Hans Gerlach (architect)

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Hans Gerlach

Hans Gerlach (born February 24, 1885 in Friedrichsthal , Wehlau district ; † May 16, 1980 in Rielasingen , Konstanz district ) was a German architect and Prussian construction clerk in Königsberg i. Pr.

Life

Gerlach studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich and the Technical University of Charlottenburg . After studying and legal clerkship , he was appointed government master builder ( assessor in the public building administration) in 1913 . After his deployment in the First World War, he was transferred to the Königsberg State Building Authority in January 1919. It was housed in the Königsberg Castle . During Gerlach's long term in office, the new university clinics and the astronomical institute at the Königsberg observatory were built .

He took over the order from master builder Lindemann to set up a picture gallery in the coronation hall. With Eduard Anderson and Friedrich Lahrs , he pushed ahead with the renovation. From Konigsberg Art Association actively supported, the 376 paintings were collected from their various accommodations and arranged for their presentation. Hugo Winter , the treasurer of the Kunstverein, procured workers and trucks for the move. Manfred von Brünneck-Bellschwitz , chairman of the art association since 1918, was able to inaugurate the first part of the gallery on January 18, 1921 with a ceremony in the ancestral hall.

As the castle construction director, Gerlach had the full backing of the district president Max von Bahrfeldt , who had been in charge of the castle administration since 1927. Gerlach directed the archaeological excavations in the castle courtyard and the overdue restoration work in the castle. In August 1931 he began to restore the former archive rooms of the Teutonic Order in the north-western round tower of the castle and convert it into a museum. Black showcases were set up in the “Ducal Room, Guest Chamber”. They contained autographs by Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon , Andreas Osiander , Immanuel Kant , Johann Georg Hamann , Ferdinand Gregorovius , Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel , Simon Dach and even Agnes Miegel . The exhibition in the silver library (by Duchess Anna Maria ) in the north-west tower room made the museum famous.

"The city of Königsberg has been given a new gift from its past with a gem that is now easily accessible, a gem that both at home and abroad can envy us."

- Hartungsche Zeitung of June 7, 1932

Gerlach was promoted to senior building officer in 1937 . On January 20, 1945 he was named Captain d. R. drafted into the Volkssturm and deployed as a platoon leader at Schönbusch-Ponarth. After five weeks he was released as construction manager for the defense measures in the castle ruins.

In his diary Gerlach describes the last days of the battle for Königsberg and the fall of the Amber Room . Some reports have been published. On the night of Otto Lasch's surrender , the Red Army took Gerlach prisoner of war . Dismissed in April 1945, he returned to Königsberg. There he was imprisoned by the NKVD for nine months. In June 1947 he was transferred to the main prison camp in Preussisch Eylau . From there he was expelled to West Germany on May 15, 1948.

He came to Freiburg im Breisgau through Kurt Walter Merz . There he worked as an expert for insurance companies until 1965. He first moved to Emmendingen and then to Rielasingen, where his daughter Barbara (* 1928) and son-in-law still live today. The other daughter Eva was a photographer. The son Klaus went to the aerospace industry in Houston. Both are dead.

Web links

literature

  • Hans Gerlach: My construction and planning work in the years 1920–1945. In: Hans Rothe , Silke Spieler: The Albertus University of Königsberg. Highlights and meaning. Bonn 1996, pp. 141-154.
  • Gerd Brausch: Gerlach, Hans. In: Old Prussian Biography , Volume IV, p. 1101 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Albinus: Königsberg Lexicon. Würzburg 2002, p. 101.
  2. ↑ Wulf D. Wagner , Heinrich Lange: The Königsberg Castle. A building and cultural history . Schnell und Steiner Verlag, Regensburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7954-1953-0 , p. 387.
  3. ↑ Wulf D. Wagner, Heinrich Lange: The Königsberg Castle. A building and cultural history . Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, p. 410.
  4. ↑ Wulf D. Wagner, Heinrich Lange: The Königsberg Castle. A building and cultural history . Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, p. 417.
  5. ↑ Wulf D. Wagner, Heinrich Lange: The Königsberg Castle. A building and cultural history . Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, p. 467.
  6. ↑ Wulf D. Wagner, Heinrich Lange: The Königsberg Castle. A building and cultural history . Verlag Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2011, pp. 469–473.
  7. ↑ Wulf D. Wagner, Heinrich Lange: The Königsberg Castle. A building and cultural history . Schnell und Steiner publishing house, Regensburg 2011, p. 476.
personal data
SURNAME Gerlach, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, Prussian building officer in Koenigsberg
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedrichsthal , Wehlau district
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1980
Place of death Rielasingen , Constance district