Hugo Altendorff

Hugo Altendorff

Hugo Altendorff (born April 20, 1843 in Leipzig ; † March 22, 1933 there ) was a German architect and one of the busiest church builders in Saxony in the 19th century . He designed a total of 20 new church buildings ; 23 were restored by him and 49 rebuilt, whereby he co-founded and established the style of the neo-Gothic hall churches .

Life

Erlöserkirche Thonberg (consecrated in 1869, destroyed in 1945)

Gethsemane Church Leipzig-Lößnig, 1877

Church in Großsteinberg near Grimma, hand drawing for its partial new building, 1875

Hugo Altendorff was born in Leipzig as the son of the Stralsund bookseller Julius Friedrich Altendorff and the sister of the bookseller Anton Philipp Reclam , Cäcilie Reclam.

After attending the Leipzig community and secondary school, he learned carpentry at the Handwerck company in summer and attended the “Royal Building School” (today HTWK ) in Leipzig in winter . On his wanderings he studied at the building schools in Berlin , Nuremberg and Munich . In 1867 he passed the building examination with distinction.

In the same year he was commissioned to build the new church in Leipzig-Thonberg , which he carried out as the first Leipzig church in the neo-Gothic style. This successful new church building already made him known beyond the borders of Leipzig, so that he received orders all over Saxony.

Altendoff also wrote specialist articles in various books and magazines about his own church buildings and conversions as well as about churches by other builders of his time and represented his neo-Gothic style conception. This can be seen well from his lecture “On Church Architecture” in 1872. This was later published by Reclam-Verlag and remained his only publication in book form.

In 1878 he married Margarethe Handwerck, the daughter of his former teacher, with whom he later had four children.

With the advent of historicism in Saxon church building, Altendorff soon went out of fashion, and so after the renovation of his first church in Leipzig-Thonberg in 1888 he stopped building churches and only designed smaller utility buildings.

Hugo Altendorff died on March 22, 1933 in Leipzig at the age of almost 90.

building

Churches

With his first work, the Protestant Church of the Redeemer in Thonberg (1869, destroyed in 1945), he is considered the founder of the “neo-Gothic hall church”. The design of the church as an elongated building and the imposing tower quickly made him famous, so that he was commissioned with many other church buildings, conversions and renovations. In a similar style, he created the Friedenskirche in Leipzig-Gohlis (consecrated in 1873), which is one of the oldest preserved neo-Gothic churches in Saxony. Further modifications and renovations were z. B. the baroque Zöbigker village church (rebuilt in 1883, burned down in 1942) and the Reformed Church in Leipzig (1873).

The St. Laurentius Church in Markranstädt was also redesigned between 1871 and 1874 based on his expert reports and designs from 1870. In 1872 the Luppa Church was completely renovated in its original structure under Pastor Albert Fraustadt , the plans for it came from Hugo Altendorff.

His only church abroad is the Sasnovice Church in Russia, built in 1885–1886.

He built a total of 23 new churches, and 59 were rebuilt or renewed by him. Critics complain, however, that during his numerous renovations, mostly late Gothic or Baroque churches, valuable furnishings fell victim to his purist style, such as the baroque interior of the Wenceslas Church in Wurzen (1873/1874).

Secular buildings

In addition to his church buildings, Altendorff also devoted himself to the construction of buildings such as the Martinsstift, the children's institution in Volkmarsdorf or the Carolabad (both in Leipzig). Up until the 1920s, he planned villa conversions in Markkleeberg (e.g. in Hauptstrasse 34).

Fonts

• About the church architecture of the 19th century. CH Reclam senior, Leipzig 1872.
• About church stained glass. In: Christian art paper for church, school and home. Year 1872, No. 12 (from December 1, 1872), pp. 181–193.
• Church buildings in the Kingdom of Saxony. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung . 13th year 1879, No. 28 (from April 9, 1879), p. 144.
• (...) In: The year of the Lord. Church yearbook of the Protestant communities in Leipzig. 1st year 1927 (autobiographical article, title and page number cannot be determined)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Evangelical Church Luppa , accessed on February 12, 2020