Franz Ehrlich

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Franz Ehrlich (born December 28, 1907 in Leipzig-Reudnitz ; † November 28, 1984 in Bernburg (Saale) ) was a German architect , designer and artist .

Life

As a camp inmate in Buchenwald concentration camp , Ehrlich designed the gate with the inscription Each his own on the orders of the construction management . The typography was not recognized by the National Socialists as being influenced by the Bauhaus.

Franz Ehrlich began an apprenticeship as a machine fitter in 1922 after completing elementary school on Täubchenweg in Leipzig . He was involved in the metal workers 'union (DMV) and in the socialist workers' youth (SAJ) . In 1923, he later reported, the then 16-year-old's interest in the architectural movement of New Building was aroused when he visited the Bauhaus exhibition in Weimar . After completing his apprenticeship, continuing education at evening and Sunday schools and a phase of unemployment, Ehrlich studied at the Bauhaus Dessau from 1927 to 1930 .

In 1930 he left the Bauhaus and worked as a freelance designer in Berlin and later in Leipzig. As a result of the takeover by National Socialism, Franz Ehrlich joined the anti-fascist resistance and took part in the production of illegal magazines and leaflets for the communist youth movement . He was arrested in 1934 and sentenced in 1935 for “preparing for high treason”. Initially imprisoned in Waldheim prison, he spent most of his sentence in Zwickau prison . In August 1937 he was released from prison and subsequently taken into protective custody. Ehrlich was brought to the Buchenwald concentration camp , which was under construction , where he was actively involved in the camp resistance . In 1939 he was released from prison. Excluded from military service as “ unworthy of defense ”, he was obliged to work in the SS construction office in Buchenwald and in the SS main office for household and buildings in Berlin. He planned the commandant's villa in Buchenwald including the inventory, houses, barracks and the camp zoo. From 1943 to 1945 he was a soldier in the Penal Battalion 999 to Greece and then into Yugoslav captivity .

Funkhaus Nalepastraße in winter 2012.jpg
Funkhaus Nalepastraße , Berlin, 2012
Funkhaus Nalepastraße Block B, Großer Sendesaal 1 Bühne.jpg
Large broadcasting hall with excellent acoustics
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B1028-0015-004, Berlin, Nalepastraße, Sendeanstalt.jpg
Funkhaus foyer


Inner courtyard of the Central Institute for Cardiovascular Research

In 1946 Franz Ehrlich returned to Germany and became a consultant for reconstruction in Dresden .

In the 1950s he was involved in the construction of the Nalepastraße radio station in Berlin-Oberschöneweide , the reconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building complex and the Institute for Cortico-Visceral Pathology and Therapy (from 1972 Central Institute for Cardiovascular Research ) on the premises of the sanatoriums involved in Berlin-Buch . However, it is often difficult to prove which buildings he actually created, since in the early phase of the GDR many buildings were classified as secret projects for which no documents exist. He was assigned buildings that he had not designed, for example the GDR television center in Berlin-Adlershof , which was designed by Wolfgang Wunsch.

Ehrlich, as a representative of the Broadcasting Committee (from 1953), was the architect of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, responsible for the construction of embassies and commercial agencies (1955–1958) and later for the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (1959–1962); The Central Institute for Cardiovascular Research (from 1992 Franz Vollhardt Clinic) in Berlin-Buch (1954–1957) is still one of his most famous buildings.

On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the Leipziger Messe in 1965, Ehrlich was to redesign the exhibition grounds as chief architect. However, the exhibition management rejected all his plans as too big, too complicated and too expensive. After that, he never received another major order.

From the late 1940s he was, like Selman Selmanagić , an artistic collaborator at the Deutsche Werkstätten Hellerau . The furniture type series "602" designed by him - which was criticized by Walter Ulbricht during the Leipzig trade fair - was produced there in large numbers between 1957 and 1967. At the Deutsche Werkstätten, he demonstrated his versatility as an architect and artist through interior design drafts, the design of exhibition architecture and exhibition stands, as well as a large number of individual pieces of furniture and furniture series. In the Funkhaus Berlin, furniture, fixtures and wall paneling from the Hellerau workshops designed by Franz Ehrlich are still preserved and listed. The design for a tableware series Angelika could not go into production due to government intervention as "Western decadent".

