Joseph Buchkremer (cathedral builder)

Joseph Buchkremer (born October 27, 1864 in Aachen ; † January 11, 1949 there ) was a German architect and Aachen cathedral master builder .

Life

Joseph Buchkremer was the eldest son of the wagon smith Ludwig Buchkremer and his wife Gertrud geb. Wiertz. After attending a parish school and a high school, he left school in Obersekunda to become a painter. Buchkremer was honored for his designs and drawings while still a student.

The early plan to become a painter failed, however. He then applied to a construction business and began an apprenticeship there. The Aachen university lecturer and architect Karl Henrici became aware of him through his drawing skills . Buchkremer began studying at the Polytechnic in 1883 under the intercession of Henricis and also worked as a student in the Henricis office. Five years later, in 1888, he became his assistant. In 1891 he completed his habilitation and became a private lecturer in the fields of applied arts, painting and artistic perspective.

In 1899 his son Joseph Ludwig Buchkremer - later Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Aachen  - was born. His second son Stephan Buchkremer , who founded the Domwache in 1941 , was born in 1901.

In the years from 1891 onwards, Buchkremer took on many building projects and restorations. He built a villa colony in Koblenz, designed cenotaphs, altars, crossroads , hospitals and restored Breill Castle near Geilenkirchen , among other things . He was also given the task of designing the streets around Bonn Minster .

Joseph Buchkremer was born with Ferdinande. Hilsmann from Winkhausen married. With this connection to the Sauerland , he also expanded his field of activity. In 1905 he received the order for an extension of the parish church in Schmallenberg . After the construction of this building in 1906, Buchkremer became the most sought-after church architect in the Sauerland. At no time was the architectural influence of a man in the Sauerland greater than the Buchkremer. From 1908 to 1917 he built or expanded seven other churches in the region and the chapels in Latrop and Gellinghausen .

Aachen Cathedral around 1900

Buchkremer received many foreign contracts, he built churches and chapels in Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Buchkremer was also in great demand in the arts and crafts area because of his skills. For example , he designed the Aachen council silver , drafted letters of honorary citizenship for Bismarck , Hindenburg and parchment documents for Pope Leo XIII. , Pope Pius XI. as well as for Kaiser Wilhelm II.

In 1915 he also took over the work on Aachen Cathedral , because he was already busy with the reconstruction of the atrium in 1898 and a few years later with the restoration of the throne of Charlemagne and the erection of the pillars of the imperial box. In 1917 he therefore received the title of master builder , which was subsequently changed to master builder . During his years as a cathedral builder, for example, in 1924 he restored the passage to the locked Wolfstür, restored the severe damage to the choir hall and completed work on Heinrich II's ambo in 1936. He also had a new organ built into the cathedral according to his own plans.

Joseph Buchkremer died in 1949 and was buried in Aachen's Westfriedhof II .

Buildings (selection)

