Arnold King

Arnold Königs (born January 9, 1871 in Elchenrath near Würselen ; † July 30, 1960 in Aachen ) was a German architect and building contractor .

Live and act

Arnold Königs came from a long-established family of craftsmen.

The building of the Oberpostdirektion Aachen, on the new construction of which Arnold Königs worked.

After completing elementary school , Arnold Königs first completed an apprenticeship as a building and furniture fitter in his parents' company and attended a vocational school at the same time. In 1889 he began further training as a bricklayer in Aachen . Already during his apprenticeship years, Königs worked from 1890 to 1892 on the construction of the Aachen Oberpostdirektion at Kapuzinergraben (today's "Hauptpost"). He was particularly active on the stone facade and the vault constructions. In the construction business of the Max Keuchen company , he became a draftsman and site manager. In 1892 he began studying at the commercial day school, which opened in 1887 - the forerunner of today's technical school. He took courses in drawing as well as wood and metal processing.

In 1902 he married Anna Goebels, the following year the son Hans Königs was born as the oldest of seven children.

job

Rochusstrasse 21-23. House number 23 is the house where Hans Königs was born

Construction group Rochusstraße 26–30, built by Arnold Königs (1900–1905)

Group of houses at Krefelder Strasse 27 to 31, houses No. 27 (left) and 31 (right) were built by Arnold Königs

The former town hall of Burtscheid , which Arnold and Hans Königs campaigned to preserve, was reconstructed in collaboration with Leo Hugot

In 1894, Königs was employed in the construction business Victor Jerusalem in Aachen. After the owner's death, he initially continued the business on a temporary basis. In 1897 he took over the construction business on his own. Königs profited from the building boom at the beginning of the 20th century. He realized one of the first projects in Morsbach near Würselen in 1898 . Numerous others, mainly in the style of historicism, followed in Rochusstrasse and below the Lousberg . In this residential area, which was specially designed for wealthy industrialists and professors from the neighboring university , Königs acquired the house at Nizzaallee 49. In the following years he was in charge of the construction of the Villa Esperanza and the house at Försterstraße 5. Arnold Königs specialized in design and construction over the next few decades Construction of residential and commercial buildings in Aachen. In 1905 he moved his company and residence (Krefelder Straße, corner of Kardinalstraße) to the immediate vicinity of the house built in 1903 for his in-laws at Krefelder Straße 27. Well-known Aachen architects such as Karl Henrici , Gustav Schimpff and Carl Sieben lived with them in the vicinity he worked together on various projects.

Especially after the new city expansion plan came into force in 1910, the building industry in Aachen reached a new high. Arnold Königs built several imposing buildings on Krefelder Strasse and Monheimsallee during this time. According to plans by the architect Carl Sieben, he built the corner house at Rolandstrasse / Pippinstrasse in 1912. But Königs also worked for well-known Aachen industrialists during this time. For example, he converted a large, lavish villa on Monheimsallee for the manufacturer Moritz Honigmann  , and in 1912 he built the office building for the Printen manufacturer Lambertz on the central Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz opposite the Elisenbrunnen .

Together with the architect friend Albert Schneider acquired King in the Soers the estate Purweide whose architectural history explored his son Hans King later years of research. Hans Königs had a long friendship with the son of the architect Schneider, who later became the painter Carl Schneider . On the arable land of the former Purweide estate, Arnold Königs began building turnkey houses (construction price 11,000 to 15,000 marks). Three assemblies were created: Soerser Weg 55–61 (1911/1912), Am Purweider Weg 2b – 10 (1913/1914) and Strüverweg 18–22 (1914/1915).

The First World War almost brought private construction activity to a standstill. In addition to the lack of building materials, the increasing shortage of skilled workers made itself felt, almost all of whom were now called up for military service. Arnold Königs was called up in 1917, at the age of 45, as part of the auxiliary service to work at the Military Building Authority Cologne II to carry out work on the barracks in Wahnheide .

After the war, under the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, the areas on the left bank of the Rhine were occupied by Belgian and French troops. Hunger, lack of fuel, hyperinflation and political instability, which culminated in a separatist movement in 1923 , marked the first years of the Weimar Republic . These circumstances led to an almost complete cessation of construction activity at the beginning of the 1920s.

It was only with the implementation of social settlement projects to combat the acute housing shortage that had arisen from the confiscation of numerous hotels, spa houses and countless private apartments by the Belgian occupation army that the order situation in the Aachen construction industry improved from the mid-1920s.

In 1929, Arnold Koenig's company worked on the redesign of the food hall of the " Tietz " department store on Aachen market.

But already in the following years Germany was hit by the world economic crisis . There were no construction contracts, and the Königs company had to temporarily lay off all employees.

In the 1930s, Arnold Königs, together with his sons Hans, Jakob and Josef, carried out a number of projects on Krefelder Strasse, Purweider Weg, Königshügel, and Chlodwigstrasse and Pippinstrasse. In addition, a number of commercial buildings and cafés were converted. In 1935, Arnold Königs made plans for the reconstruction of the Aachen synagogue , and he also erected several graves in the Jewish cemetery on Lütticher Strasse between 1935 and 1939. In 1936 a remarkable residential project was realized in the Aachen district of Burtscheid - the Lützenburg house. In the style of the time, it is characterized by reinforced concrete ceilings and a built-in air raid shelter .

