Helmut Hofmann (architect)

Helmut Hofmann (born February 9, 1907 in Konstadt , Silesia, † December 5, 2006 in Georgenborn ) was a German architect and artist.

Training and first activities

Hofmann began an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in Opole in 1922 and became a journeyman in 1924. From 1925 he attended the building trade school in Breslau . This gave him training in construction, materials science, tendering and calculation, and in construction management. Wroclaw was a progressive city in terms of modern architecture at the time, e.g. B. by their city ​​planning officer Max Berg .

Oriented towards advancement, Hofmann then attended the State Academy for Arts and Crafts in Breslau , which Hans Poelzig had developed into one of the most important universities and which already worked in its workshops according to the principles of the later Bauhaus . Adolf Rading and Hans Scharoun worked here as teachers of architecture . In addition, taught in other subjects, under Oskar Moll as director, Carlo Mense , Alexander Kanoldt , Otto Mueller , Johannes Molzahn , Oskar Schlemmer and Georg Muche .

In 1928 Hofmann began studying architecture in Breslau, which he financed as a draftsman of diagrams for the Breslauer Kunstverein. He worked as an employee in the architecture office of Paul Häusler, who was working on the construction of a semi-detached house in the developing Werkbundsiedlung Breslau , WuWa, in 1929 . Other architects who took part in the exhibition with their own houses included Rading and Scharoun, Paul Heim and Albert Kempter, Gustav Wolf , Ludwig Moshamer , Heinrich Lauterbach , Moritz Hadda , Theo Effenberger and Emil Lange .

At that time Hofmann was involved in the avant-garde of architects in Silesia . But the collapse of the construction industry in the Great Depression made him unemployed. From then on he made his way through working as a bricklayer, as a window dresser and as a violinist in backyards.

In 1932 Hofmann was commissioned to draw up plans for the building of his academy, which had been closed by the government. Then he became technical manager in a small construction company in Saarau . Here in 1933 a customer commissioned him to plan a new building. This is how Hofmann began his first freelance work. When the building was completed in 1935, that meant another lack of orders for Hofmann.

He was appointed to the Association of German Architects (BDA). By the DC circuit of the BDA 1934 Hofmann member of which was the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts .

In 1936 Hofmann was employed in the building department in Berlin at the Reich Aviation Ministry . When he and his colleague Hanns Hörich were to be drafted in 1938, they quit and went into business for themselves as architects. In 1940 Hofmann was drafted into the Wehrmacht . Most recently he was a tank commander in Italy . After the country was liberated, he was taken prisoner of war there , from which he fled back to Berlin.

After the war

During the war, Hofmann had lost his wife and residence. He moved to Thurnau . In Hattersheim he founded the company Kunst- und Bücherstube Martin Tolksdorf together with a bookseller . Hofmann was responsible for the arts and crafts. He was advised to apply for architectural projects because of the housing shortage. Hofmann founded his third architectural office at this location. In 1948 he began building settlements for displaced persons . He had the painter Siegfried Reich an der Stolpe (1912-2001) execute the sgraffito of the town hall of Wroclaw on the gable wall of a row of houses .

Hofmann was able to adapt his buildings to the scarce resources of the time. As a result, his floor plans were soon published in building trade journals, and his buildings were presented as exemplary in a “Guide for Building Savers” at the beginning of the 1950s. For the 2nd edition of this guide in 1953, he was commissioned to design type floor plans. With these designs Hofmann was able to build on the development of the new architecture of the 1920s and early 1930s, which was forced to stop.

His own architectural work now increased significantly. In addition to residential houses, he planned and built administration buildings, savings banks, banks, health care buildings, schools, community centers, cemetery halls and churches. Whenever possible, Hofmann consulted freelance artists. He belonged to the circle of friends around the art dealer Hanna Bekker vom Rath in Hofheim am Taunus and also organized several art exhibitions. In 1967 Hofmann finally moved to Schlangenbad- Georgenborn. There he acquired the ruins of the coach house of Castle Hohenbuchau , that was torn down, and put them recover. He combined old but renewed substance with modern elements. In recognition of his handling of the building in terms of monument preservation, he was commissioned with the restoration and expansion of the Kurhaus in Bad Schwalbach , which had been built by Philipp Hoffmann .

When Hofmann gave up his work as an architect due to old age, he worked as a visual artist. He had drawn and painted all his life, now he discovered an art form that he particularly liked, the collage . Hofmann used the wallpaper sample books from the workshops of Le Corbusier , the Bauhaus and the Deutscher Werkbund as well as the Rasch collections . Hofmann's works were exhibited in many places. In terms of style, he designed the collages more and more freely over time, the professional origins of the artist in architecture and urban planning was clearly recognizable.

plant

Mourning hall at the Schwalbach forest cemetery

• Schwalbach, Limesstadt : mourning hall of the forest cemetery; This hall is at the highest point of the cemetery. It is dominated by a low, slate roof. The sloping roof line forms a triangular canopy above the entrance, the slope is taken up by a concrete strut and led to the ground and ends there in a shrub island. The entrance area is designed with two square double doors and glazed wall segments. The triangular rear front between the fan-shaped struts is glazed. Narrow, angled pillars form the chair for the cemetery bell.

literature

• Helmut Müller-Wellborn (Ed.): The ideal apartment. A guide to contemporary home furnishings (with the collaboration of Eva Windmüller and Helmut Hofmann), 2nd edition, Bonn 1953.
• Rolf Schmidt (Ed.): Helmut Hofmann. Architect and artist. Student at the Art Academy in Breslau 1928-1929 [Helmut Hofmann, architekt i artysta, student Akademii we Wrocławiu 1928-1929.] (Exhibition catalog for the exhibition of the same name, Wrocław 1999), Deutscher Werkbund Hessen, Frankfurt am Main 1999.

Web links

• Franz Josef Hamm: Obituary for Helmut Hofmann (1907-2006)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Online, with pictures