Karl Lieser

Karl Emil Lieser (born December 2, 1901 in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg ; † March 18, 1990 in Darmstadt ) was a German architect , university professor and National Socialist university politician.

Life

Karl Emil Lieser was the son of the carpenter and architect Wilhelm Lieser (1874–1918) in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg. In 1921 he became a member of the German National Youth Association . From 1921 to 1926 he studied architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt . Since 1922 he was a member of the Markomannia fraternity in Darmstadt . In 1926 he passed the main diploma examination, on March 20, 1929 he was promoted to Dr.-Ing. doctorate , the habilitation on an urban planning topic followed in 1930. He then taught as a private lecturer in urban planning. After 1926 Karl Lieser was assistant to Professor Karl Roth, among others .

Lieser was married to the teacher Charlotte Elsa Kressner (born April 5, 1902 in Bautzen ) since March 23, 1929 . The marriage resulted in two children (* 1933 and * 1940). Karl Lieser joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 and had been a member of the SA since June 1933 . He was instrumental in founding the first grouping of the NSDDB at the Technical University of Darmstadt and was its first leader. He was also a member of the "National Socialist Working Group" at the TH Darmstadt.

After the early death of his teacher Karl Roth, Lieser represented his professorship for architecture in Darmstadt from the summer semester of 1932 and hoped for his successor. However, the architecture department chose Karl Gruber . With the support of the National Socialist students in the architecture department and the NS student union , Lieser tried to prevent Karl Gruber from being appointed on April 1, 1933. It came to chaotic conditions ("Lieser affair") when it became known that Lieser, together with the student Friedrich Fraikin, had written a memorandum for the Gauleitung of the NSDAP about the teaching staff of the architecture department, which contained very sharp political and personal assessments of his colleagues . In this memorandum, in addition to Karl Gruber et al. a. the architecture professors Paul Meissner , Josef Plenk , Ludwig Wagner-Speyer , Augusto Varnesi and Paul Hartmann attacked. The university senate of the Technical University of Darmstadt then revoked Lieser's license to teach, applied for his dismissal and closed the university.

However, Lieser was able to rely on the support of Gauleiter Jakob Sprenger and the Nazi student union, which temporarily occupied the university. The Senate of the Technical University of Darmstadt was finally forced to reverse the measures taken against Lieser. In 1934 he was appointed associate professor for urban planning, as well as the leader of the lectureship and, in March, the university's chancellor . From 1935 to 1937 he was a full professor of urban planning and also vice rector . From 1935 to 1938 he worked as a monument conservationist for the province of Upper Hesse .

From 1936 he was the state director of Hessen-Nassau of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts . In this function, Lieser was responsible for removing so-called " degenerate art " from the region's museums. There is evidence of Lieser's involvement in the removal of 60 paintings and framed graphics as well as two sculptures from the art collection of the Nassauisches Landesmuseum Wiesbaden in August 1937, which has been headed by Hermann Voss since 1935 .

From 1937 to 1944 Lieser was rector of the university. With the support of Gauleiter Sprenger, he strongly advanced the structural development of the university during this time. After the severe damage to the university buildings as a result of the devastating air raid on the night of September 11th to 12th, 1944, Lieser spontaneously resigned from the rector's office.

Lieser was dismissed from civil service on September 7, 1945 with effect from April 1, 1945 for “political reasons”. At this point it was already agreed that Ernst Neufert should take over this chair. After several negotiations in October 1948, the Darmstadt Chamber of Arbitration classified him as a “fellow traveler”.

After the Second World War, Lieser worked as a freelance architect in Darmstadt, particularly for breweries, beverage manufacturers and restaurants. His best-known work is the Henninger Tower , built between 1959 and 1961 in Frankfurt am Main .

Buildings and designs

Henninger Tower in Frankfurt am Main

• 1929: New town hall in Ober-Ramstadt
• Medical center in Frankfurt am Main
• School in Rüsselsheim
• 1938–1939: New building of the Institute for Cellulose Chemistry (four-year plan institute) of the Technical University of Darmstadt, Alexanderstraße 10
• 1938–1942: New building of the Eduard Zintl Institute of the Technical University of Darmstadt, Hochschulstrasse 10 (today: Piloty building).
• 1959–1961: Henninger Tower in Frankfurt am Main-Sachsenhausen
  The tower shaft served as a grain silo, while the tower head, reminiscent of contemporary television towers, contained an observation restaurant. The tower, which is around 120 m high, was the tallest building in the city until 1974, and was demolished in 2013.

literature

• Noyan Dinckal, Detlev Mares (ed.): Self- mobilization of science. Technical universities in the "Third Reich". Scientific Book Society , Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-23285-7 .
• Werner Durth , Niels Gutschow : Dreams in ruins. Urban planning 1940–1950. dtv, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-04604-X (= dtv 4604, dtv science ).
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 8: Supplement L – Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6051-1 , pp. 28-29.
• Michael Grüttner : Biographical lexicon on National Socialist science policy. (= Studies on the History of Science and University , Volume 6.) Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 109.
• Max Guther : The architecture professors at THD from 1841 to 1945 and their plans for the university and city of Darmstadt. In: Yearbook of the Technical University of Darmstadt 1980 , pp. 107–143.
• Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism . (Ed. by the Carlo & Karin Giersch Foundation ) Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-534-26640-1 . (= Dissertation , Technical University Darmstadt 2013)
• Kathrin Iselt: “The Führer’s Special Representative”. The art historian and museum man Hermann Voss (1884–1969). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20572-0 . (= Studies on Art , Volume 20.) (= Dissertation, Technische Universität Dresden 2009)
• Friedrich List: The German lecturers at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In: One Hundred Years of Technical University Darmstadt. A picture of their becoming and working. Darmstadt 1936, p. 213 f.
• Christa Wolf, Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt. Short biographies 1836–1945. Verlag des Historischen Verein für Hessen, Darmstadt 1977, p. 124. ( OCLC 611985164 )
• Isabel Schmidt: After National Socialism. The TH Darmstadt between politics of the past and future management (1945–1960) . (Ed. by the Giersch Foundation ) Scientific Book Association, Darmstadt 2015, ISBN 978-3-534-26748-4 . (= Dissertation, Technical University Darmstadt 2014)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Michael Grüttner : Students in the Third Reich. Paderborn 1995, p. 71 f.