Fritz Hilgers

Fritz Hilgers (born December 14, 1921 in Cologne ; † May 18, 2014 there ) was a German architect , university lecturer and monument conservator . From 1980 to 1987 he held a professorship for building history and monument preservation at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences , with a focus on urban redevelopment . Fritz Hilgers belonged to the Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection for many years as chairman of its Cologne local group and in other functions.

Career

Fritz Hilgers, who was born in Cologne, spent his school days in Gemünd near Schleiden in the Eifel, where he also graduated from high school in 1939 . Convened December 5, 1939 he knew to 8 August 1945 as a soldier's military service during the Second World War , before one in 1946, studied architecture at the RWTH Aachen was able to resume where it among other things the professors Hans Mehrtens , Ralf of Schöfer and Hans Schwippert taught. With the completion of his studies as Dipl.-Ing. in 1949 (according to another source 1950) he joined the tax office in Cologne as an architect and moved there in 1950 as a planner in the design department of the Oberpostdirektion , an activity that he carried out until 1954. In 1955 Hilgers received his doctorate in engineering. with a thesis on the subject of the change of the medieval ties of sacred buildings in the baroque era with their effects on urban planning up to modern times . At the time, his advisor, von Schöfer, dealt intensively with reconstruction plans for destroyed cities based on their pre-war buildings. In the same year Hilgers started as a building officer at the National School of Civil Engineering in Muenster his teaching career as a lecturer in painting and art history. In 1962 he was transferred to the then State Engineering School for Construction in Cologne (according to another source 1950). When it was transferred to the Cologne University of Applied Sciences in 1971, he was deputy director there. In 1980 he was appointed professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, he ended his teaching activities in 1987, but through teaching assignments and student theses he remained connected to the architecture department.

As a university lecturer, Hilgers was particularly active in the “Working Group Theory and Teaching of Monument Preservation”, which met in 1976 and 1996 in Cologne. Hilgers played a key role in shaping and organizing the 1996 event. He was one of the co-founders of the long-term practical project at the Burg Nothberg University of Applied Sciences and was particularly committed to the establishment of the additional course “Monument Preservation, Monument Areas and Environment Preservation”, which was approved by the responsible ministry in Düsseldorf in 1986 . His field of activity included numerous urban planning studies, such as for Erkelenz , Rheinbach , Stolberg and Radevormwald . As a university lecturer, Fritz Hilgers influenced entire generations of students and, as a building historian and monument conservator, aroused their interest in the preservation of traditional buildings. Fritz Hilgers died at the age of 93 and was buried in Cologne-Rodenkirchen , where he had lived for the past few decades.

As a private architect, Hilgers was involved in the expansion of the Excelsior Hotel Ernst in Cologne in addition to single and multi-family houses . He was also a member of the design advisory board and the culture (= monument) committee of the city of Cologne.

Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection

Since the second half of the 1970s, Fritz Hilgers has been involved in outstanding positions “for the goals and concerns of the Rheinischer Verein”. He was 30 January 1979, in the wake of Hugo Borger presided over its members strongest local association Cologne (1979: 1,850 members) over which he held until the 1993rd During this period, among other things, the initiative “Monument of the Month”, which is linked to his name, was launched, which is intended to help bring the (threatened) monuments of the city closer to the population of Cologne. Under his chairmanship, the local association issued numerous "highly regarded" statements on larger building projects, especially in Cologne, including the positive criticism of the new building for the Museum Ludwig .

Fonts (selection)

• The change in the medieval ties of sacred buildings in the baroque era with their effects on urban planning up to modern times. Investigations using South German-Austrian and West German buildings (= RWTH Aachen, Faculty of Building, dissertation from June 22, 1955) Aachen 1955.
• The old Stolberg. (= Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 277), Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz , Neuss printing and publishing house, Neuss 1983, ISBN 3-88094-375-3 .
• with Ursula Kisker, Helga Murmann, Werner Schäfke : Cologne-Klettenberg. (= Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 298), Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz, Neuss printing and publishing house, Neuss 1984, ISBN 3-88094-484-9 .
• St. Peter in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. (= Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 380), Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz, Neuss printing and publishing house, Neuss 1993, ISBN 3-88094-716-3 .
• The three Catholic churches in Cologne-Rodenkirchen. (= Rheinische Kunststätten, issue 404), Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz, Neuss printing and publishing house, Neuss 1994, ISBN 3-88094-760-0 .

as well as numerous other essays on "Topics of Building History and Monument Preservation".

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Michael Werling (Hrsg.): Architecture teacher at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Part I. / The alumni. Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Cologne 2006, p. 101.
2. ^ Obituaries accessed on June 12, 2014.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Jürgen Eberhardt: Prof. Dr. Fritz Hilgers (75). In: Rheinische Heimatpflege . Announcements of the Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz eV 34th year, no. 1, Cologne 1997, ISSN  0342-1805 , pp. 77-78.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Peter Josef Weiß: Fritz Hilgers (60). In: Rheinische Heimatpflege, communications of the Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz eV, 19th year, Cologne 1982, issue 1, ISSN  0342-1805 , p. 74.
5. ↑ Helmut Fußbroich : Prof. Dr. Fritz Hilgers. (Obituary) In: Rheinische Heimatpflege. 3/2014, Volume 51, Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection , Cologne 2014, ISSN  0342-1805 , p. 237 f.
6. ^ Fritz Hilgers. In: Rheinische Heimatpflege, communications from the Rheinisches Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz eV, 16th year, Cologne 1979, issue 2, ISSN  0342-1805 , p. 153.