Eberhard Brandl

Eberhard Brandl around 1955

Eberhard Brandl (Eberhard Friedrich Brandl * October 14, 1916 in Karlsruhe , † March 6, 1971 in Berlin ) was a German architect and designer. He worked as a freelancer in the offices of Otto Apel in Frankfurt am Main , of “Atelier Le Corbusier ” in Paris , in India, at Cailler-Caillard in Geneva and as a partner of Egon Eiermann . With Eiermann he came to the "Bonn Planning Group", to which Sep Ruf and Paul Baumgarten also belonged. In 1965, Brandl took over part of the interior work on the Reichstag building in Berlin on behalf of the Federal Building Directorate, as well as coordinating the work of the architects and specialists involved. At the same time, he designed lights and light objects. Brandl's objectively elegant buildings and functionalist office architecture are shaped by the international style of the post-war period.

family

Eberhard Brandl grew up in a Protestant rectory. His father Walter Brandl (* 1886 in Sinsheim / Elsenz; † 1975 in Offenburg) worked as court deacon at the palace church of Grand Duke Friedrich II of Baden in Karlsruhe until 1919 , then as pastor and dean in Stein / Amt Bretten, in Karlsruhe and in Baden-Baden. The mother Frieda-Maria Brandl, b. Kritzinger (* 1886 in Klein-Glienicke near Potsdam, † 1925 in Pforzheim) died early. Brandl had six siblings, three of whom came from the father's second marriage. In 1964 Eberhard Brandl married and had a daughter.

education

Brandl left the secondary school in 1934. In 1937 he passed the industrial skilled worker examination as a machine fitter in Karlsruhe. After that he did military service with various flak regiments in Göppingen and Fürth until 1939. He retired from military service in 1945 as a first lieutenant in the Air Force in reserve ( 5th Paratrooper Division ). Before that, in 1943 and 1944, Brandl had been treated in various southern German hospitals for a serious war injury and malaria. 1946–1949 he trained as an engineer for structural engineering at the Konstanz State Technical College. Brandl then continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg until 1952 , specializing in architecture with Sep Ruf .

Employment

Within an architecture planning group, to which Sep Ruf placed him in 1951 and of which Otto Apel belonged, among others , Brandl designed residential and public buildings for the Americans stationed in Germany on behalf of the US High Commission ( HICOG ) in Bonn-Plittersdorf Familys.

In 1951, Brandl's free architectural partnership began with Otto Apel, who opened his own architectural office in Frankfurt in 1953. The collaboration lasted until 1955 and again in 1956/57. As the head of Apel's design and construction office, Brandl worked, among others, with Skidmore Owings & Merrill architects (SOM), New York.

In between, 1955/56, Brandl made a six-month trip to India. In collaboration with Atelier Le Corbusier , Paris, “India Planning Group in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad ”, he mainly studied Le Corbusier's buildings in Ahmedabad and his planning of Chandigarh (1951–1961) as a completely new capital for the state of Punjab . In 1957 Brandl held a guest lecture on his trip to India on the occasion of his candidacy for the chair of architecture at the Staatliche Werkakademie, Hochschule für Gestaltung, Kassel, and published a report on it in Magnum magazine . A selection of 60 to 70 from his thousands of photos, India, a photo report , was exhibited in the göppinger gallery in Frankfurt in 1958 (calico and artificial leather works göppinger plastics in Göppingen / Württemberg).

In 1957/1958 he worked as a freelancer at Cailler-Caillard architectes in Geneva.

From 1959 to 1966 Brandl was a freelance architect and a member of the Baden-Württemberg Chamber of Architects (moved to Berlin in 1965).

The professional partnership with Egon Eiermann began in 1959 . For the construction of the German Embassy in Washington , Brandl took over the planning and construction management on site in 1960/1961 (13 months). As a partner Eiermann, Brandl worked from 1962 to 1964 within the "Bonn Planning Council", to which Sep Ruf and Paul Baumgarten still belonged, on the overall planning of the government and administrative center area Bonn-Bad Godesberg and on the implementation planning of the high-rise building .