During the Second World War , the Königs Baubetrieb was commissioned by the War Damage Office to carry out repair work on listed houses that had been damaged by air raids. Fewer and fewer skilled workers were available to deal with the large number of claims. By conscription, the workforce was reduced from 21 workers (1941) to eleven (1943).

In 1948 Arnold Königs - very old - led the reconstruction of the Franciscan monastery on Monheimsallee together with the architect Peter Salm . In the last years of his life, Arnold Königs was particularly keen to revitalize the spa culture in Aachen. His plans to rebuild the Kaiserbad am Büchel, including the Quirinusbad, were not realized. Through letters to the editor, among other things, he campaigned for the preservation of the old Burtscheid town hall , the former Neubad. The building was ultimately saved from demolition.

Political activities

From 1924 Arnold Königs was a member of the Aachen city council for the Center Party . In the District Welfare Committee, he mainly dealt with the so-called “small apartment building”. As early as 1920 he had written a memorandum on subsidies for small apartment construction . In 1933, after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, he resigned from his position as city councilor.

Arnold König joined the CDU in 1946 and was re-elected to the city council in October of the same year, at the age of 75. Due to his age, he gave up his mandate in 1952.

buildings

Group of houses at Rochusstrasse 48 (corner house) / Sandkaulstrasse 53 (left), built by Arnold Königs from 1903 to 1905

• 1900 Rochusstraße 21 , four storeys, three axes, plastered facade, decor: neo-baroque. Rochusstraße was laid out in 1894 within the former outer wall ring.
• 1900 Rochusstraße 23 , four floors, two axes. Risalit in the broader right axis: bay window over two floors with balcony, gable and the year 1900. Plastered facade, decor: neo-Gothic .
• around 1903 Rochusstrasse 48 , corner house on Sandkaulstrasse. Four floors, 5: 3 axes, corner axis sloping with a bay window over two floors and a balcony. Mansard roof , clinker plaster facade, decor: neo-renaissance and neo-baroque.
• around 1900 Rochusstrasse 26, 28 and 30 , four floors, three axes. Bay windows and / or balconies each encompass two axes. Plastered facade, decor: Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau . No. 30 bears the year 1905 on the bay window.
• 1905 Sandkaulstrasse 53 . This four-storey three-axle house has a two-storey central bay with the year 1905, a balcony and a plastered facade.
• 1903 Krefelder Straße 27 , four floors, three axes. The central risalit with tail gable encompasses an axis and has a bay window and balcony as decoration. Plastered facade, decor: neo-baroque. Krefelder Strasse is an Aachen arterial road to the north.
• 1905 Krefelder Strasse 31 , corner house on Kardinalstrasse. Four floors (fifth floor renewed), 3: 6 axes, side elevation one axis each. Plastered facade, decor: neo-renaissance .
• around 1905 Nizza-Allee 85 , Villa Esperanza
• around 1906 Försterstrasse 5 , two storeys, two axes, two-axis gable curtain wall, three-storey porch on the right side of the house, plastered facade, decor: neo-baroque .
• 1907–1908 Krefelder Str. 35 and 37 , three-story double villa with mansard roof; Construction together with the businessman Eduard Scheins.
• 1909–1910 Monheimsallee 42–44 , conversion of the Moritz Honigmann villa, destroyed
• 1911–1912 Soerser Weg 55–61 , housing estate
• 1912 Rolandstraße , three storeys, eight axes, colossal pilasters emphasizing the six central axes. Ground floor: ashlar, otherwise plastered facade divided into ashlar, decor: neoclassicism .
• 1912 Lambertz office building on Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz, destroyed
• 1913–1914 Purweider Weg 2b – 10 , housing estate
• 1914–1915 Strüverweg 18–22 , housing estate
• 1929 Food hall of the Tietz department store , demolished
• 1930 Krefelder Strasse 12 , Bock house
• 1932 Ortmanns cloth shop, Großkölnstraße, renovation
• around 1935 Café Schifflers , Großkölnstraße 29–31, renovation
• around 1935 Sinn department store , Großkölnstrasse, renovation
• 1936 Lützenburg house , corner of Benediktinerstraße / Neustraße in Burtscheid
• 1948 Franciscan monastery Aachen , Monheimsallee, reconstruction

literature

• Ludwina Forst: King's Path. In the footsteps of the first city curator, Hans Königs (1903–1988). Thouet, Aachen 2008, ISBN 3-930594-33-1 .
• Landeskonservator Rheinland (ed.) / Hans Königs, Volker Osteneck (edit.): List of monuments 1.1, Aachen city center with Frankenberg quarter. Rheinland Verlag, Cologne 1977.

Web links

Commons : Arnold Königs  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ K. Dannert: The Nice Allee. A reader on a beautiful street in Aachen . Aachen 2007. (Lousberg Society)
2. ↑ Reinhard Dauber : Aachen villa architecture. The villa as a building task in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Aurel Bongers, Recklinghausen 1985, ISBN 3-7647-0371-7 , pp. 187f.