Konrad Hecht

Konrad Josef Hecht (born August 12, 1918 in Konstanz , † May 25, 1980 ibid) was a German building researcher and architectural historian.

Life

Konrad Hecht grew up as the fourth of seven children of the teacher and monument conservator Josef Hecht and his wife Luise, née. Scheech in Constance. After attending elementary school in the Petershausen district of Constance , he attended the Konstanz grammar school, where he graduated from high school at Easter 1937. This was followed by the commitment to the Reich Labor Service , in which Hecht suffered a serious accident that resulted in a six-month hospital stay. After five more months of convalescence, he was dismissed as unfit for service. From the winter semester 1938/39 he studied architecture at the Technical University of Stuttgart , where he obtained his diploma in February 1943. Afterwards he was Harald Hanson's assistant at the chair for building history and building survey at the TH Stuttgart. From the summer semester of 1944 onwards, he also represented statics I in lectures and exercises. At the same time he was working on his dissertation on the perspective meander . After receiving his doctorate at the TH Stuttgart in 1946 and his habilitation in 1948, he taught as a private lecturer at the TH Stuttgart until 1956 .

In 1956 he was appointed to the chair for architectural and art history at the Technical University of Braunschweig as the successor to Herman Flesche , where he became one of the leading figures of the Braunschweig school . Since 1961 he was a full member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society . In 1966 he gave up the subject of art history and from then on he was able to devote himself entirely to his research, especially on the subject of “measure and number”, but remained in close contact with the newly founded chair for art history, especially its owner Martin Gosebruch . In 1970 he got into ideological disputes in the course of the student revolt of the 1968 movement , which accompanied him until his death. As a result of continued disruptions, his teaching activities even came to a temporary standstill in 1973. Hecht died before reaching the age limit of complications from stomach cancer .

plant

Konrad Hecht worked in an interdisciplinary fields of art history - where he has been dealing with the Romanesque painting in the Lake Constance region - how in the field of building research that his work in the Basilica of St. Vitus (Ellwangen) and to the Roman aqueducts in Pergamon occupied is. However, he was particularly interested in examining the scale of building plans. Hecht proved that construction cracks are always based on foot or cubit dimensions, which - shown on a certain scale - can easily be transferred during construction on the construction site. He developed his own method for converting these feet or cubits into the modern metric unit system. He referred the geometric systems of measurement that have often been adopted in literature since the late 19th century, in particular the triangulature as a supposedly historical method for determining proportions, into the realm of legend and demonstrated, using various triangulation experiments on the Freiburg Minster Tower, that the different triangulation approaches are imprecise Representations of the tower are based, the dimensions of which sometimes differ considerably from the dimensions determined in the exact building surveys. He also dealt intensively with the St. Gallen monastery plan from the 9th century.

Artist's impression

There is a bronze portrait bust of Konrad Hecht by the sculptor Karl-Henning Seemann from 1964.

Fonts

• The so-called perspective meander. Occurrence, origin and essence of a tectonic ornament of the Romanesque. Dissertation. TH Stuttgart, 1946, DNB 481771867 .
• The crypt and the altar house of the collegiate church in Ellwangen in the light of a new construction study. In: Ellwangen 764 - 1964, articles and studies on the twelve hundredth anniversary. Ellwangen 1964, pp. 623-702.
• Leo von Klenze, catalog of the exhibition of the Walter Elbel Collection, Schladen / Harz, from January 27 to March 1, 1964 in the Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig. Braunschweig 1964.
• Measure and number in Gothic architecture. 3 parts. In: Treatises of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft. Volumes 21, 22 and 23 (1969-71) ( 1 , 2 , 3 , Digital Library Braunschweig); (Reprinted in one volume: Hildesheim 1979, ISBN 3-487-06753-6 )
• The Sylvester Chapel in Goldbach, a key building for measure and number in the architecture of the early Middle Ages. In: Treatises of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft. Volume 28, 1974, pp. 137-186.
• The Rottweiler Dominican Church in the Gothic style. (= Small writings of the Rottweil City Archives. Volume 3). Rottweil 1974.
• Vorsfelde and Fallersleben. On the question of the preservation and care of two old small towns in the area of ​​today's Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg 1975
• Two aqueducts of the Kaikos line. In: Günther Garbrecht (ed.): Water management systems of ancient Pergamon. (= Communications / Leichtweiß Institute for Hydraulic Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig, 44, 45). Braunschweig 1976.
• The proportions and dimensions of the Capella Pazzi. In: architectura. Journal of the History of Architecture. 1976, p. 148 ff.
• To the Roman foot. In: Treatises of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft. - Brunswick. Volume 30, 1979, pp. 107-137.
• with Josef Hecht: The early medieval wall painting of the Lake Constance area. Sigmaringen 1979, ISBN 3-7995-7008-X .
• Water management systems of ancient Pergamon. The aqueducts of the Madradag Canal Line and aqueducts XLII and XLIII of the Ak-su Line. (= Communications / Leichtweiss Institute for Hydraulic Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig, 78). Braunschweig 1983.
• On the building history of the St. Lorenz Collegiate Church in Kempten. In: Yearbook of the Association for Augsburg Diocesan History 17, 1983, pp. 43–91.
• The St. Gallen monastery plan. Sigmaringen 1983, ISBN 3-7995-7018-7 .

literature

• Martin Gosebruch: Konrad Hecht * August 12, 1918 † May 25, 1980. Obituary of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft, presented in the plenary assembly on April 10, 1981 (= Treatises of the Braunschweigische Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Volume 32, 1981)
• Hans Reuther : Obituary for Konrad Hecht. In: The Minster. 33rd year, 1980, p. 279.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honor of the deity Der Spiegel from November 19, 1973
2. ↑ shown at https://www.khseemann.de/project/portraet-konrad-hecht/