Gustav Albert Wegmann
Gustav Albert Wegmann (born June 9, 1812 in Steckborn ; † February 12, 1858 in Zurich ) was an important architect for Switzerland from 1830 to the appearance of Gottfried Semper from 1855. His style ranged between classicism and neo-Romanesque
Life
Gustav Wegmann was born the son of an equestrian officer who retired and settled in Steckborn on Lake Constance. At the age of 10 he was sent to the Latin School in Zurich. Later he attended the new art school. Shortly after this move, the father died at the age of 36. The mother moved with her younger brother and sister (she died while still a child) to Zurich, where uncle Usteri-Wegmann took over the assistance of the widow and the guardianship of the children.
After finishing school, Wegmann began a three-year apprenticeship as a bricklayer. In winter he learned to draw plans, in summer how to work with mortar and brick. In addition to his professional talents, Wegmann was also an avid gymnast in his youth. He was elected to the board of the gymnastics club , and he also worked on a Swiss gymnastics club magazine. During his apprenticeship, he also founded an architects' association in Zurich (the ZIA?), Which his friend Ferdinand Stadler also joined.
After completing his apprenticeship, Wegmann went to Karlsruhe with his friend Ferdinand Stadler in June 1832 , at that time a stronghold of architecture shaped by Friedrich Weinbrenner . Stadler and Wegmann lived together and work in a carpenter's and bricklayer's business and then went on a journey as journeymen.
When the Karlsruhe Polytechnic opened in October 1832 , Stadler and Wegmann joined the company immediately. Under Heinrich Hübsch and later Friedrich Eisenlohr they were trained as students to become architects. After two years, Wegmann interrupted his studies for almost a year: Eisenlohr was able to place him in January 1834 with a job for the construction management in the Botanical Garden in Heidelberg .
During his time in Karlsruhe, Wegmann founded a Swiss association in Karlsruhe, and Wegmann was elected President. Konrad Pfenninger from St. Gallen also moved into Stadler and Wegmann's apartment . The study was financed by his uncle. In about 1833 his younger brother emigrated to New York . In September 1833 Wegmann and Stadler visited Speyer , Worms , Oppenheim , Mainz and Frankfurt am Main .
Wegmann left Karlsruhe at the beginning of April and traveled to the Academy in Munich. There he experienced the explosion of the powder magazine, he was uninjured. From Munich he took part in a competition for the new hospital in Zurich. When he won it, he went back because he didn't like the lessons in Munich with Gärtner because of the many interruptions. The hospital built between 1835 and 1842 in collaboration with Leonhard Zeugheer was demolished in 1951 for the new construction of the cantonal hospital.
Just over a year after returning in 1836, Wegmann won the competition for an art building in Zurich. As he was known for careful cost accounting and pleasant interaction with builders and craftsmen, he also took over the construction management. The art building was the forerunner of today's Kunsthaus and stood on the site of today's university.
Wegmann gradually became a member of the Zürcherische Künstlergesellschaft, the Antiquarian Association and the Zurich and the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects ( SIA ). Wherever he was involved, he usually did so in a managerial role. In 1849 he married Margaretha von Orelli, with whom he was to have three daughters.
In the retrospective, the Alte Kantonsschule Zurich is Wegmann's most important building. It was built in the so-called Italian style in 1839–1842 and modeled on the Berlin Building Academy , which Wegmann knew from literature. Wegmann was only chalked up because there were no blinds. While the original in Berlin was destroyed, the old canton school, expanded by Ruedi Merkli in 1981–1988 by a few rooms in the attic and with a basement, exists in the protected area. The lower part of the area was released from the preservation order to make way for the extension of the Kunsthaus.
When the first railway line in Switzerland was under construction, Wegmann was entrusted with the planning of Zurich's first train station, built between 1846 and 1847; college friend Ferdinand Stadler with the one for the train station in Baden, at the other end of the line. Wegmann and Stadler were now competitors, since both had worked on the competition for the train stations. The Zurich train station was not to last long, after 18 years it had to give way to a new one from Jakob Friedrich Wanner .
Another important building by Wegmann, which is still preserved today, was built between 1852 and 1843: the girls' school, attached to the Grossmünster . The cloister that already existed there was demolished and rebuilt as part of the new building.
In 1854, the villa of the banker Tobler on Winkelwiese was completed, which was rebuilt in Art Nouveau style from 1898 to 1900. Today the villa houses the theater on the Winkelwiese .
The purchase of the Tiefenhöfe at today's Paradeplatz was financially worthwhile . 16 houses were built around an existing central building in 1855-1859. After many renovations, some of the houses around Confiserie Sprüngli have been preserved today.
In 1857 Gustav Albert Wegmann showed signs of a brain disease. The spa stay in Appenzellerland prescribed by the doctor could no longer help. He died on February 12, 1858 at the age of 45.
Other works
- 1836–1838: Rieter greenhouse in the old botanical garden (zur Katz)
- 1851–1854: Masonic lodge on the Lindenhof
Employee
- 1836–1837: August Flügge (1812)? † December 5, 1839, construction supervision and execution (in the office of Zeugherr & Wegmann)
GA Wegmann in literature
"In the great minster cloister"
A poem by Jakob Christoph Heer
The city is noisy during the day,
but dreams in its minster's hat
The cloister, in which a gray
memory of the holy millennium rests.
The soft midday hours look in
amazement into the monk's
poem ,
the old stone
faces nod, dreamily drunk into the blue light. (...)
literature
- Artist Society Zurich [Ed.]: New Year's Gazette 1847.
Web links
- Gian-Willi Vonesch: Wegmann, Gustav Albert. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gian-Willi Vonesch: Gustav Albert Wegmann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 3, 2013 , accessed June 25, 2019 .
- ^ A Chipperfield building as a new neighbor for the old canton school. Day indicator
- ^ Railway line of the Swiss Northern Railway Zurich – Baden
- ↑ Nekrolog zu August Flügge, + 1839, year 1842, p. 961 , accessed on January 15, 2013
- ^ Obituary of Flügge 1840 , accessed on January 15, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wegmann, Gustav Albert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Architect, bricklayer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 9, 1812 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Steckborn |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 12, 1858 |
| Place of death | Zurich |