Heinrich Röhm

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Heinrich Röhm (born June 26, 1912 in Ulm ; † October 19, 1999 ; full name: Heinrich Christian Röhm ) was a German architect , construction officer and monument conservator .

From 1949 he was head of the design department of the municipal building department in Heilbronn and from 1963 until his retirement in 1974 he was head of the building department in Krefeld . He was also the official district manager of the Baden-Württemberg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments for the Heilbronn district and advisory board member of the Heilbronn Art Association, the city's liaison to the artists' association and the art association and member of the art committee for the reconstruction of Heilbronn's Kilian Church . He was honorary chairman of the Heilbronn local group of the Swabian Heimatbund and was awarded the badge of honor and later the medal of merit of the state of Baden-Württemberg .

Live and act

Röhm's ancestors worked as master masons in Massenbachhausen for three generations . Heinrich Röhm graduated from high school in 1932 and studied architecture at the Technical University of Stuttgart under Paul Bonatz , from September 1, 1939 he worked as an employee in his office. In 1939 he wrote his diploma thesis on the old town of Heilbronn under the title “Renovation of the Fischergasseviertel and construction of a town hall with a district building.” So the town planned a town hall in this area at that time. In 1939, as an employee of Paul Bonatz, he was commissioned to plan and design the main train station in Munich . He implemented the Munich Ostbahnhof project until it was ready for construction. Other construction projects were in Estonia and Silesia .

Heilbronn (1949–1963)

After his release from captivity , Röhm came to Heilbronn in 1949 , where he was appointed head of the design department of the municipal building department on September 5, 1949. First and foremost, he was responsible for the rebuilding or reconstruction of historical public buildings such as the town hall, the harbor market tower and the old city bath in Heilbronn: Röhm was committed to the traditional method of construction in the sense of heritage protection architecture :

“To fit into the spirit of tradition, but not to historicize - that was Röhm's guiding principle; Restore the old without slavishly imitating it, create the new as the old was created, with our technical possibilities and with our materials in creative redesign, but with honesty and fairness of work, with the traditional culture and mastery of the craft. "

town hall

In 1949 he provided the drafts for the reconstruction of the Heilbronn town hall and at a meeting of the Heilbronn town council on August 9, 1951, his plans for the extension of the Heilbronn town hall were approved. His artistic work for the town hall includes the design of the interior of the house, such as the small and large council hall, the Trausaal, the foyer, the mayor's room and the council cellar: “Strangers come from afar and admire the happy synthesis of old and new. ” He also provided the design for the two horizontal wrought iron strips with the inscription“ Rathaus der Stadt Heilbronn ”and adorned with a stylized eagle, which were attached to the skylight of the main entrance to the town hall on March 18, 1954, which were made by master blacksmith Werner Holzbächer in the locksmith's shop Willi Lutz were created.

  • The historic main building of the Heilbronn town hall

  • The historical art clock has been reconstructed.

  • The historic east windows of the previous building were integrated into the new building.

  • The extension of the Heilbronn town hall on Rosengasse and Lohtorstrasse

Harbor Market Tower

Röhm worked on the reconstruction of the port market tower with a spire. His artistic work for the Hafenmarktturm includes the design for the helmet bar with button and the phoenix bird , which was completed on October 26, 1951 and which was donated and made by master locksmith Willi Lutz. In the presence of the city's master builder Ernst Vogel, the city archive manager Alexander Renz and the city's building director Heinrich Röhm, photos and documents were placed in the button. Due to bad weather, however, the pole could not be put on for the time being. In 1952, the Hafenmarktturm was finally given a spire with a passage according to Röhm's plans. The old port market tower thus had the "new ending in an airy lantern with the phoenix bird above it, which now so characteristically determines the silhouette of the city" .

  • The tower of the former Franciscan monastery church ("Harbor Market Tower") in Heilbronn at night

  • The harbor market tower with passage

Stadtbad

The reconstruction of the old city bath was preceded by a “dispute of opinions”, “whether the old bath should be rebuilt or a new one should be built elsewhere” . "The majority of the local council decided to rebuild the old baths" . According to the plans of the building construction office, “a usable functional building” was created . Röhm worked out the plans for the two variants for the reconstruction of the old town bath, which had long been controversial. So on the one hand the "generous" and on the other hand the "economical" variant. It was later decided on the economical alternative.

  • The entrance area of ​​the old city bath

  • The city bath around 1901

Old city theater

Röhm was involved in the planning of the city ​​theater in an advisory capacity and provided the corresponding preliminary drafts. Röhm's guiding principles - a synthesis of old and new, as in the reconstruction of the town hall - should also apply to the reconstruction of the old theater. A new interior was to be built into the historical outer shell. After leaving Heilbronn, Röhm expressed his conviction that “the most important parts of the theater facade of the Fischer theater should be preserved, even if it was not one of the strongest works by Professor Fischer ... the solution that Röhm advocated ... was : the facade was preserved in its essential parts, the interior modernized ... the reason is that a building, which is so much a testimony to the city's history and citizens' consciousness, must be preserved in this form that meets today's requirements ... One more proof of the demand itself in Heilbronn to get through to a cost-saving, intimate form. ” The semicircular porch of the Fischer'schen Theater was therefore one of the most important parts of the theater facade for Röhm, which should be integrated into a new building.

