Karl Buschhüter

Karl Buschhüter (born September 3, 1872 , † August 21, 1956 in Krefeld ) was a German architect and life reformer .

Life and work

Buschhüterhaus am Westwall (May 2006)

Residential building Moerser Landstrasse 18 in Verberg (February 2013)

Karl Buschhüter can be seen as a pioneer of ecological building (see below). Typical of his style are steep, half-hipped roofs and half-timbered constructions, brick textures and changing, asymmetrical window arrangements in different sizes. Although his buildings show a recognizable signature, they are individually designed as structural solutions. In addition to the elements mentioned (hipped roofs, etc.), parabolic arches (drop arch) made of brickwork are characteristic of his large buildings, which, however , were also used about 20 years earlier by the protagonist of Catalan Art Nouveau, Antoni Gaudí . Most of his designs were never realized, however, which must be attributed to his uncompromising attitude. His theory of "biological functionalism" was fundamental to his work. His striving was an autarkic way of life and a rejection of industrial technology and the money economy. As far as possible, he took the material (wood, sand, gravel, clay) for the construction of the houses from the property and the excavation.

For the Nerother Wandervogel , founded in 1919 by Karl and Robert Oelbermann , he took on the planning and construction supervision of a "Rhenish youth castle " in the sense of the educator Gustav Wyneken , including the so-called column house (destroyed by fire) at Waldeck Castle in the Hunsrück.

Bushguard left his hair and beard unscathed, as a haircut and shave were not appropriate for a German man. His linen clothes were self-made; He mostly did without footwear.

"The German person is a savage degraded to a housefly, who has completely lost the relationship with nature and no longer feels anything of the breath of the living world."

His tirades of hatred against the Jews were suspect even to the Nazis, whom he described as better Jews. Despite his deep contempt for the expressionist Heinrich Campendonk , he built Campendonk's house on behalf of the Cologne industrialist and patron Paul Multhaupt and after completion distributed a mocking poem to Campendonk. He saw his understanding of the fine arts primarily realized by Fidus and Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach .

“We have nothing against foreign-blooded painters and people who love their colors out of racial relationship or decadence, they may continue to paint and be happy, but they mustn't be so cheeky and our fine, artistically pure works with the Saelian-raw and dark ones Smear low terraces. Then we hit it! "

He got into an argument with Multhaupt, who had commissioned him to build his house, because he had had one of the rooms designed by Campendonk. Despite his abysmal hatred of the Jews, he also accepted orders from them. Most of the time he got into violent arguments with his clients, which led to him writing pamphlets against them, distributing them on the street and leaving the buildings unfinished. The rejection of his person, based on his contentious, uncompromising and inhuman personality, led to the fact that he received fewer and fewer commissions (including from Nazis) and finally died completely alone in 1956. Many of its houses were destroyed in World War II. The remaining houses are largely listed .

plant

Preserved, listed buildings

• 1899: Krefeld, St. Anton-Strasse 91, 1975 translocates to the property Westwall 122
• 1900: Krefeld, Bismarckplatz 11, residential building
• 1902: Viersen-Süchteln, Bergstrasse 27, residential building
• 1902: Viersen-Süchteln, Hochstrasse 57, residential and commercial building
• 1904: Krefeld, Dreikönigenstrasse 163, Steinstrasse 5/7, Alte Post
• 1907: Krefeld, Luisenstraße 62, former post office
• 1908: Krefeld, Moerser Landstrasse 18, residential building
  This residential building was built by Buschhüter for his mother, whose bust is embedded in the street front. It is considered one of the most important buildings by the architect.
• 1909: Krefeld, Ritterstrasse, central warehouse of the "Niederrhein" consumer cooperative at the former bread factory "Im Brahm"
• 1910: Krefeld, Moerser Landstrasse 14, residential building
• 1924: Friedrichssegen near Lahnstein , Jungfried House, in the Süßgrund, residential building and meeting place for the manufacturer and patron Paul Multhaupt (Buschhüter architect 1921–1925, initially unfinished, then Carl Dahmen)
• 1936: Krefeld, Kuhdyk 20, Cassel Museum
• 1938: Tönisvorst-St. Tönis, Feldstrasse 102-104, farm workers' house

literature

• Walfried Pohl: The Krefeld architect Karl Buschhüter 1872-1956. In: Krefeld Architects. City archive Krefeld, Krefeld 1987, ISBN 3-9801610-0-5 .

Web links

Commons : Karl Buschhüter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

E-book in the DNB catalog: https://d-nb.info/1189795523/34

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Friederike Charlotte Hechler, Rolf-Bernd Hechler: Karl Buschhüter and Antoni Gaudi. Comparison of life and work. In: The home. Volume 88, 2017, ISBN 978-3-935526-31-9 , p. 135.
   (Additions and corrections to this) In: Die Heimat. Volume 89, 2018, ISBN 978-3-935526-35-7 , p. 293.
2. ↑ Winfried Mogge:  Oelbermann, Charles and Robert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 436 ( digitized version ).
3. ↑ Buschhüterhaus on krefeld.de, accessed on May 19, 2015.
4. ^ General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Rhein-Lahn-Kreis. Mainz 2020, p. 56 (PDF; 6.2 MB).
5. ^ Walfried Pohl: The Krefeld architect Karl Buschhüter 1872-1956. In: Krefeld Architects. Stadtarchiv Krefeld, Krefeld 1987, ISBN 3-9801610-0-5 , p. 150 ff. (Comprehensive representation of the object, photos and view drawings )