In 1965 Brandl designed the German Cultural Institute Athens in his own office in Bonn-Sonderbusch on behalf of the Foreign Office (preliminary design, not realized); he worked on the invited architecture competitions for the Istanbul Archaeological Institute and for a community center in Mainz. From 1965 to 1968 Brandl completed part of the reconstruction of the historic Reichstag building on behalf of the Federal Building Department . He moved to Berlin in 1965 and set up an office there. His task included the interior construction of the north and north-east wing, the middle east wing and the west wing (conference rooms for the parliamentary groups) and, in collaboration with Paul Baumgarten, the completion of the newly designed plenary hall. As a team leader, he was responsible for coordinating the work of the architects involved, especially von Baumgarten, and special experts with the Federal Building Department . According to contracts from 1965 and 1966, he shared with Baumgarten, with whom he had a branch office “Projekt Reichstag Mitte”, 50 percent of the artistic direction and two thirds of the construction work. Brandl designed special ceiling lighting systems for the rooms. From this he developed, as a freelance designer with the company August Gärtner, Berlin, up to the early 1970s, high-quality individual lights (floor, pendant, pull and table lights) and light objects.

In 1969/70 Brandl worked on behalf of the Federal Building Directorate as artistic advisor and coordinator for the construction of the Berlin State Library , designed by Hans Scharoun .

Brandl was no longer able to take up the position of Head of Central Function 1 at Suter & Suter Architects Basel, for which he was “shortlisted”. He died shortly before the scheduled start.

Projects 1951–1956

Former American Consulate General in Frankfurt , Siesmayerstraße

Apartment house Mendelssohnstrasse 53, Frankfurt am Main 1954

Berliner Strasse 27 office building , Frankfurt am Main 1955

1. Major project of the US High Commission (HICOG) Bonn-Bad Godesberg: office buildings, residential, high-rise and low-rise buildings, schools, kindergartens, indoor swimming pools, cinemas, shopping centers, villas, 1951
2. Projects of the US consulates and associated apartment houses in Germany (Hamburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Munich) in collaboration with Skidmore Owings & Merrill architects, New York. Like projects 3 to 9 in freelance work in the Otto Apel architectural community.
3. Apartment house in Frankfurt am Main, Mendelssohnstrasse 53, 1954
4. Housing projects for the US headquarters, Heidelberg, competition design for a standard housing type for all of Germany. 1. Price and implementation of the project processing
5. Office building in Frankfurt am Main, Berliner Strasse 27, 1954/55
6. Competition design for a school in Offenbach, 1955
7. Airport Hotel Rhein-Main, Frankfurt am Main, 1955/56
8. Competition design for the YMCA center in Stuttgart: hotel, cinema, sports halls, shops.
9. Office building in Berlin, Grolmannstrasse, design, project processing
10. Draft for a residential building in Cyprus.

Projects 1959–1968

German Embassy Washington , in freelance work with Egon Eiermann , 1960/61

Reichstag building Berlin, interior construction of the north and north-east wing, east wing in the middle, parliamentary group in the west wing and plenary hall (with Paul Baumgarten ). Coordination of the architects involved in the entire interior design, especially Paul Baumgarten , and of special experts with the Federal Building Directorate, 1965–1968

literature

• New German Architecture, Verlag Gerd Hatje Stuttgart, 1956, Introduction Huber Hofmann / Bildtexte Karl Kaspar. Selected by Gerd Hatje / Hubert Hofmann / Karl Kaspar. Illustrations with texts: p. 44/45 Apartments in Bremen - 1954, architect: Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main. Employee Eberhard Brandl. In collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , New York; P. 48/49 residential and studio house in Frankfurt am Main, 1954, architect Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main, staff: Eberhard Brandl; P. 58/59 airport hotel in Frankfurt am Main - 1955/56, architect Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main, collaborator: Eberhard Brandl; p. 66 Kindergarten in Plittersdorf (Bad Godesberg) - 1951, architect Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main, collaborator: Eberhard Brandl;
• Manual of modern architecture , Safari-Verlag Berlin, undated, pp. 376/377 - to 5.
• Franz Hart , skeleton buildings , Callwey Munich, 1956: p. 53, plate 16 Office and commercial building in Frankfurt am Main, architect Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main - to 5; Plate 20 American consulate in Frankfurt am Main, architect Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main, with Skidmore, Owings & Merill
• Architectural forum , March 1953 - to 2.
• Bauen und Wohnen , Munich 1954, issue 11, images with text: pp. 529–531 School and kindergarten in Plittersdorf (Bad Godesberg), Otto Apel Architects, Frankfurt am Main, clerk E. Brandl; Pp. 658–661 An architect's home and studio, text OA (Otto Apel), Otto Apel Architects' Association, Frankfurt am Main, clerk architect Eberhard Brandl
• Building and Living , Munich 1954, Issue 12 - to 3.
• Die Kunst, Bruckmann Verlag Munich, 1956, issue 2, pp. 70/71 - to 5.
• Die Kunst , Bruckmann Verlag Munich, November 1956, issue 2 - to 5.
• The architect , September 1954 - to 3. and 4.
• L'architecture d'áujourd'hui, 1955, issue 58, page XIX - to 3.
• KHRiek, two-room apartment on the top floor of a residential and commercial building in Frankfurt am Main, design: Otto Apel, architect BDA Frankfurt am Main, collaborator: architect E. Brandl, in: The interior architecture. Verlag Ernst Heyer, Essen, 4th year, September 1956, issue 3, pp. 143/44 - to 5
• F. Eberhard Brandl, Chandigarh , in: Magnum , Die Zeitschrift für das moderne Leben, Magnum Verlag, Cologne, April 1957, Issue 12, pp. 60–63, text and photos
• SC., Le Corbusier builds with light and shadow , in: Kasseler Zeitung , December 11, 1957
• FHS, Le Corbusier builds in India , in: Kasseler Post , December 12, 1957
• FH, Le Corbusier builds in India , in: Hessische Nachrichten , December 12, 1957
• Werner Marschall: Office and residential building on Berliner Strasse in Frankfurt am Main - 1954–1955, architect: Otto Apel, Frankfurt am Main; Collaborators: Eberhard Brandl, in: New German Architecture 2 , 1962, Verlag Gerd Hatje Stuttgart, introduction by Ulrich Conrads . Image texts Werner Marschall, p. 146/47 with illustrations
• A new embassy , German Information Center, New York 1964, Design Professor Egon Eiermann, Architect, Karlsruhe, Associated Architect Eberhard Brandl
• International Lighting Review , 1968, Vol. XIX, No. 4, pp. 138–141, NN (editor ILR), 'Reichstag' Building in Berlin, Architects: Prof. Paul Baumgarten , Eberhard Brandl, Berlin and Bundesbaudirektion , Berlin, without Year.
• Lighting Design: HT Von Malotki, Cologne, and G. Leppack, Bundesbaudirektion Berlin, no year, text with images
• Gardeners , lights, light objects, International Frankfurter Messe, Berlin 1971, lights by Eberhard Brandl: B 40, pendant lights P 10, 21, 30, 41, table lights T 20, 31, 50, light object W11, 22, 32
• Peter Mayer: The Reichstag House in Berlin. The restoration 1956–1973 and the historical building principles, printed as a manuscript copy by the Bundestag administration, Berlin 1979/80, p. 87 (Library of the German Bundestag)
• Paul Baumgarten: Buildings and Projects 1924–1981 , Series of publications by the Akademie der Künste Volume 19, Berlin 1988, p. 219.
• Michael S. Cullen : The Reichstag. Parliament monument symbol, be.bra Verlag Berlin 1995, pp. 277, 278
• Dieter Bartetzko : Between pathos and pragmatism , Paul Baumgarten conversion of the Reichstag building , in: "Dem Deutschen Volke", published by Heinrich Wefing , Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1999, pp. 74/75.

swell

• Federal Archives Koblenz ; (Employment section)
• German Bundestag , Parliamentary Archives Berlin, subject area digital and analogue written material; (Employment section)
• Brandl family archive, Berlin (sections on family, training and employment)

Web links

Commons : Eberhard Brandl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handbook of Modern Architecture . Safari-Verlag, Berlin, undated, p. 376/377.