  • The semicircular porch of the Fischer Theater

Deutschhof gable

Röhm's guiding principle, the synthesis of old and new, should also apply to the granary of the large Deutschhof in Heilbronn. Just like the west gable of the town hall and the clock gable of the art clock, the Deutschhof south gable, in contrast to the other walls and gables of the Kornhaus, was to be preserved for posterity: “Today, these are the buildings that give it its typical character and set it apart from anonymity the 'everyday post-war reconstruction architecture' of destroyed cities ... It seems to me that the west side (courtyard) and north gable [of the Kornhaus in the large Deutschhof] are not essential to preserving them, but the preservation of the south gable is crucial in the cityscape, the urban development and its powerful plastic effect. "

  • Archive building, south side - The building was built on the site of the demolished granary .

  • Archive building, west side

Other buildings

  • Realized design for the memorial stone in memory of the donor couple Friedrich Severin and Marie Rosine Lix in the Old Cemetery (October 21, 1954).
  • Realized draft for the design of the gallery in Heilbronn's Kilian Church (December 20, 1955).
  • Wartberg School
  • Silcher elementary school
  • Fire station
  • Urban cattle yard
  • Large gymnasium Mönchseehalle
  • Normal gym for the rose school
  • Normal gym for the Kepler school
  • Normal gym for the Reinöhlschule
  • Normal gym for the Grünewald School
  • Normal gym for the Wartberg School
  • Normal gym for the Silcher school.
  • Jägerhaus restaurant
  • Wartberg restaurant
  • Extension of the "Neckarhalde" outdoor pool
  • Stadium, grandstand and entrance structures
  • Retirement home extension
  • Bed block extension in the municipal hospital on Jägerhausstrasse
  • New depot of the transport company on Kanalstrasse
  • Lower hall on the station forecourt
  • Morgue
  • Unterehallen in Neckargartach
  • Design of the roof stone graves
  • Redesign of the interior in the crematorium
  • The pavilion of the city of Heilbronn for the state exhibition in Stuttgart, which "caused a stir at the time with its boldness".
  • Children's clinic on the Nonnenbuckel
  • Interior construction of the city library.
  • Unrealized design for the Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Gymnasium
  • Unrealized design for the Albrecht Dürer primary school in Neckargartach
  • Unrealized design for the Helene Lange School
  • Unrealized design for the first single-storey solution for the Harmonie festival hall. During the construction of the new Festhalle Harmonie, he had already been involved in talks with building officer Willi Zimmermann from the city planning office on May 31, 1954.

Conservationist in the district

He also made an outstanding contribution to monument protection in the district. So the Vogtshaus in Willsbach , the church in Dahenfeld and the Magdalenenkirche in Beilstein .

  • Church in Dahenfeld

Krefeld (1963–1974)

In 1963 Röhm moved to Krefeld, where he worked as head of the building construction department until his retirement in 1974. In Krefeld he led the reconstruction of the Greiffenhorstschlösschen , the renovation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum , the planning and completion of the community center and other buildings that "decisively shaped the cityscape of Krefeld." He took part in the campaign "Color in the cityscape" and was the official preservationist for Krefeld.

  • Greiffenhorstschlösschen

  • Kaiser Wilhelm Museum

Awards

On November 21, 1950, Heinrich Röhm was elected chairman for Heilbronn at the general meeting of the local branch of the Swabian Heimatbund, after the interests of the Heimatbund had been represented by the historical association. He reorganized the Heilbronn district group in the Swabian Heimatbund and was its chairman from 1950 to 1963. In the entire association of the Swabian Heimatbund, he was a member of the jury to award the monument protection prize.

After leaving for Krefeld, he remained a member of the Heilbronn Historical Society until 1969. 1974 Röhm returned to Heilbronn and worked again with the district group and was first deputy chairman, then from 1986 to 1989 chairman. During this time he led art historical and architectural history study trips. He also worked on committees of the Swabian Heimatbund at state level, such as the awarding of the Peter Haag Prize.

In 1982 Heinrich Röhm received the badge of honor from the state of Baden-Württemberg . At the home days Baden-Württemberg in 1992 in Schwäbisch Hall, he was awarded the medal for services to the home of Baden-Württemberg .