From 1966 to 1968 Ehrlich was involved in the reconstruction of the Goethe Theater in Bad Lauchstädt . The interior designed by him and the stage technology of the theater and the late baroque Kursaal are still preserved today. In addition to his permanent positions, Franz Ehrlich has always worked as a freelance architect. In addition to urban development projects, he designed new buildings for cultural institutions (e.g. an unexecuted design for the Gewandhaus in Leipzig).

Franz Ehrlich is less known as a draftsman and sculptor . His often three-dimensional drawings are above all preliminary studies of the detailed forms of his exterior and interior architecture, the sculptures are often strict and reduced to the basic forms. His artistic estate is now kept in the archive of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation .

Poster for the Ehrlich exhibition in the New Museum Weimar 2009

Franz Ehrlich was controversial during his lifetime. He was partly reproached for his adherence to the Bauhaus, formalism and functionalism , and partly for his critical attitude towards the development of the building industry in the GDR. He demanded artistic freedom, taking economic and social aspects into account, but ultimately conformed to the politically motivated norms. As a versatile architect and designer, Franz Ehrlich helped shape the architectural history of the GDR and is now considered by many to be one of the few architects who were able to retain a certain degree of independence in their design language. The architecture critic Dieter Hoffmann-Axthelm describes the architect Ehrlich as a functionalist walking the narrow but possible line “between Bauhaus modernism and design conservatism”.

In the course of preparations for a biographical documentary about Franz Ehrlich, the freelance MDR employee Rainer Erices discovered a file on Ehrlich's IM work in the authority for the records of the State Security Service of the GDR. According to the file, Ehrlich was recruited by the SfS's Economics Department in the spring of 1954 and was listed as an IM by the MfS until 1975. According to the journalist Erices, Ehrlich was largely able to determine what information he passed on and the Stasi used it for his professional interests.

literature

chronologically

  • Bauhaus Dessau (Ed.): Franz Ehrlich 1907–1984. Art and design. Catalog for the exhibition at the Bauhaus Dessau in honor of the 80th birthday from December 19, 1987 to February 26, 1988, Dessau 1987.
  • Franz Ehrlich and his Berlin buildings from the 1950s. In: Bauwelt , 87th year, 1996, No. 26, July 12, 1996.
  • Volkhard Knigge , Harry Stein (ed.): Franz Ehrlich. A Bauhaus member in the resistance and concentration camp. (Catalog for the exhibition of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation in collaboration with the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in the Neues Museum Weimar from August 2, 2009 to October 11, 2009.) Weimar 2009.
  • Gerd Dietrich, Elke Reuter:  Ehrlich, Franz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Regina Kusch, Andreas Beckmann: The fantastic career of the architect Franz Ehrlich. In: Deutschlandfunk , radio feature , first broadcast on November 7, 2014.
  • Richter, Peter: Franz Ehrlichs Monument. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 8, 2018. Link

About the exhibition 2009 :

Movie

  • The trail of treasures. The concentration camp commandant's chair. Documentary, Germany, 2013, 29 min., Script and direction: Ute Gebhardt , editorial assistance: Rainer Erices , production: MDR , series: Die Spur der Schätze , first broadcast: April 24, 2013 on MDR.

Web links

Commons : Franz Ehrlich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Martina Mescher: Class struggle at the kidney table. The simple design of the Bauhaus architects was not widely used in the GDR. In: Jungle World , June 2, 2016, p. 22.
  2. ↑ a b Ute Gebhardt : The armchair of the concentration camp commandant. ( Memento from September 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). Documentation of the MDR on April 24, 2013, 9:15 p.m.
  3. ↑ Claudia Fried: What followed the GDR radio in Berlin's Nalepastraße. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , December 9, 2009: "Place of excellent acoustics."
  4. ↑ a b Regina Kusch, Andreas Beckmann: Buchenwald and architectural monuments. The fantastic career of the architect Franz Ehrlich. In: Deutschlandfunk . 2014, accessed May 4, 2018 . (PDF document)
  5. ^ Fritz von Klinggräff: Bauhausler Ehrlich and the Buchenwald concentration camp. Constant contradiction. In: The daily newspaper from August 19, 2009.
  6. ^ Rainer Erices : Bauhausler and "Buchenwald architect" was a Stasi spy. ( Memento from July 1, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: MDR , April 24, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Honestly, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig-Reudnitz
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1984
Place of death Bernburg (Saale)