Herbert Jensen

Herbert Jensen (1964)

Herbert Friedrich Jensen (born October 27, 1900 in Kiel , † March 22, 1968 in Dortmund ) was a German architect and professor of urban development , housing and regional planning at the Technical University of Braunschweig .

Training and work in Kiel

Jensen in conversation with his successor as Kiel city planner Klaus Müller-Ibold

Herbert Jensen was a son of the Kiel furniture manufacturer Heinrich Christian Jensen (born January 8, 1856 in Flensburg , † March 2, 1911 in Kiel) and his wife Marie Dorothea Mathilde, née Kömme (born November 17, 1860, † January 18, 1929 in Kiel). He finished attending the Hebbel School in Kiel in 1919 with the Abitur. After that he practically worked for a construction company for half a year. From 1919 to 1923 he studied architecture at the TH Karlsruhe and graduated in October 1923 with the diploma exam.

In the spring of 1924 Jensen moved to Kiel and worked in Ernst Prinz's architectural office , for whom he worked for two and a half years. Together with Prinz, he took part in a competition to redesign the Kleiner Kiel , which they both won. After that, he probably focused more and more on urban planning. In 1926 he moved to the municipal building and housing department of the city of Kiel, headed by the Technical City Councilor Willy Hahn . Here he mostly took on urban planning and building maintenance tasks. In 1930 he moved to Hanover and worked for city planning officer Karl Elkart for five years . During this time, which most likely had a decisive influence on his further career, he only dealt with questions of town planning.

In 1935, Jensen moved back to Kiel as chief building officer. He was supposed to set up an urban planning department for the city, which had become necessary for the further development of the city due to the extensive urban development plans. Initially, priority was given to a modern general development plan for the expansion of Kiel, which at the time was called the “economic plan”. This included drafts for new residential areas on the east bank of the Kiel Fjord , which should offer industrial workers living space. Elmschenhagen , for example, was created according to the proposals of the building authority . During the Second World War , the office almost completely stopped work.

After the end of the war, the reconstruction of the largely destroyed keel had to be planned. This made a fundamental reorganization and re-planning of the building authority necessary. Jensen, who had been appointed city planning director in 1945, was now in charge of the entire building administration. In a leading position in a working group, he managed this task very well. In May 1946, his authority presented the city representatives with a first general development plan. This contained basic approaches for a renewal of Kiel and was unanimously adopted. In 1947/48 the building authority carried out an ideas competition for urban design.

The successful reconstruction of Kiel earned Jensen recognition throughout Germany and beyond national borders. He received many honors and prestigious appointments for this. The Kiel council elected him on April 20, 1950 to the full-time city planning officer.

From 1947 Jensen was a full member of the German Academy for Urban Development and Regional Planning . The academy founded the so-called "Weinheim Committee", in which Jensen also sat from 1950. This committee should prepare a new federal building law, which was urgently needed due to the reconstruction of the destroyed land. Jensen was elected Vice President of the Academy in 1954 and took on this role for several years.

In 1955, Jensen received a call from the University of Kiel as honorary professor in the law and political science faculty. In October, the city of Kiel put him on leave so that he could take over the management of the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Stadtentwicklungsplan München”.

Further career

Memorial stone for Herbert Jensen at the Karlstor in Munich

The working group in Munich was supposed to develop the basis for further development for the city by 1990. The Munich city council approved the plan on July 10, 1963 and adhered to it during the following construction work. The plan was also known as the "Jensen Plan". After completing the task in Munich, Jensen did not go back to Kiel. In 1962 he received a call from the TH Braunschweig to the chair for urban development, housing and regional planning with an affiliated institute for urban development. He had filed a corresponding previous application from 1959. In addition to lectures, he continued to work here practically, drawing up reports and plans and offering advice.

Due to his successful work and expertise as an experienced practitioner, Jensen quickly became a respected and sought-after expert. Several major German cities such as Bremen, Dortmund and Braunschweig offered him positions as town planner and head of building administrations, which he refused. He also failed to respond to a call from the TH Munich . He also did not accept a position as second state secretary in the Federal Ministry for Housing and Urban Development .

During his time in Kiel, Jensen was a permanent member of the building committee of the German Association of Cities . He also worked in the "Joint State Planning Council Hamburg-Schleswig-Holstein". This body should harmonize the concerns of both countries at the common national borders. Therefore, in 1967 he received a call from the city of Hamburg as managing director of the "Independent Commission for the Review of the 1960 Development Plan of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg", for which he also wrote expert reports.

Jensen was a long member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Housing and Urban Development. In 1966 he was appointed to the “Advisory Board for Regional Planning” of the Federal Ministry of the Interior .

Burial at the Eichhof Park Cemetery in Kiel

Shortly before the end of his life, Minister Lauritz appointed Lauritzen Jensen to the “Working Group for Urban Development”. The working group should develop “new concepts for urban planning projects of the future”. Jensen attended the first advisory board meeting on March 14, 1968. A week later he traveled to Dortmund, where he attended a meeting of the panel of judges for the architecture award of the University of Dortmund. Jensen accompanied the competition since the founding committee in 1963. During the meeting he suffered a heart attack, of which he died.

personality

Jensen was considered a sober and clear thinker who had a strong understanding of real conditions and the limits of what is possible. He had in-depth knowledge and skills, experience in administrative matters and was politically wise. Despite all the problems of local government, he always felt artistic and conceptual. Due to his diverse activities as an urban planner and university lecturer, he can be described as one of the most important urban planners of the 1960s and 70s, who played a significant role in comprehensive legislation and scientific advancement of the specialist discipline.

Honors

Renaming of a section of Martendamm in Jensendamm

Jensen was awarded the Freiherr vom Stein Medal in 1958 for his services . On his 60th birthday, he was awarded the state government of Schleswig-Holstein with the state's art prize. In December 1970 the city of Kiel named a street after the late city planner. In July 1972, the City of Munich had a memorial plaque put up on Karlstor .

family

Jensen's first marriage in 1929 was Hertha Boysen (born March 27, 1907 in Kiel; September 2, 1946 there), with whom he had two sons and a daughter. After the death of his first wife, he married Käte Vöge in 1954 (born April 28, 1923 in Kiel). The couple had a daughter.

literature

• Johannes Göderitz : Herbert Jensen. Obituary of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, presented in the plenary session on June 14, 1968. In: Abhandlungen der Braunschweigische Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, Vol. 20, 1968, pp. 284–285
• Paul Schnoor: Jensen, Herbert . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 3. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1974, pp. 167-170

Web links

Commons : Herbert Jensen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files