Evaluation and criticism

His work as a monument conservationist for the reconstruction of historical buildings was particularly important to the building director. Historic buildings are symbols of a city, which would define their individuality, their unmistakability: "In other cities, the greater the distance from the war with its cruel destruction of building fabric that is valuable in terms of city ​​history, the knowledge and the effort to save the little old into the future," to activate this in a meaningful way and to integrate it into the social, cultural life of our present-day environment and thus also to set essential urban development accents that first convey its individual face to a city. ” In view of the urban upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s in Heilbronn and various statements by the Mayor Herbert Haldy and the head of building and art monument maintenance at the Baden-Württemberg State Monuments Office, Röhm asked himself "with shock" the question: "Have all good spirits left the city?" His concern was with the monuments (such as the Old City Baths and the Old City Theater ) that the ans tehenden traffic planning of the avenue would fall victim: "The fact that Heilbronn has again defined its historical monuments with great sacrifice that brought here these focal points as give jewels of this anonymous size of more or less beautiful residential and commercial support and backbone. When strangers come to Heilbronn, they will always enjoy these monuments. The State Office for the Preservation of Monuments has repeatedly pointed out that Heilbronn has performed particularly well for these tasks. Later generations will thankfully recognize and appreciate these achievements. I would like to wish Heilbronn for its future development and especially with regard to the order of inner-city traffic that it will remain a human-friendly city and that it will not - and I see a great danger here - become an enlarged motorway service station. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Home medal of the country for Heinrich Röhm in Heilbronn . in: Schwäbische Heimat , Vol. XLIII, Heft 4, 1992, p. 398.
  2. ↑ a b c slg: Heinrich Röhm 80. Senior building director and monument conservator . In: Heilbronn voice . June 26, 1992, p. 24 .
  3. ↑ a b c d The portrait. Graduate engineer Röhm . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten . June 16, 1953, p. 89 .
  4. ^ Joachim Friedl: Heimatbund rescued the shooting house . In: Heilbronn voice . March 1, 2010 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 20, 2010]).
  5. ↑ a b c d Alexander Renz, Susanne Schlösser: Chronicle of the city of Heilbronn. Volume VI: 1945-1951. Heilbronn 1995, pp. 336, 450, 522, 541.
  6. ^ Julius Fekete et al .: Monument topography Baden-Württemberg, Volume I.5: Stadtkreis Heilbronn. Theiss, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1988-3 , p. 57, and Julius Fekete: Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 , p. 36.
  7. ↑ a b c d fs: Building councilor Röhm and the reconstruction. A large part of public buildings was planned and built by him . In: Neckar-Echo . December 21, 1962.
  8. ↑ a b c d Alexander Renz, Susanne Schlösser: Chronicle of the city of Heilbronn. Volume VII: 1952-1957. Heilbronn 1996, pp. 182, 200, 218, 226, 316, 408.
  9. ^ Julius Fekete: Art and cultural monuments in the city and district of Heilbronn. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8062-1662-2 , p. 32.
  10. ↑ City of Heilbronn (ed.): Address book of the city of Heilbronn 1954. I. Heilbronn under reconstruction - Stadtbad.
  11. ↑ a b Willi Lutz: Heinrich Röhm, retired senior building director, Heilbronn. In: Schwäbische Heimat , Volume XLIII, Heft 4, 1992, p. 398f. with excerpt from the Neue Rhein Zeitung : "Röhm was the father of the more beautiful Krefeld"
  12. ↑ Saturday, March 9th . In: Heilbronn voice . March 13, 1968, p. 9 .
  13. ↑ a b c thu: Heinrich Röhm criticizes the planned demolition of the Deutschhof gable. "Abandoned by all good spirits?" The building fabric that is valuable in terms of the history of the city is to be saved for the future . In: Heilbronn voice . January 30, 1974, p. 15/16 .
  14. ^ Bernhard Lattner with texts by Joachim J. Hennze: Stille Zeitzeugen. 500 years of Heilbronn architecture. Edition Lattner, Heilbronn 2005, ISBN 3-9807729-6-9 , page 40.
  15. ↑ a b Official Journal for the City and District of Heilbronn from April 4, 1963 No. 14 13 years of collaboration in the reconstruction of Heilbronn .
  16. ↑ a b c kra: Heinrich Röhm is dead. Master builder and monument protector . In: Heilbronn voice . October 23, 1999, p. 22 .
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Seybold: A church ruin became a hiking home . In: Heilbronn voice . June 10, 2005 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 20, 2010]).
  18. ↑ Joachim Friedl: Significant personalities . In: Heilbronn voice . March 1, 2010 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 20, 2010]).
  19. ↑ local call . In: Heilbronn voice . September 25, 1992, p. 18 .
  20. ^ List of members as of October 1, 1966, pp. 221–224. In: Heilbronn Historical Association. 25. Publication. Heilbronn 1966 and list of members as of October 1, 1969, pp. 215-219. In: Heilbronn Historical Association. 26. Publication. Heilbronn 1969
  21. ↑ http://www.ak-heimatpflege-ka.de/122-0-Heimatmedaille.html
personal data
SURNAME Röhm, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Röhm, Heinrich Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, construction officer and preservationist
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1999