Bruno Möhring

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1905: Bruno Möhring at the age of 42
1905: Anna Möhring with her sons Rudolf and Bruno
1928: Sick Bruno Möhring with his dog in front of his house in Parallelstrasse 7-8 (today: Bruno-Möhring-Strasse 14 B) in Berlin-Marienfelde

Bruno Möhring (born December 11, 1863 in Königsberg (East Prussia) , † March 25, 1929 in Berlin ) was a German architect , urban planner and designer . He was one of the most important Art Nouveau architects in Germany.

Life

After studying briefly at the Technical University of Charlottenburg with Hermann Ende , Carl Schäfer , Johannes Otzen and Johann Eduard Jacobsthal , Möhring worked as a salaried architect in the Berlin palace construction office. In 1892 he went into business for himself and had his office at Potsdamer Strasse 109.

Berlin memorial plaque on Bruno-Möhring-Strasse 14a in Berlin-Marienfelde

Möhring drew attention to himself through some competition successes, including the design for the Bonn Rhine Bridge (1897), which resulted in a long-term, fruitful collaboration with Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen and its chief designer Prof. Reinhold Krohn . For the Art Nouveau era , Möhring is one of the few German architects who came up with truly original, independent creations. In fact, these years can be seen as the high point of Möhring's professional life.

The Art Nouveau had already outlived itself around 1906, in the following years Möhring stood out primarily through urban planning work. He was involved in larger projects in Wedding, Weißensee and Neukölln. Here he brought the main features of his urban design to bear: perimeter block development with large and greened interior areas.

In general, the Möhring plant is viewed as less important in the period after the First World War. The spectacular projects, such as the large bridges, are now missing from his work. But he also succeeded in good architecture on a smaller scale, such as the redesign of the Marienfelde village church and the new construction of the chapel on the Protestant cemetery in Berlin-Marienfelde . He also demonstrated the continued use of the existing building fabric with the construction of the parish hall in Giesensdorf, where he integrated the existing rectory from 1869 into the new building.

He belonged to the artist club “Der Werkring ” and from 1902 to the Choriner Freundeskreis . In 1907 he was also one of the founding members of the Deutscher Werkbund and was co-editor of the magazine Berliner Architekturwelt .

Möhring's work was honored with several honors and decorations. In 1907 he received the title of professor . In 1914 he became a member of the comité international permanent des architectes in Paris. Since 1919 he was a member of the Prussian Academy of Building .

Grave of the Möhring family in the Marienfelde cemetery

Bruno Möhring was buried in a grave of honor in the Marienfelde cemetery of the Protestant parish in Berlin-Marienfelde . The still-preserved tomb is under monument protection as a garden monument. The former parallel street in Berlin-Marienfelde is now called Bruno-Möhring-Straße.

His wife Anna Möhring (née Burghardt) died in 1939. Two of his sons died very early, Hans-Joachim at the age of four as a child and Bruno in 1918 as a participant in the First World War . At the end of the Second World War on April 23, 1945, the third son Rudolf is said to have been shot by soldiers of the Red Army on the inherited property in Marienfelde as they marched into the center of Berlin.

Employee

Employees in Bruno Möhring's studio were:

plant

An important area of ​​activity for Möhring was the architectural design of iron constructions, which until then were not actually considered objects of architecture . Mohring developed thereby on the Historismus usual addition of iron construction of useful and ornamental masonry architecture addition (e.g., bridge girders + gate towers, as yet in the Moselbrücke in trotting-Trarbach.); He went over to adding the decorative elements developed by the engineer from their shape directly and in the same material (e.g. on the Swinemünde Bridge in Berlin, which managed completely without towers or the like). Ideally, construction and architectural design merged to form an inseparable unit and a characteristic overall shape, as in the case of the “Döppersberg” suspension railway station in Wuppertal.

Another important part of Möhring's work was the design of exhibitions or individual exhibition structures or objects. The creative task that would be called exhibition construction today dominated . In 1900 he took over the artistic design for the exhibition rooms of the German wine producers and a wine restaurant at the world exhibition in Paris. The French government has appointed Möhring a Knight of the Legion of Honor . Apart from the exhibition hall of the Gutehoffnungshütte from 1902, the construction of which was reused in another location a few years later, probably no object of this category has survived - mostly they were only designed for a temporary existence.

