Hellmut Stauch

Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst Stauch (born October 3, 1910 in Erfurt ; † July 19, 1970 in Lourenço Marques , Mozambique ) was a German - South African architect and sailor .

Like his parents and siblings, he is buried in the Gammams cemetery in Windhoek .

Youth and education

Hellmut Stauch was the son of August Stauch , who had become rich in 1907 through diamond discoveries in German South West Africa . He spent childhood and youth in wealthy circumstances; the family lived in a villa in Berlin-Zehlendorf , and the father commuted between Berlin and Africa. Hellmut Stauch left school at the age of 16 to attend Johannes Itten's Berlin Art Academy with his sister Marianne . However, both of them had to break off their training there in the first year because they contracted tuberculosis and had to cure it in a sanatorium in Arosa . He later returned to the Itten School and also attended the Technical University in Berlin , but did not obtain a formal degree as an architect.

In 1926 Stauch was commissioned by the South West Africa Farming & Trading Co to design his first buildings in Africa. These were residential buildings on the site of the Dordabis farm in South West Africa , the only farm that Stauch's father August had left after bankruptcy in 1929. After the building was completed, Stauch returned to Berlin, where he said he worked for Fred Forbát and Walter Gropius and from February 1932 to 1934 for Wilhelm Peters as a building supervisor. In 1934 he opened his own office.

The O-dinghy

In 1933 Hellmut Stauch, who was an experienced and enthusiastic sailor, was asked to help design a new kind of one-man boat for the Olympic sailing competitions . The result of his considerations was the O-dinghy , and Stauch was the best in the first test regattas with the new boat. However, he turned down an invitation to start for Germany at the Games, apparently for political reasons.

Work in South Africa

Instead Stauch returned to Africa in 1935, went to Pretoria and worked there for the architect Aubrey Nunn until 1943 . He then opened his own office, which has existed as Stauch + Partners and Stauch Vorerster to this day (2014) in southern Africa. At that time he asked the Institute of South African Architects (ISAA) for recognition as an architect, but the ISAA was only willing to reduce his training period from five to two years, which he initially ignored. However, since the University of Pretoria had asked him to teach, he finally gave up his resistance and took his last exam in 1946.

Stauch's style was based on Oscar Niemeyer , Frank Lloyd Wright and Norman Eaton . As early as 1940 he was counted among the most progressive architects in Pretoria. When he visited Niemeyer once in South America, however, he was amazed at how little he was oriented towards practical conditions. In 1952 the Meat Board Building designed by Stauch was built in Pretoria. In the same year he won the competition to design the Windhoek Library . In total he realized over 700 projects in southern Africa.

"Hellmut Stauch was one of South Africa's most prominent architects from 1934 until his death in 1970. He is generally regarded as having made a substantial contribution to architectural development in South Africa."

“From 1934 until his death in 1970, Hellmut Stauch was one of the most prominent architects in South Africa. He is widely regarded as a person who has made a significant contribution to the development of architecture in South Africa. "

Stauch as a sailor

Hellmut Stauch started as a sailor at the Olympic Games for South Africa twice - in 1952 and 1960 . In 1952 in Helsinki he was 16th in the O-Jolle, eight years later in Rome in the Flying Dutchman 15th, together with Bob Standing. He died in 1970 after a sailing regatta in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo. He was married three times.

Web links

• Hellmut Stauch in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Shelagh Suzanne Nation: The background, architectural philosophy and work of Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst Stauch. University of Pretoria, April 21, 1985, accessed August 27, 2014 . 
• Pretoria Vernacular. boukuns.co.za, accessed August 28, 2014 . 
• Meat Board Building, 140 Hamilton Avenue, Arcadia, Tshwane. University of Pretoria, accessed August 28, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ upsetting: eGGSA Library. Retrieved June 2, 2020.
2. ^ Shelagh Suzanne Nation: The background, architectural philosophy and work of Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst Stauch. University of Pretoria, April 21, 1985, p. 4 , accessed August 27, 2014 . 
3. ^ Shelagh Suzanne Nation: The background, architectural philosophy and work of Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst Stauch. University of Pretoria, April 21, 1985, p. 11 , accessed August 27, 2014 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Stauch, Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst. Artefacts.co.za, accessed August 27, 2014 . 
5. ↑ The history of the Olympic boat class from 1936. (No longer available online.) O-jolle.de, archived from the original on September 3, 2014 ; accessed on August 27, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ The boat class remained Olympic until 2008.
7. ↑ Practice Profile. (No longer available online.) Stauch + Partners, archived from the original on September 3, 2014 ; accessed on August 28, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ Stauch Vorster Architects. (No longer available online.) Svarchitects.com, archived from the original on October 9, 2014 ; accessed on August 29, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Shelagh Suzanne Nation: Some reflections on Helmut Stauch. 2011, accessed on August 28, 2014 . 
10. ^ Shelagh Suzanne Nation: The background, architectural philosophy and work of Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst Stauch. University of Pretoria, April 21, 1985, p. 110 , accessed August 27, 2014 . 
11. ^ Shelagh Suzanne Nation: The background, architectural philosophy and work of Hellmut Wilhelm Ernst Stauch. University of Pretoria, April 21, 1985, p. 1 , accessed August 27, 2014 .