George Radel

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Georg (George) Martin Hermann Radel (born January 10, 1860 in Hamburg ; † March 12, 1948 there ) was a German architect .

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George Radel was a son of the carpenter Johann Heinrich Radel, who worked on St. Pauli . Since the construction boom in Hamburg from 1861 after the closure of the gates , the father received enough orders to finance his son's training at the Johanneum's school of scholars . George Radel passed the Abitur examination there and studied at the Stuttgart Polytechnic from 1878 . One of his teachers was the important architect Christian Friedrich von Leins , in whose office he also worked. After completing his studies, he found a job in the then leading architecture firm Kayser & von Großheim in Berlin . There he helped design the numerous department and commercial stores that ran the office.

Radel returned to Hamburg and worked for Semper & Krutisch and Hallier & Fitschen , who designed the first office buildings in Hamburg . Since there was great demand for apartment buildings in the suburbs of Hamburg due to the increase in population at that time, young architects were also able to work independently. Radel therefore designed apartment houses from 1889 to be built in Rotherbaum and St. Georg and opened his own office. Since December 9th, 1892 he had the citizenship of Hamburg .

Radel initially planned eclectic , conventional facades. When building the Johannishof office building in Kleine Johannisstrasse in 1895, however, he chose new forms. The building was created in connection with the construction of the Speicherstadt . The architect was supposed to create flexible office space that offered good lighting. Radel therefore chose a skeleton construction with facades that had an even arrangement of the windows and were horizontally divided into three parts. In doing so, he implemented an architectural style from the USA, which was referred to there as “form follows function” and which, with Radel, was also spread in Hamburg.

From the turn of the century to the First World War , Radel mostly planned office buildings and was one of the most important architects of this type of building. From 1896 to 1898 the Posthof was built according to his plans, which still had historicizing ornaments. He kept the Kontorhaus Bankhaus am Neß , built from 1901 to 1903, in the Art Nouveau style , in which he also designed other buildings such as the residential building at Feldbrunnenstrasse 3. Since he only had a small office himself, he often worked with architects such as Franz Jacobssen , Henry Grell or the Frejtag & Wurzbach office . Radel's most famous building was the Europa-Haus on Ballindamm , built from 1909 to 1913, which had to give way to the Europa Passage at the beginning of the 21st century .

Radel's successful time as an architect ended with the First World War. During the Weimar Republic he continued to have an office, but did not pick up on the emerging modernity and did not devote himself to the necessary construction apartments, but continued to work in the style of pre-war architecture. In retirement he lived as a privateer in St. Georg, where he also died in 1948.

literature

personal data
SURNAME Radel, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Radel, Georg Martin Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 12, 1948
Place of death Hamburg