description	place	Year of construction / time	image
Gregoriushaus	Aachen	1889
Mission House of the Pallottines	Limburg on the Lahn	1896-1897
Parish Church of the Holy Cross In 1898 the foundation stone for the parish church of the Holy Cross was laid. The church was consecrated in 1902.	Aachen	1898
Extension of the parish church St. Alexander After the demolition of the old tower the extension of the parish church St. Alexander was built. The solemn consecration by the Archbishop of Paderborn did not take place until 1911. The church tower had to be demolished again in 1996.	Schmallenberg	1905-1906
Parish Church of St. Jodokus The foundation stone for the parish church of St. Jodokus was laid in June 1909. In October 1910, the church was inaugurated by Bishop Karl Joseph Schulte.	Saalhausen	1909-1910
Extension of the parish church St. Blasius The parish church consists of two parts, a Romanesque church from the 10th / 12th. Century and the large neo-Romanesque extension from 1910.	Balve	1910
Partial new construction of the parish church of St. Cosmas and Damian Of the 18th century church, only the three-part west building from 1723 and the central tower from 1750 have been preserved. A new baroque central building was built between 1910 and 1911.	Boedefeld	1910-1911
Transept and choir of St. Willibrord	Euchen	1912-1913
New three-aisled hall church St. Laurentius The old church building was demolished in 1912 and replaced by a new church. Another fire in 1975 hit the building so bad that it had to be closed. Professor Erich Heyne was responsible for the redesign of the interior, he took into account the liturgy of the Second Vatican Council.	Aachen- Laurensberg	1912
Partial new construction of the parish church St. Lambertus. The tower and choir date from the 14th century. In the new building from 1912, the west tower, which was raised in the 19th century, and the choir bay with a 3/6 end were taken over from this.	Kirchrarbach	1912
Parish Church of St. Hubertus The new Romanesque parish church of St. Hubertus was built between 1912 and 1913. The rough vaulted building as a side aisle and the square west tower are from an earlier church.	Dorlar	1913
Parish Church of St. Kilian The foundation stone for the church building, which was completed in 1917, was laid on July 12, 1914. Construction work was delayed due to the outbreak of the First World War . Sankt Kilian was consecrated on November 11, 1917 by Paderborn's auxiliary bishop Heinrich Haehling von Lanzenauer .	Iserlohn - Letmathe	1914-1917
Parish Church of St. Peter and Paul The neo-Gothic hall church was built from 1915 to 1917. There are preserved parts of the predecessor building, which has been extended several times. The two west bays and the basement of the square west tower, which only enclose a spiral staircase, date from the Romanesque period.	Kirchhundem	1915-1917
Sct.-Mariæ-Kirche	Aalborg , Denmark	1926
War memorial for the fallen of the First World War The war memorial below the old cemetery of St. Severin was unveiled on November 20, 1927. St. Sebastian kneels on the base in the pose of a dying warrior based on a design by the Aachen sculptor Fritz Neumann (* 1881).	Eilendorf	1927
Church in Slagelse	Slagelse , Denmark	1931

Honors

Joseph Buchkremer received the following honors.

• 1904: Awarded the title of professor
• 1911: Order of the Red Eagle
• 1917: Master builder in Aachen, later renamed Master Builder
• 1918: Cross of Merit for War Aid
• 1922: Commander's Cross of the Papal New Year's Order
• 1945: Honorary doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E. h.) From the Technical University of Aachen
• February 17, 1949 ( posthumously ): The city of Aachen renamed Edelstrasse in Buchkremerstrasse

Fonts (selection)

• The grave of Charlemagne. In: Zeitschrift des Aachener Geschichtsverein 29, 1907, pp. 68–210 ( digitized version ).
• The wolf door of the Aachen cathedral church. Creutzer, Aachen 1924.
• Aachen Cathedral. Aachener Verlags- u. Printing company, Aachen 1935.
• 100 years of monument preservation at Aachen Cathedral. Metz, Aachen 1955.

literature

• Albert Huyskens : Joseph Buchkremer. In: | Journal of the Aachener Geschichtsverein 62, 1949, pp. 104–111.
• Kurt Vaessen: The cathedral builder. A biographical study on Professor Dr. hc Josef Buchkremer. In: Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz (Ed.): Aachen for the year 1951. Düsseldorf 1951, pp. 125–140. (with proof of writing)
• Marita Hermanns (arrangement): Joseph Buchkremer: My work as Aachen cathedral master builder. (= Publications of the Episcopal Diocesan Archive Aachen , 46.) Einhard-Verlag, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-920284-76-3 .
• Holger A. Dux : Aachen from A to Z. Aachen 2003, pp. 67-68.

Web links

Wikisource: Joseph Buchkremer  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Joseph Buchkremer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Writings by Joseph Buchkremer in the database of the Regesta Imperii
• Appreciation at the Aachen History Association (with picture).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl-Heinz Danne: Festschrift "Church consecration jubilee St. Alexander Schmallenberg 75 years" (1986). In: Texts on the exhibition in July 1999 on the occasion of the reconstruction of the church tower of St. Alexander.
2. ↑ Werner Arens: On the trail of a riddle - Balve 1200 years ago in Sauerland No. 3/2005 p. 119 (PDF; 5.6 MB) ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) 
3. ↑ Parish Church of Our Lady ( Memento from January 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive )