of 1920, that is, in the year he moved to Kempten, he joined the Allgäu zu Kempten Historical Association, which was under the aegis of Lord Mayor Merkt . At that time he was able to prove his skills as an artist and exhibition organizer on behalf of this association and the citizens' association when he organized a presentation of “Kempten Family Pictures” from August 22nd to 28th, 1920. At the same time he designed the exhibition poster.

After the newcomer came to the Allgäu, he immediately began to approach the region in a picturesque way. And already in February 1923 he was allowed to go public with his own exhibition of works of art for the first time in the Allgäu as a “pure taster”, as the foreigners are called. At that time he presented nine lithographs in the Oechelhauser bookstore in Kempten. A year later he was allowed to publish some of his works of art in several issues of the magazine "Jugend", the most renowned magazine for art and literature at the time, which gave its name to a whole style, the Art Nouveau.

Further participation in artistic presentations and own exhibition designs followed. He was now perceived as a fellow citizen and artist who had arrived here and was allowed to see himself as such.

The well-known Kempten artist Heinz Schubert called Andor Ákos an excellent portraitist. The relevant drawings stored in the Allgäu Museum and City Archives bear witness to this. Ákos created these, reproducing Kempten personalities, all in 1932, including the famous portrait of Max Förderreuther .

Andor Ákos in the Third Reich

Andor Ákos, who had been part of the Kempten elite since the mid-1920s, for social recognition through hard work and public commitment continued unabated after the transfer of power to the Hitler regime on January 30, 1933. He was an advocate of German national views, which - like many others with the same political orientation - resulted in references to Nazi ideologies. He was able to continue his work as an architect without any disabilities.

On the other hand, the circumstances at that time showed him very quickly that new times had dawned, which forced him to react drastically, which at the same time characterizes the mood in Germany at the time in a remarkable way. It is a “declaration”, published in the “Allgäuer Tagblatt”, with which Ákos took a vehement stand against the defamation of his person: “The word“ foreigner ”has recently been used against me with damaging intentions by those interested in the profession. I state the following: I was born to Hungarian parents in an allied and friendly Hungary, which was never considered a foreign country before or during the World War. I have been living in Germany for 23 years. This time was only interrupted by the world war, which I, as an officer of the 1st Tyrolean Kaiserjäger Regiment, spent the four full years of the war on the front line ... I received 7 awards for bravery up to the highest, the "Order of the Iron Crown". I have been a Bavarian citizen for 13 years and only allow myself to be instructed about my legal and internal belonging to Germany by those who have fulfilled their duty to their German homeland better than me. Graduate engineer A. Ákos, architect, Kempten ”.

In order to be able to understand this statement, its background must be illuminated. It was the time of the first “Jewish boycott” in April 1933, which led to Kempten business people making “declarations” in the daily press: “We are not Jews!”. In doing so, they defended themselves against attacks and harassment by the SA, which had evidently been triggered by attempts by competing business people to get rid of their competitors using the "Jewish club".

The more recent research has now been able to provide sources according to which free-riders of the "Jewish boycott" in the architectural trade spread rumors about the "Jew" Ákos in order to eliminate him.

It can be assumed that these processes played a role in the fact that the freelancer, who had long been a member of the “Bund Deutscher Architekten” (BDA), now also became a member of the NS “Kampfbund deutscher Ingenieure und Architekten” (KDIA). However, his membership in the professional organization “Reich Chamber of Fine Arts” created by the Nazis raises questions, since the artist Ákos had been de facto silent since 1933. Since no evidence of any activity is known in these organizations, these memberships must be understood as a follower tactic.

The motorist and enthusiast of high-powered vehicles also joined the National Socialist Motorist Corps in 1933 . This membership did not last long, however, because he was chalked up as belonging to the "Schlaraffia Cambodunum" association, which is regarded as an elitist. Even before Schlaraffia had to stop its club life in Germany, Ákos was expelled from the NSKK. Although he left Schlaraffia in 1934, his membership in the NSKK did not revive. However, this incident did not harm him socially or professionally, as he even received the order to design Kornhausplatz in 1935 on the occasion of the National Socialist holiday “Labor Day”.

Until a few years ago, there were only stories in circulation about the causes of Andor Ákos' death based on testimony of contemporary witnesses. According to this, because of his national self-image and his patriotism, at the beginning of the war in 1939, he is said to have volunteered for the Wehrmacht, which is said to have ultimately had fatal consequences as a result of a military ambition for promotion to captain and his Jewish descent. Research, meanwhile, has taught sources that this was by no means so, at least not that straightforward. He did not go to service in the Wehrmacht voluntarily, but was called up for the reserve, and in the summer of 1938 he was called up for a two-week reserve training course at the pioneer school in Berlin-Karlshorst .

At the beginning of the war, First Lieutenant d. R. Andor Ákos stationed as a company commander of a construction unit belonging to the western front in the Kinzigtal / Black Forest in Baden. From his office in Bollenbach (now part of the town of Haslach), he managed the work for the Wehrmacht road construction for an access road towards a Rhine crossing. In the spring of 1940 his superior military service at the front submitted him as scheduled for promotion to captain . However, since the documents of his previous promotion to lieutenant at the end of the First World War could not be produced, the Wehrbezirkskommando (WBK) Kempten-Allgäu, responsible for Ákos, asked the so-called "Wehrevidenzstelle Wien" to send the military log. The “Wehrevidenzstelle Wien” was the personnel institution of the Wehrmacht that existed exclusively in Austria, which was brought into the Reich in 1938 and, as such, administered the documents of the former officers of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the Republic of Austria established in 1918. The WBK Kempten-Allgäu finally received the military roll in June 1940 and informed the NSDAP district leadership Kempten about the serving in the Wehrmacht Jew Ákos, who had also committed "racial disgrace" according to the "laws" of the time due to his marriage to an "Aryan woman" in 1936 . The Kempten NSDAP district leadership, which did not consider it to be in the “Reich interests” if the matter were to become publicly known or even if a trial were to take place, then issued a written request to commit suicide.

Ákos was aware that he had a choice between plague and cholera, the choice between an escape with an uncertain outcome on the one hand and suicide on the other. Escape ran the risk of failure and an even more humiliating criminal case for desertion, with the inevitable execution. He saw his human dignity and his honor as a German officer preserved through the suicide and the honorary military burial at the Heldenfriedhof .

The shot that was supposed to hit the heart of the former first lieutenant of the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger in the elegant hotel "Kaiserpark" in Vienna, located right next to Schönbrunn Palace and Park, injured his lungs. On July 1, 1940, Andor Ákos succumbed to his serious injuries in a Wehrmacht hospital. As always with him, the choice of the location of the tragedy was no accident. He chose him in conscious tradition and solidarity with the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the regiment owner of the 1st Tyrolean Kaiserjägerregiment. Before Emperor Franz Josef, Ákos and his comrades had paraded in Schönbrunn Park 25 years earlier, in the middle of the bloody war, before they were transferred to the Alpine front. All of his medals were on the table in his hotel room, including the one he had received personally from Emperor Karl, Franz Josef's successor.

A few days later, the echo of this shot reached the city of Kempten in the Allgäu, combined with severe emotional shocks for not a few of its citizens. They continue to have an effect to this day.

In addition to the personality structure, which is of crucial importance in a suicide and in the case of Ákos, resulted in the fact that, as a German officer, desertion and concentration camp imprisonment or even a sentencing to death were perceived as dishonorable, unacceptable consequences, another fact was enormous Significance for his suicide. As it turned out after his death, his wife was spared persecution, the confiscation of family assets and the withdrawal of pension claims. Consideration for his friends and business partners also played a role. In fact, these remained unaffected by disadvantages.

Ultimately, the fact remains that Andor Ákos was driven to death, caused by the consequences of the criminal “Nuremberg Laws” passed in 1935, the partner relationships between citizens of “German or related blood” - “Aryans” in Nazi parlance - on the one hand and Jews and on the other hand, criminalized other ethnic groups declared as "racially inferior". His human dignity and his officer's honor were sacred to this man. He did not want this to be taken away by the dishonorable, criminal ideology and politics of the Nazi state. With his deed he stood up to injustice - in the truest sense of the word. This is the only way to get a comprehensible explanation for his suicide.

Andor Ákos was the first to be killed in the city of Kempten as a result of the Nazi persecution of Jews. In 1990, in the Eich district of Kempten, the street on which the “Maria Hilf” church, built by the architect in 1938, stands, was named “Ákosweg”.