In addition to the design work, Möhring was active as an author and editor of magazines; in 1899 he was co-founder and editor of the magazine “ Berliner Architekturwelt ”.

Plate 51 from Volume 3 (1902) of Architectural Character Pictures , edited by Bruno Möhring

After the portfolio of Architectural Character Pictures with architectural pictures and drawings published from 1900, the magazine “ Der Städtebau ” followed in 1906 . Together with Cornelius Gurlitt and Bruno Taut , he published the magazine “ Stadtbaukunst ” from 1920 onwards .

Three regional focal points can be identified in Möhring's work: Berlin and the surrounding area, the city of Traben-Trarbach (after building the Moselle bridge, he was able to plan several buildings there) and Oberhausen (the collaboration with Gutehoffnungshütte resulted in the order to design a civil servants' housing estate for this company) . Individual buildings were also built apart from these focal points.

When designing his country houses and villas, which were planned between 1909 and 1916, he commissioned his former office manager, John Martens, who worked as a freelance architect and building ceramist in Berlin and for Veltener ceramics and stove factories, to design building ceramics.

Iron structures

Bülowstrasse elevated railway station around 1902

Monuments

Möhring designed a number of tombs, but also large monuments such as the Bismarckwarte in Brandenburg ad Havel in 1907 or the Bismarck Tower in Burg (Spreewald) in 1917 .

Interior design

He also designed a number of his houses inside, as well as business premises and shops. These works were short-lived and most of them are no longer preserved. The Rheineck pharmacy at Rheinstrasse 40 in Berlin-Friedenau from 1908/09 is an exception .

Applied arts

Especially at the turn of the century Möhring designed arts and crafts. Jewelry, lamps and furniture came from his pen. There were also architectural decorations such as door and window bars and banisters.

urban planning

The design pursued a radial development along the major traffic axes and a densification of the development in the vicinity of the existing town centers; it already envisaged a railway tunnel with a crossing station in the area of ​​the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof from north to south. ( Albert Speer also used elements of this plan in his plans for Berlin.) Möhring pleaded for a generous perimeter block development with large inner courtyards. He preferred this type of development over looser development, whereby the inner courtyard offered fronts without traffic noise and communication between the residents would be facilitated.
  • 1912: Garden and development plan for Neu-Tempelhof (together with Fritz Bräuning )
  • 1914: General development plan for the district of Berlin-Mariendorf
  • 1914/1915: Plans to rebuild Allenstein in East Prussia

Buildings in Berlin

Swinoujscie Bridge
Entrance of the Villa Schippert in Berlin-Marienfelde
Residential and commercial building on the airlift square
Ascent to the Gerickesteg from the Bellevue S-Bahn station

The buildings that Bruno Möhring was instrumental in designing are listed below. The list is limited to preserved buildings. The information on the condition of these buildings comes from Ines Wagemann (1988) and was partially checked in 2006. Hence the temporary restriction to Berlin and the surrounding area.

In Berlin, too, he played a key role in designing bridges, although the dimensions across the Spree were much smaller. The bridges that have been preserved, even if they were mostly rebuilt as a result of the effects of the war, or their abutment structures are worth seeing in the city.

