Käthe Menzel-Jordan

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Käthe Menzel-Jordan (née Hertel ; born September 7, 1916 in Erfurt ) is a German architect and preservationist . At one hundred years of age (2016) she is the oldest member of the Thuringian Chamber of Architects and lives in Erfurt.

life and work

Käthe Menzel-Jordan was born on September 7, 1916 in Erfurt. Her grandfather Reinhold Schreiber owned a construction business on Michaelisstrasse in Erfurt and was a very busy building contractor in the last quarter of the 19th century. Menzel-Jordan therefore decided to work professionally in the construction industry.

During the 1930s she studied architecture and art history in Dresden. The young architect was surprised by the outbreak of war; she decided to take a further training opportunity and dealt with business administration and technical administration. She survived the air raids on Dresden by chance, as she was on home leave during this time. On her return, her Dresden apartment was destroyed with all her belongings and the dissertation that had already started .

Goethehaus am Frauenplan in Weimar in 1959
House at the high lily Domplatz 31 in Erfurt in 1981
Augustinian monastery in Erfurt in 1985
Haus zum Leopard Michaelisstrasse 19/20 in Erfurt after the general renovation

After her return, she willingly took over many emergency security work and projects to alleviate the housing shortage in the city that was destroyed by air raids on Weimar . She was able to finish her training with the Thuringian state government. The young and politically unaffected architect stayed in Thuringia. She received orders from the Soviet headquarters in Weimar to secure the devastated Goethehaus on the Frauenplan and to put it back in order. Many similar projects followed until the GDR was founded.

Käthe Menzel-Jordan decided to expand her professional knowledge by studying at the Technical University of Dresden . Her dissertation, submitted in 1955, dealt with the approximately 50 water mills that have existed in Erfurt since the Middle Ages.

As a freelance architect in the Ulbricht era , Käthe Menzel-Jordan initially only found offers that did not challenge her creative skills and knowledge, she finally found a rich field of activity in cooperation with the church building authorities in Erfurt and later also the respective building departments in the city administration. Her most important projects in Erfurt include:

as well as Molsdorf Castle near Erfurt.

She was also active in Arnstadt , Schmalkalden and Wolkramshausen , where she worked on the renovation of the "Hue de Grais" estate.

At the age of 80, she ventured into her last project, the general renovation of the family-owned house at Michaelisstrasse 19/20 in Erfurt's old town. During the architectural archaeological investigations, it turned out that this house is the oldest documented residential building (so far) in Erfurt's old town and was built in the late 13th century.

On September 10, 2016 Ms. Menzel-Jordan celebrated a service for her 100th birthday in the Erfurt Michaeliskirche together with many companions and guests at the invitation of the Erfurt Church District of the Evangelical Church of Central Germany.

Fonts

  • Erfurt, a city of water mills. Investigation of the type and shape of the medieval mills in Erfurt and the condition of their existence. Dissertation, Dresden University of Technology, 1955.
  • For the renewal of the Predigerkirche in Erfurt. In: Kunst und Kirche , 29th year 1966, No. 1, pp. 33–39.

literature

  • Lutz Schilling (2016): Hundred and not a bit quiet. The personal fund of the architect Käthe Menzel-Jordan in the Gotha State Archives. In: Archives in Thuringia. Bulletin, volume 2016, pp. 49–50.
  • Dietlind Steinhöfel (2011): "I don't lack churches" the 95-year-old architect Käthe Menzel-Jordan rebuilt many churches in Thuringia. In: Faith + Home. Mitteldeutsche Kirchenzeitung / Thuringia edition, 2011, issue 40, p. 6.
  • Christoph Hanske (2006): The rescue and restoration of Molsdorf Castle between 1945 and 1966. On the 90th birthday of the Erfurt architect Dr.-Ing. Käthe Menzel-Jordan on September 7, 2006. In: Helmut-Eberhard Paulus (Ed.): Paulinzella Monastery and the Hirsauer Reform. Regensburg, pp. 145-163.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dietlind Steinhöfel: “I don't lack churches” . The 95-year-old architect Käthe Menzel-Jordan rebuilt many churches in Thuringia. In: Evangelical Press Association in Central Germany eV (Hrsg.): Faith and Home . Weimar September 29, 2011.
  2. ↑ Church and Monastery - Timeline. (No longer available online.) In: Evangelisches Augustinerkloster zu Erfurt. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012 ; accessed in November 2012 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.augustinerkloster.de
  3. ^ Siegfried Hotzel : The reconstruction of the Erfurt Augustinian monastery . Erfurt Heimatbrief No. 23, December 8, 1971
  4. ↑ Leaving many creative traces on the face of the city. The Erfurt architect Käthe Menzel-Jordan is celebrating her 100th birthday today - life and work in the sense of monument preservation . Thuringian newspaper, September 7, 2016
  5. ^ Thuringian State Archives Gotha , personal estate of Käthe Menzel-Jordan
  6. ↑ Käthe Menzel-Jordan is 100 years old. In: Erfurt Church District. Retrieved September 19, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Menzel-Jordan, Käthe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and preservationist
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt