Bernhard Weyrather

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Six assistants from Peter Behrens at work: (from left) Mies van der Rohe , Meyer , Hertwig , Weyrather (left behind), Krämer , Gropius (with plan), 1908

Bernhard Weyrather (born January 29, 1886 in Düsseldorf ; † May 16, 1946 in Dresden ) was a German, anthroposophical architect . His wife Gertrud Weyrather-Engau (born April 9, 1876 in Böhrigen ; † October 6, 1950 in Radebeul ; maiden name Gertrud Engau ) was a German, anthroposophical craftswoman and painter . As an artist couple, they created joint buildings in the style of anthroposophical architecture .

Live and act

Before 1908, Weyrather studied architecture at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts , led by the architect and industrial designer Peter Behrens , where he also met Gertrud Engau, who was studying architecture there and who later became a well-known arts and craftsman as his wife Gertrud Weyrather-Engau . In 1906, Weyrather won his school's invitation to tender, a grant from the Aders-Tönnies Foundation , and in the same year to make its contribution to the Third German Applied Arts Exhibition in Dresden .

When Behrens went to Berlin in 1907 and opened a studio there as an independent architect, Weyrather followed suit. A photo from 1908 shows him with his colleagues Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , Adolf Meyer , Max Hertwig , Jean Krämer and Walter Gropius .

Before 1913 Engau and Weyrather married. 1913 Weyrather-Engau operating in Dusseldorf as working artist , the Workshop for batik, hand and machine embroidery . In addition, she had a teaching position at the Werkkunstschule Aachen .

The artist couple Weyrather had their first contact with anthroposophy when Bernhard Weyrather worked in the studio of the Düsseldorf architect Max Benirschke , who had also been teaching at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts since 1903. This should be included in the construction of Rudolf Steiner's first Goetheanum .

After four years as a soldier in World War I, Bernhard and his wife Gertrud Weyrather went to Dresden . Both joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1920 . They teamed up with the sculptor Walther Kniebe to work and live in a community. This became a focal point of anthroposophical life in Dresden. In 1921 they organized the first anthroposophical study weeks in Dresden with a eurythmy performance by the Goetheanum group under Marie Steiner from Dornach, Switzerland, and supported the organization of fundamental lectures on anthroposophy and threefolding .

In 1922 the builder and architect Gustav Otto Ziller from Radebeul joined the community, who still owned the large parental villa of his deceased father, the co-owner of the "Gebrüder Ziller" construction company and architect Gustav Ziller , in Serkowitz there . In the period that followed, the anthroposophical working and living community moved to Radebeul, where both Ziller and Weyrather can still be identified in the 1943 address book as residents of the Ziller's rental villa, Ziller on the 2nd floor as the owner and Weyrather as the tenant below. However, Ziller started his own business as an architect in June 1926.

In the 1920s, preparations were made to found the Dresden Christian Community and to found the Waldorf School there (1929). This was banned in 1941, reopened in October 1945, banned again in August 1949 and re-established in 1990.

The artist couple ran their studio from the Dresden area for more than 20 years: Bernhard Weyrather as an architect was supported by his wife Gertrud, who was valued for her batik work and artistic embroidery . For each building project, the interior design, the drafts for the furniture and the lighting fixtures were worked out, with Weyrather-Engau responsible for the color designs.

Probably the most important building in the Dresden area was the Church of the Christian Community from 1935 ( Reichenbachstraße 30), which was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, but was rebuilt in 1998/1999 as the Johannes Church (see list of sacred buildings in Dresden ). But only about half of Weyrather's works were created in Saxony.

The other half of his works were created in the far-away Bavarian Forest . Since he was friends with a family of doctors in Schwarzach , his first Bavarian villa was built there in 1925 (see Dr. Gäch's house ). Through this family friendship and his first reference object, Weyrather created a series of villas in the style of anthroposophical architecture in the Bavarian Forest in the course of the following years , including one in Bad Kötzting in 1927 .

After a short sick bed, Weyrather died in Dresden in May 1946, his wife died in Radebeul in 1950.

literature

  • Wilhelm Oberhuber: The architect Bernhardt Weyrather. III. New building of the Christian community in Dresden 1935/36. In: STIL, Goetheanist Education and Building. XXV. Vol. 1, 2/2003, pp. 35-39.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ C. Arthur Croyle: Hertwig: The Zelig of Design. (Teaser). ( Memento of June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 9.3 MB) Culicidae Press, 2011, p. 102. ISBN 9780557729692 .
  2. Allocation of scholarships from the Aders-Tönnies Foundation: Weyrather, Bernhard, * January 29, 1886 in Düsseldorf (proposed by the board of the Kunstgewerbeschule), 1903 , at www.archivportal-d.de, accessed on February 5, 2020
  3. Gertrud Engau, later: Gertrud Weyrather-Engau (April 9, 1876 - October 6, 1950)
  4. The history of the Dresden Waldorf School ( memento of the original from February 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.waldorfschule-dresden.de.srv1.bk-provider.de
  5. Welcome to the Dresden community
  6. Anthroposophical villa in Bad Kötzting is known for its extraordinary architecture. A house without corners and edges - doctor's villa at the spa park has awakened from a deep slumber - historical review  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.idowa.de