  • The start of independence was marked in 1895 by the house at Ernststrasse 5 in Berlin-Baumschulenweg .
  • With Julius Krost , he designed the typical residential and commercial buildings in Schöneberger Pallasstrasse 8–12 from 1896–1897 . The facade decorations of these houses have been partially preserved or restored.
  • The Bülowstrasse station of the Berliner Hochbahn was built around 1900/1901 and has largely been preserved. The platform was extended in 1928 under the direction of his son Rudolf Möhring.
  • 1902–1905 the Swinemünde Bridge was built in Berlin-Gesundbrunnen , which spans the Ringbahn and Northern Railway east of the Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station. The bridge was destroyed in the war and rebuilt in a simplified manner. Between 1995 and 2006, the environment changed significantly with the renovation and construction of the Gesundbrunnen train station.
  • In 1904 Bruno Möhring built his own house at Parallelstrasse 7 in Berlin-Marienfelde , which later became Bruno-Möhring-Strasse 14a. The house has been preserved in a slightly modified form, but largely hidden from view due to the new development on the property's edge. A memorial plaque that is difficult to discover indicates the building and its builder; it is a listed building.
  • 1907/1908 Möhring led the renovation of a villa on Teutonenstrasse in Berlin-Zehlendorf . At the same time, he designed the facade of the apartment building group Levetzowstrasse 12 / 12a and Solinger Strasse 12 in Berlin-Moabit
  • In 1909/1910 the Hansabrücke was built along the Hansastraße in Berlin-Tiergarten according to Möhring's plans . Parts of the original structures on the bank have been preserved, the bridge itself was rebuilt after being destroyed in the war between 1952 and 1953.
  • Also in 1911, Möhring designed a house with a wine bar for the wine merchant Gustav Schicke in Parallelstrasse 8–9 - in the immediate vicinity of his own house. (Möhring had already delivered the design for the interior of the wine tavern by Gustav Schicke in Berlin Friedrichstrasse 203 in 1898, which no longer exists today.) The architect and building ceramist John Martens designed the two black glazed majolica vases in the entrance area and the two unglazed ones for this house Terracotta crater on the balcony.
  • In 1912 the town hall and the fire station of the community on Hohenzollernplatz were built in Berlin-Nikolassee according to Möhring's plans. The buildings have been preserved in a modified form.
  • In 1912/1913 a complex of houses was built in Neu-Tempelhof : Manfred-von-Richthofen-Straße 2, 9 and 11 (preserved); Dudenstrasse 9 (preserved); Tempelhofer Damm 2 (preserved); Kaiserkorso 1 (facade simply restored after the war) and 158 (probably destroyed during the war). The imposing buildings form an entrance situation for Neu-Tempelhof. They are just as characteristic of the Airlift Square as the buildings at Tempelhof Airport . They were supposed to stand at the beginning of a comprehensive development of Neu-Tempelhof, but the First World War prevented the continuation of this project. In the years after 1920, Neu-Tempelhof was built on in the settlement style of the time with less tall buildings. Hermann Speck worked as a partner on the project.
  • In 1913/1914 the Villa Burchardt was built in Berliner Strasse (today Ostpreußendamm 136) for the building contractor Carl Burchardt, which shows a clear resemblance to Villa Schippert . Möhring also worked with the building ceramist John Martens on this construction project . He designed the entrance portal made of unglazed terracotta and the lintels as well as tiled stoves and a majolica fireplace (made by Blumenfeld AG in Velten) for the interior of the country house . In the garden of the property is a fountain bowl with a figure of Venus made by the sculptor Hermann Hosäus .
  • Möhring built another bridge over the Spree in 1913/1914 with the Gerickesteg (also called Bellevuesteg or Calvinbrücke ) in Berlin-Tiergarten at the Bellevue S-Bahn station. It was destroyed in the war and rebuilt in a similar but simplified form.
  • Facade design in Berlin-Tempelhof , Schulenburgring 126 from 1914/1915. This building has changed a lot.
  • In 1915/1916 the house for Karl Schippert, director of the Daimler engine factory, was built in Berlin-Marienfelde , Emilienstraße 17 (formerly Emilienstraße 29/30), on the corner property Emilienstraße / Parallelstraße (now Bruno-Möhring-Straße). The portal reveal made of white terracotta and the terracottas of the windows of the two side wings were designed by John Martens and executed by Adler GmbH in Velten. At the rear of the house there are three more large windows decorated with a terracotta ribbon and a garden door in the slightly curved central projection. The Schippert house was built entirely under the influence of the German Federal Homeland Security and the German Werkbund. In the post-war period it served as the provincial office and motherhouse of the poor school sisters of Our Lady . It has been used as an office building since 2006 and is a listed building.
  • In 1920/1921 the interior and exterior of the Marienfelde village church in Berlin-Marienfelde were fundamentally redesigned . The renovations have not been changed, the decoration of the church with paintings was removed in 1990/1991, with the exception of a remnant.
  • In 1925 a villa was built at Paulinenstrasse 14 in Berlin-Lichterfelde .
  • Also in 1925 the parish hall of the Protestant community Giesensdorf in Berlin-Lichterfelde -Süd in Berliner Straße (today Ostpreußendamm) was completed as an extension and conversion of the existing rectory. The house has been preserved slightly changed, a plaque at the entrance indicates the architect.
  • In 1925/1926 he and his partner Spitzner built an apartment building on the corner plot of Berliner Straße (today Ostpreußendamm 153 / 153a) / Schillerstraße in Berlin-Lichterfelde , which is now a listed building.
  • The residential buildings erected in 1926 in Berlin-Neukölln , Sonnenallee 191–199, have been preserved in a slightly different form.
  • In 1927, the residential complex of the non-profit homestead company of the Berlin tram in Gartenstrasse 30-34 / Wegenerstrasse 7/8 in Berlin-Weißensee was completed. This system is a prototype of the perimeter block development propagated by Möhring. Entrances and balconies were placed on the garden side. Hans Spitzner was involved in both projects.
  • In 1927/1928 the expressionist chapel was built on the Evangelical parish cemetery in Berlin-Marienfelde . This small building is a particularly beautiful and worth seeing example of the late work of Möhring and his partner Spitzner. The chapel is well preserved and is still in use. Windows destroyed in the war were redesigned.
  • Between 1927 and 1930, a residential complex for the Primus home building company was built around Antwerpener Strasse in Berlin-Wedding . In addition to Bruno Möhring and his son Rudolf, the architects Albert Geßner , Friedrich Hennings and Franz Seeck were involved in this large complex . Here they followed the principle of perimeter block development with large and green inner courtyards, in which tenant gardens were sometimes also laid out. This system has been preserved in a slightly modified form. After a thorough modernization, it was converted into condominiums in 2006.
  • The grave of the Möhring family in the Protestant cemetery Marienfelde has been preserved as an honorary grave for Bruno Möhring, the grave site is newly occupied.

