Carl Mertz

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Carl Mertz (born January 10, 1908 , † January 8, 1978 ) was a German architect .

Life

Carl Mertz studied architecture in Berlin from 1928 and, following his exams in 1933, began his professional career at the local building and finance department. He lived and worked in Italy for fourteen years, most recently as a freelance architect. In 1956 Mertz returned to Berlin and took over the Federal Building Directorate as Senior Building Director, later as President . In this function he was involved with German state buildings in numerous countries.

His rebuilding of Bellevue Palace and the extensive restoration of Palais Beauharnais are well known .

In 1969, Mertz, a nephew of the construction chief of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, was given the management of the Olympia-Baugesellschaft mbH and thus the construction management for the buildings that got out of hand at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. He had previously been involved in the forerunner of the Munich tent roof designed by Günter Behnisch , the German Pavilion at the 1967 World Exhibition in Montreal by Frei Otto .

On this largest construction site in Europe, Mertz showed "the unshakable self-confidence of a creaky building lion", he "gave those responsible for the Olympic Games an undisturbed night's sleep". Mertz barely achieved the completion on time. In doing so, he was helped by a consensus that “there must be leeway that is excluded from economic principles and the general considerations of utility”.

During his studies Mertz became a member of the Academic Association Motiv . From 1963 on, as chairman, he created the relevant legal and economic prerequisites for the new corporation house designed by Otto Risse and moved into in 1968 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary by G. Kieslich, in: Blaue Blätter des AV Motiv, March 1978, page 5
  2. ↑ Bellevue Castle. The future official seat of the Federal President. In: Bauwelt 50 (1959), pp. 860–867; Carl Mertz: Bellevue Palace. Expansion as the Berlin seat of the Federal President. In: Die Bauverwaltung 8 (1959), pp. 343–352
  3. ^ Carl Mertz, Hotel Beauharnais. Restoration of the former German embassy building in Paris, in: Die Bauverwaltung 9 (1968), pp. 470–476
  4. ↑ Peter Brügge , “We slipped into it like that”, DER SPIEGEL 1972, issue 31, page 28, 34f.
  5. ↑ Peter Bruges, DER SPIEGEL 1972, issue 31, page 34
  6. ↑ Horst Vetten, apparatus without a switch-off button, DIE ZEIT 1971, No. 30
  7. ↑ Peter Bruges, “Gell, now they are all coming”, DER SPIEGEL 1972, issue 28, page 65
  8. ↑ so the then Lord Mayor of Munich Hans-Jochen Vogel at the handover, quoted from DER SPIEGEL 1972, issue 34, page 40
  9. ↑ The Black Ring. Membership directory. Darmstadt 1930
personal data
SURNAME Mertz, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1908
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1978
Place of death Munich