Karl Ehmann (master builder)

Karl Ehmann (born August 28, 1777 in Stein an der Donau , † September 29, 1829 in Vienna ) was an Austrian royal Esterházy court architect and city architect .

Life

Karl Ehmann comes from a family of builders. His father Johann Michael Ehmann was a builder and two of his brothers practiced this profession. He began his professional training in 1791 with his father, continued it from 1814 with Josef Reymund and was admitted to the practical examination in 1815. In 1817 he was accepted into the builders' guild .

During his apprenticeship, he was given the construction management for the reconstruction of Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt based on plans by the architect Charles de Moreau . Around 1805 Ehmann stayed for some time in Eisenstadt for this purpose and then lived, at the latest after being accepted into the master builder guild, in Vienna, where he worked as a successful master builder in part with his nephew Franz .

From his marriage to Therese (* 1787) came the two sons Karl (* 1805) and Wilhelm (* 1807), who died young. The marriage was divorced after 1824 and Ehmann entered into a civil partnership with Amalie Ottilie Bisenius (* approx. 1800-1840), from whom the two children Albert Bisenius and Wilhelmine (married Wurzinger) came.

As Ehmann at the age of 52 years of wasting died he left a considerable fortune. Its remarkable library is said to have contained not only many works on architecture, but also works by classics.

After Ehmann's death, his nephew Franz continued the successful company.

meaning

House "Bei der Schmidtn"

Facade design by Ehmann

With his Biedermeier houses, Ehmann represents the transition from baroque to classicism . The buildings have smooth plastered facades over grooved plinth floors and the floors above are often separated by cornices . In the basement, and more rarely in the upper floors, there are arched windows , the rectangular windows have straight roofs .

Karl Ehmann was a flexible master builder who was able to do justice to the various construction tasks from simple Biedermeier houses to representative rental houses to monumental apartment buildings. His four-story apartment building complex "To the 3 Tauben", which was intended for the lower and middle-class population, is one of the earliest pre-March apartment buildings. With its two generously laid out inner courtyards, Ehmann anticipated criteria of the municipal housing architecture of the interwar period in the overall design . About 20 years later, his nephew Franz added another apartment building on the neighboring property.

In the case of the “Zum Blaue Karpfen” residential building, which Ehmann redesigned and added a storey to, he shows his preference for three- dimensional decor with an amourette frieze and the house sign above it between pilaster-framed windows.

Some of his preserved buildings are listed as historical monuments .

Works

• 1817: Rental house complex " To the 3 Tauben ", Vienna 3, Moroccanergasse 3 / Ötzeltgasse 5 / Traungasse 8
• 1818: Rental house "Zum Wollbaum", Vienna 6, Gumpendorfer Straße 57 (originally with a through-house to Luftbadgasse 12)
• 1819: "Haarhof" rental house, Vienna 1, Naglergasse 9 / Haarhof 1 (additional plan Josef Reymund?)
• 1821: Palais Sternberg , Vienna 3, Ungargasse 43 (incorporation of a previous building; 1900 redesign by Ludwig Richter)
• 1824: " Zum Blaue Karpfen " house, Vienna 1, Annagasse 14 (building from 1438; new facade, one storey added)
• 1827: Rental house, Vienna 7, Neustiftgasse 108 (house owner, demolished in 2002)
• 1827: Rental house, Vienna 6, Luftbadgasse 12 (originally with a through-house to Gumpendorfer Straße 57)
• 1828: Rental house “ Bei der Schmidtn ”, Vienna 8, Auerspergstraße 13 / Josefsgasse 2

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Ehmann (master builder). In: Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien . Vienna 2007. accessed on September 9, 2014