Buildings in the state of Brandenburg

Villa Lehmann in Brandenburg, spring 2007
  • 1901–1902 the house for the manufacturer Ernst Paul Lehmann in Brandenburg ad Havel, Plauer Straße 6, was fundamentally redesigned inside and out by Möhring. This building is a special testimony to Art Nouveau buildings. The house is now owned by the city of Brandenburg. The facade has been preserved slightly changed.
  • 1905-07: House of JH Werner in Klein-Glienicke
  • 1907–1908 Möhring was commissioned by Ernst Paul Lehmann to build the Bismarckwarte on the Marienberg in Brandenburg ad Havel. This facility is within sight of Lehmann's house. The existing staircase in the park is essentially based on Möhring's designs. The Bismarckwarte itself was demolished in 1974 and replaced by the new peace observatory.
  • In 1911 he designed a studio house on Schermützelsee in Buckow for the sculptor Georg Roch . The so-called "Iron Villa" was taken over by Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel as a summer house in 1952 and is now used as a museum and memorial for the artist couple under the name Brecht-Weigel-Haus .
  • 1915–1917 the Bismarck Tower was built on the Schlossberg in Burg (Spreewald) . This monument has survived the turmoil of time and is preserved.

Buildings in Saxony-Anhalt

Staircase of the original Schönebecker Elbe bridge

In 1912 Möhring was involved in the design of the Elbe bridge in Schönebeck . The bridge was partially destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in a simplified manner. Fragments of the original building can still be found on today's bridge.

Bruno Möhring provided the design for the cemetery in Bitterfelde, Friedenstrasse 45, 47.

Buildings in Rhineland-Palatinate

The Art Nouveau Hotel Bellevue in Traben-Trarbach. The “Clauss-Feist” inn was originally built in 1837 as a half-timbered house. In 1900 it was completely destroyed by a major fire. Bruno Möhring, who himself enjoyed living in the “Clauss-Feist” inn and knew the owner personally, then drew up the plans for the Art Nouveau hotel “Clauss-Feist”, which was completed in 1903. In the following decades the hotel became the first address on the Moselle.
Art Nouveau windows in the Hotel Bellevue, Traben-Trarbach
Art Nouveau winegrower's house in Lösnich / Mosel, built in 1906
  • In 1897 he won the competition for the construction of the Moselle bridge, which connects the districts of Traben and Trarbach . The iron bridge construction completed in 1899 was blown up in 1945, but the bridge gate designed by Möhring was retained during the reconstruction.

