Ernst Stahl (architect)

Ernst Stahl (born January 14, 1882 in Cannstatt , † July 14, 1957 in Düsseldorf ) was a German architect , homeland researcher and homeland protector. He designed the “model youth hostels ” for the Rhine Province .

Life

Ernst Stahl studied architecture at the Technical University of Stuttgart , where his teachers included Theodor Fischer and Paul Bonatz . He also studied art history at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn . He became assistant to Paul Clemen , the provincial conservator of the Rhine Province . In Trier he worked with the diocesan master builder Ernst Brand from 1910 .

The nave of Stahleck Castle was built in 1925/1926 according to plans by Stahl and served as a youth hostel.

From 1911 to 1939 Stahl worked as a freelance architect in Düsseldorf- Oberkassel , where he planned numerous residential buildings. From 1911 he was also the chief architect of the Rheinische Bauberatungsstelle. In the service of the provincial curator he was entrusted with the reconstruction and restoration of the Rhenish castles of Eltz , Freusburg , Thurant , Stahleck , Monschau , Blankenheim and Burg .

Stahl worked for the Rhenish Youth Hostel Association from the 1920s. Youth hostels were set up in many of the castles he was structurally responsible for, in Stahleck, Freusburg, Monschau, Blankenheim and Burg, with Stahl acting as an advisor. He planned the model youth hostel for the GeSoLei exhibition in Düsseldorf, parts of which were later moved to Adenau and completed there. By 1933 he planned almost all youth hostels that were newly built by the Rhineland Regional Association of the German Youth Hostel Association .

In 1940 and 1941 he was site manager in Wiesbaden, after which he worked for the Reichsautobahnbau in Munich until 1942 . In 1943 and 1944 he worked for the Krakow city ​​council . After the end of the Second World War , he settled in Düsseldorf as a freelance architect. He rebuilt the youth hostels Blankenheim, Gemünd, Hellenthal, Prüm and partly also Kleve.

The "model youth hostels"

Soon after the turn of the century, the systematic expansion of youth homes and hostels in the Rhine Province began; From around 17 youth hostels in 1911, the number rose rapidly to over 2,000 hostels in 1928, which recorded around 4 million overnight stays. The expansion of romantic old buildings such as Altena Castle , which was to become the seat of the first permanent youth hostel in the world, was initially preferred, but new buildings in the shape of a castle were also built.

After Richard Schirrmann had put together the structural concepts for youth hostels and thus a guideline for the design of youth hostels was given, it was decided in the mid-1920s to create a hiking route in the Eifel that should be equipped with model youth hostels. Stahl then designed the model youth hostel in 1926, based on which numerous youth hostels were built. The Altenahr youth hostel , which was built at the northern end of the Eifel hiking route and opened on June 24, 1927, was one of these buildings .

In the same year, the model youth hostel presented at the GeSoLei was built in Adenau. At the exhibition, only the lower floor was shown in the state in which it was later used. The upper floor in Düsseldorf had housed an exhibition on the entire German youth hostel system. In Adenau, the timber frame construction was placed on a solid base made of quarry stone and was given a two-flight flight of stairs leading into the interior of the ground floor. The first floor was plastered, the second was clad in wood. A central risalit on the front and a hipped roof pierced by gables , as well as the different facade design of the individual floors, loosened up the building.

The interiors were given the most practical, durable and inexpensive facility possible, e.g. B. Sinks specially designed by Stahl made of a brown material that can hardly be damaged as well as folding benches in which luggage could be stored. The house was heated by a combination of stove and tiled stove.

The hostel in Adenau, which opened on September 29, 1927, offered 60 beds in the early years, but was expanded after eleven years with a side extension and then contained 110 beds in 13 bedrooms. There were also three large day rooms, a reading and writing room, a self-catering kitchen, five washrooms and, as outdoor facilities, a playground and a sunbathing area. It was used as a military hospital in the final year of World War II , then taken over by a British Air Force unit and converted back into a hostel in 1955, with extensive repair and modernization measures being undertaken. In the 1970s, the dilapidated building was demolished without replacement.

The Altenahr youth hostel, a building in the Heimat style , also had a quarry stone base and a risalit with a staircase, but unlike in Adenau, part of the ground floor was also made of quarry stone. In addition, this youth hostel was provided with a gable roof that was pulled down very low. The expansion of the attic floors made it possible to use three floors in Altenahr just like in Adenau. In Altenahr, too, there was the tiled stove-stove heating and the equipment with the fold-out wall benches and the specially designed washbasin. The lighting fixtures were created by the Düsseldorf sculptor Karl Moog .

estate

The archive of the European Castle Institute in Braubach contains around 60 plans by Ernst Stahl that relate to the reconstruction and security of the Luzius Church in Essen - Werden .

literature

• Gabriele Nina Bode, Michael Losse: Castles and palaces in the work of Ernst Stahl (1882 to 1957). In: Burgen und Schlösser , ISSN  0007-6201 , 36th year 1996, No. 3, pp. 143–146.
• Gabriele Nina Strickhausen-Bode: Stahls Stahleck. Ernst Stahl (1882-1957) and the reconstruction of Stahleck Castle on the Rhine. A youth hostel of the Rhine province in the context of historicism and homeland protection, youth movement and the youth castle idea. (= Publications of the German Castle Association , Series A: Research , Volume 12.) German Castle Association , Braubach 2007, ISBN 978-3-927558-26-7 . (Dissertation, University of Marburg 2005, 256 pages)

Web links

• Architects note box

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst Stahl. In: arch INFORM .
2. ↑ Gabriele Nina Bode: "Sample Youth Hostels". The youth hostels in Adenau and Altenahr and their architect Ernst Stahl (1882–1957). on www.kreis-ahrweiler.de
3. ^ Ludger Fischer : 1927. The building security of the Luziuskirche in Essen-Werden according to plans of the architect Ernst Stahl. In: Das Münster am Hellweg , 65th year 2012, pp. 83-101.