The Heimatverein Kempten and the association “Schlaraffia Cambodunum” co-founded by Ákos in 1929 put a memorial plaque here in 2005. Since July 2010, a “ stumbling stone ” initiated by Dieter Weber in the pavement in front of the “Gasthof zum Stift”, the architect's last house in Kempten, below the bay window, where his desk once stood, reminds of this. During the ceremony for the first “Stolperstein” laying in Illerstadt, Ákos’s great-nephew, Luigi Castagna from Toronto - the architect Gertrud Ákos’s widow had emigrated to Canada with the family of her niece Karla Castagna in 1973 - handed over further materials for the meanwhile established partial estate in the Kempten City Archives.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ These and the following facts - unless otherwise noted: See Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos. 1893-1940. A Hungarian born architect and artist from Kempten. Victim of the fascist racial madness. In: Lebensbilder aus dem Bayerischen Schwaben, Volume 17. Edited by Wolfgang Haberl, Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn (Schwaben) 2010 (hereinafter: Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos. In: Lebensbilder aus dem Bayerischen Schwaben), p. 237 –293 (with list of works); ders .: Life and work of Andor Ákos. In: Andor Ákos (1893–1940) - An architect and artist from Kempten, published by the City of Kempten (Allgäu), local associations Kempten and Krumbach. © Stadt Kempten (Allgäu) 2007 [accompanying document to the exhibition from March 28 to April 24, 2007, 50 pages] (In the following: Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos - exhibition brochure 2007), pp. 9–39; ders .: Andor Ákos - dates of life. In: Ibid., P. 7f.
2. ^ StadtA Ke, Ákos II: Willi Wollmann, Architect, Waltenhofen, July 21, 2008. Cf. also Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos. In: Life pictures from Bavarian Swabia, p. 252.
3. ↑ See note 1 on these and other research results published here.
4. ↑ See Art Deco jewel saved from chainsaw. In: Allgäuer Werbungblatt (AZ for Oberstdorf), September 19, 2008, No. 219, p. 35; The research is just beginning. In: Ibid., October 16, 2008, No. 241, p. 35.
5. ^ Conversion of the Allgäuer Vereinsbank, Kempten branch. In: Deutsche Bauhütte , Volume 27, 1923, No. 5 (from February 28, 1923), p. 47.
6. ↑ Quoted from Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos. In: Life pictures from Bavarian Swabia, p. 255.
7. ↑ Georg Schalk: New building plans: Make five out of one. News Günzburg. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. December 20, 2013, accessed March 18, 2014 . 
8. ↑ See youth. Munich illustrated weekly magazine for art and life. G. Hirth's Verlag Munich & Leipzig. Born in 1924.
9. ↑ See the portraits in: Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos - exhibition brochure 2007, p. 36f. See the Förderreuther portrait also in: Dotter Weich, Volker u. a (Ed.), The History of the City of Kempten, Kempten 1989, p. 337.
10. ↑ Allgäuer Tagblatt, April 29, 1933, No. 99, p. 15.
11. ↑ See AT, April 1, 1933, No. 77, p. 8; April 3, 1933, No. 78, pp. 9 and 12; Allgäuer Zeitung, April 3, 1933, No. 78, p. 10.
12. ↑ In the course of the Second World War , the first death sentences were passed on German Jews for “racial disgrace”. See report on the 3rd workshop of the International Institute for Holocaust Research in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, 21. – 23. November 2001.
13. ↑ Later deaths from Kempten as a result of the persecution of the Jews were recorded as a result of the first transports to the death camps: see Anna Köhl / Ralf Lienert: Kreative Köpf. Streets and their namesake in Kempten. Tobias Dannheimer publishing house, Kempten (Allgäu) 2007, pp. 77-102.
14. ↑ See ibid., P. 8f.
15. ↑ See Allgäuer Zeitung , July 16, 2010, No. 161, p. 27.

literature

• Weber, Dieter: Andor Ákos. 1893-1940. A Hungarian born architect and artist from Kempten. Victim of the fascist racial madness. In: Lebensbilder aus dem Bayerischen Schwaben, Volume 17. Edited by Wolfgang Haberl, Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn (Schwaben) 2009, pp. 237–293 (with list of works).
• Weber, Dieter: Life and work of Andor Ákos. In: Andor Ákos (1893–1940) - An architect and artist from Kempten, published by the City of Kempten (Allgäu), local associations Kempten and Krumbach. City of Kempten (Allgäu) 2007 [brochure accompanying the exhibition from March 28 to April 24, 2007, 50 pages], pp. 9–39; ders .: Andor Ákos - dates of life. In: Ibid., P. 7f. ders: Andor ÁKOS - Catalog raisonné art, p. 50.
• Fischer, Wilhelm: Andor Ákos in Krumbach (Swabia). In: Ibid., Pp. 40-43; ders .: Parallels and peculiarities to the Krumbacher "Traube". In: Ibid., Pp. 43-45; ders .: The thing with the Roadstar. In: Ibid., P. 46.
• Fischer, Wilhelm / Weber, Dieter: Andor ÁKOS - Catalog raisonné Architecture, pp. 47–49. In: ibid., Pp. 47–49.
• Nerdinger, Winfried: Theodor Fischer - architect and town planner 1862–1938, with contributions by Herman van Bergeijk et al., Berlin 1988.
• Nerdinger, Winfried (Ed.): Friedrich von Thiersch. A Munich architect of late historicism 1852–1921, Verlag Karl M. Lipp KG, Munich 1977.
• Schnell, Hugo (Ed.) / Felber, Ulrich: Kempten • Ascension Day. Church leaders, series Süddeutschland No. S 425, Munich 1939.
• Contemporary architecture. Volume 10: From the work of the architect Dipl.-Ing. Andor Ákos, May 1929. Academic Publishing House Dr. Fritz Wedekind & Co. Stuttgart (preface: Konrad W. Schulze).

Web links

Commons : Andor Ákos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Willi Fischer: Andor Ákos, architect and artist (1893-1940) in Babenhausen. Archived from the original on February 10, 2013 ; accessed on March 22, 2020 . 
• (Kempten personalities; author: Dieter Weber)