In the following years he received further orders for several buildings that have been preserved to this day:

  • 1901-03: Hotel Clauss-Feist, An der Mosel 11, with most of the interior furnishings that he designed
  • 1904: Villa Huesgen, Am Bahnhof 50
  • 1905: Villa Dr. Gustav Breucker (later Nollen), An der Mosel 7
  • 1905: Langguth winery in Enkirch
  • 1906: Extension for the Wildstein spa and lodging house near Traben-Trarbach, later used as a recreation home for Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG , today: Parkschlösschen Bad Wildstein spa hotel, Wildbadstrasse 201
  • 1906/07: Large winery Julius Kayser & Co., Bruno-Möhring-Platz 1 (today Buddha Museum )
  • 1906: Winegrower's house in Lösnich , Gestade 15

Buildings in North Rhine-Westphalia

Buildings abroad

Villa of Dr. Alfred Koeppen in Szklarska Poręba (Schreiberhau), ul.Muzealna 2
  • Home of Dr. Alfred Koeppen in Mittel-Schreiberhau in the Giant Mountains (ul.Muzealna 2) from 1907.
  • Museum Mexico ( Museo Universitario del Chopo ): The industrial building with Art Nouveau decorations originally came from Germany. In 1902 it was commissioned by the Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen and the Deutz gas engine factory (later part of the Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz works) according to plans by the Berlin architect Bruno Möhring and the chief designer of the Gutehoffnungshütte, Reinhold Krohn (bridge construction department in Oberhausen-Sterkrade), as an exhibition hall for the Rheinisch-Westfälische industrial and trade exhibition in Düsseldorf . The hall was a direct model for the famous Art Nouveau machine hall of the Zeche Zollern II / IV in Dortmund-Bövinghausen, also designed by Möhring. Since it was clear from the outset that the hall would not remain in Düsseldorf permanently, it was designed to be completely dismountable using screws. The larger main part was acquired by the Mexican company José Landeros y Cos in collaboration with the Compañía Mexicana de Exposición Permanente, shipped to Mexico and rebuilt from 1903 to 1905 near the Buenavista train station. There it served from 1909 as the national museum of the natural history of Mexico, showing dinosaurs and other things. In 1960, severe damage to the collection led to the museum being closed. From 1973, the hall passed to the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), which reopened the building after renovation and redesign on November 25, 1975 as a center for young, avant-garde and experimental art (visual arts, theater and music). The building was renovated and rebuilt from 2006 to 2010 according to plans by the Argentine architect Enrique Norton. All later fixtures were removed and a free-standing ramp spanning several floors was installed inside.

Fonts

literature

  • Ralf Dorn: The architect Bruno Möhring (1863–1929) - a companion of Alfred Grenander. In: Christoph Brachmann, Thomas Steigenberger (Hrsg.): A Swede in Berlin. The architect and designer Alfred Grenander and Berlin architecture (1890–1914). Didymos-Verlag, Korb 2010, pp. 423–442.
  • Hans-Werner Fabarius, Dieter Wurdak and Godwin T. Petermann: Bruno Möhring. Architect. Architect - Designer - Urban Planner 1863–1929 Working Group Historisches Marienfelde (Ed.), Berlin 2019 - second extended edition, ISBN 978-3-9820690-0-5 .
  • Ines Wagemann: The architect Bruno Möhring 1863–1929. Witterschlick, Bonn 1992, ISBN 3-925267-55-7 (also dissertation, University of Bonn, 1988.)
  • Ines Wagemann: Art Nouveau in Traben-Trarbach (Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 331). Neuss 1988
  • Ines Wagemann:  Möhring, Bruno. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 621 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Bruno Möhring  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  1. ↑ Bruno Möhring's grave
  2. ↑ House Möhring
  3. ↑ House Schippert

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary to Bruno Möhring , Vossische Zeitung , April 2, 1929, evening edition, p. 3.
  2. ↑ J. Ahlin: Sigurd Lewerentz, arkitekt . Byggförlaget, Stockholm 1985, ISBN 91-85194-63-8 , p. 244
  3. ↑ Anne Kathrin Schmidt (. For contents Responsible): Lot 459: Architectural character images ... on the side liveauctioneers.com of Schmidt Kunstauktionen Dresden OHG , last downloaded December 9, 2013
  4. ↑ Compare the documentation at Commons (see under the section Weblinks )
  5. ^ The structural future of Mariendorf and Rudow. in: Berliner Volkszeitung on September 22, 1914
  6. ↑ List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt, Bitterfeld district, Volume 13, prepared by Sabine Oszmer, Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, ISBN 3-937251-53-7 , page 42
  7. ↑ langguth-ulrich.com: Winery Cellar
personal data
SURNAME Möhring, Bruno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1929
Place of death Berlin