Karl Weissbach

Memorial for Karl Weißbach on the Old Annenfriedhof in Dresden.

Johann Karl Robert Weißbach (born April 8, 1841 in Dresden ; † July 8, 1905 there ) was a German architect and university professor .

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Russian Orthodox Church in Dresden

After attending secondary school, Karl Weißbach completed an apprenticeship in the building trade and at the same time attended the building trade school . After that he first worked in the studio of the Dresden court architect Krüger. This was followed by studies at the Dresden Art Academy with Hermann Nicolai . In 1863 he was honored with an academic travel grant, which he used for a trip to Italy, on which - in keeping with the taste of the time - he primarily studied the buildings of the Italian Renaissance . Thanks to his collaboration on the publication “The Buildings of the Renaissance in Tuscany” published by Adolf Gnauth and Heinrich von Förster , he was able to extend his stay in Italy.

Not until 1866 did he return to Dresden and work as a site manager (site manager) for his teacher Hermann Nicolai. B. in the construction of the highly regarded Villa Meyer in Dresden (1867/1868). Finally, in 1869 (?) Weißbach himself became a professor at the art academy; However, he gave up this position and the prestige associated with it when the Saxon Ministry of Culture prescribed a curriculum after a few years at the academy with which he did not agree. In 1875 he then worked as a teacher at the structural engineering department of the Royal Polytechnic in Dresden, from which the Technical University of Dresden later emerged.

In addition to his varied teaching activities and some official construction tasks, he also worked independently, for example between 1884 and 1891 in collaboration with the architect Karl Barth , a former student. In Weissbach's “private” studio, some architects who later became famous worked for a time. B. Georg Weidenbach (1853–1928), Rudolf Schilling (1859–1933) and Kurt Diestel (1862–1946). One of his students was Oswin Hempel , another in 1905 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner .

Weißbach's grave in the Old Annenfriedhof was destroyed in 1945. His is commemorated in the cemetery in the memorial for professors of the TU Dresden.

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Buildings (selection)

Ev.-Luth. Friedenskirche in Altkötzschenbroda

• 1872–1873: 3rd district school (today: “Schule am Floßplatz”) in Leipzig , Südvorstadt, Hohe Straße 45 and the neighboring Petrischule , Paul-Gruner-Straße 50, which was built at the same time
• 1872–1874: “Church of Saint Simeon from the wonderful mountains” for the Russian Orthodox community in Dresden, Südvorstadt, Fritz-Löffler-Straße 19
• 1877–1883: National monument on the Niederwald near Rüdesheim (together with the Dresden sculptor Johannes Schilling )
• 1884/1885: Reconstruction of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peace in Kötzschenbroda
• 1900–1905: various new buildings at the Dresden University of Technology, Südvorstadt, George-Bähr-Strasse, Helmholtzstrasse
  • Main building, so-called "Kollegienhaus"
  • Electrotechnical Institute, Görges-Bau
  • Electricity and heating plant
  • Mechanical-technical research institute
  • Machine laboratories with boiler house and sewer building (= hydraulic engineering laboratory?)

Fonts

Karl Weißbach is also known as the editor and co-author of various specialist books and periodicals , such as B .:

• Karl Weißbach, Walter Mackowsky (ed.): The workers' house. Layout, interior furnishings and artistic design. Workers' colonies and garden cities. [Handbuch der Architektur.] Berlin: Wasmuth, 1910 (2nd edition).
• Part 4 of the series Handbook of Architecture : Design, layout and furnishing of buildings - residential houses , Stuttgart: Bergsträsser, 1902.

Honors

• When the Moltkviertel in Essen was laid out in 1908, a street was named after him.
• A street was named after him in the southern suburb of Dresden .

literature

• RK: Karl Weißbach †. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , 39th year 1905, pp. 355–358.
• Volker Helas : Architecture in Dresden 1800–1900. 3rd edition, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1991, ISBN 3-364-00261-4 , p. 200 (and more often).

Web links

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

• Literature by and about Karl Weißbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Electrotechnical Institute of the TU Dresden