Ludwig Ruff

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Ludwig Ruff (born May 29, 1878 in Dollnstein ; † August 15, 1934 in Nuremberg ) was a German architect . Ruff began in the romanticizing garden city style , objectified his architectural language in the 1910s and, via a Gothic-Expressionist intermediate phase, came to a neoclassical reshaping of modern forms of architecture , which already led to the later state architecture of the Third Reich , for which Ludwig Ruff must be seen as a style-forming element. His work was largely continued without interruption by his son Franz Ruff .

War memorial in Treuchtlingen
Ottonianum in Bamberg
Toll hall in Nuremberg
Congress hall in Nuremberg

Life

Like his father, Ludwig Ruff, who was born in Dollnstein in Middle Franconia, took up the profession of building craftsman, which he also learned from him. At the age of 16 he went to Munich for further training. In 1903 Ruff got a job as an architect in the directorate administration of the 1st Bavarian Army Corps in Munich. Already at the age of 27, Ruff founded the architecture office “Wildanger und Ruff” in 1905, with which he went into business for himself with branches in Regensburg and Straubing.

Ruff came to Nuremberg in 1908 as part of a competition to plan a small apartment colony in the Gibitzenhof district . He received second prize for his design. The establishment of this settlement was u. a. the MAN company is also involved. It was through this point of contact that Ruff received his first orders from MAN and eventually developed into the house architect of this important company. As such, he was responsible for the company's entire public image, from the architecture to the design of the various company products. The advanced training school and library on Pillenreuther Strasse in Nuremberg and the Duisburg administration building from 1916 were among the most important structures for MAN.

The Werderau garden city development , which he planned for MAN from 1910 on, became his life's work, which he dedicated to the goal of improving the living conditions of MAN employees. For the MAN-Arbeiterring he also made draft plans without a fee.

In addition to large blocks of flats and villas, Ruff also planned small terraced houses and war memorials, mainly in the Franconian region . His work was not limited to architecture. Rather, his services also included the design of the interior and furniture.

From 1910, Ruff succeeded Konradin Walther as professor for architecture and furniture drawing at the Nuremberg School of Applied Arts (today's Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg ). He was also the founder of the Nuremberg Association of German Architects (BDA).

Ruff was considered to be a representative of a monumentalizing neo-baroque architectural style that increasingly refused to compromise in his work. Nevertheless, if necessary, he was also able to bring together apparently irreconcilable building attitudes, as the examples of the Ottonianum in Bamberg and the Phoebus Palace in Nuremberg show. For financial reasons, a design originally in neo-baroque forms had to be greatly simplified for the former, which Ruff successfully achieved by adopting forms of the new objectivity for the building envelope and a reduced interior design with neo-Romanesque echoes. The Phoebus Palace, which stands between tradition and modernity, also received recognition in architectural criticism.

Ruff has helped shape the Nuremberg cityscape with numerous buildings. Hitler met Ruff through the Frankish Gauleiter Julius Streicher and commissioned him to design a modern amphitheater in Nuremberg. Together with his son Franz Ruff , who also became an architect, he began the year before his death with the design of the congress hall ("Colosseum") on the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds , the largest preserved monumental building from the Third Reich. Ruff had already suggested the location at Dutzendteich for a Nuremberg town hall. When the draft plans were presented in June 1934, Hitler also agreed to the construction costs that went far beyond the originally estimated amount.

On August 15, 1934, Ludwig Ruff died unexpectedly of the consequences of an intestinal operation in Nuremberg. His son took over the continuation of the planning and execution of the congress hall until the construction was stopped in 1943.

Works (selection)

literature

  • Museums of the City of Nuremberg (Ed.): Fascination and Violence - The Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg , Nuremberg 1996
  • Heyden, Thomas: Ludwig Ruff (1878–1934): The Fuehrer's second master builder in architecture and building forms under National Socialism , Nuremberg 1995
  • Heyden, Thomas: Short biography of Ludwig Ruff. From the Werderau to the congress hall. In: Geschichte für alle eV (Ed.): Site inspection - The Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg , Nuremberg 1995, ISBN 3-930699-04-4
  • Dietzfelbinger, Eckart / Liedtke, Gerhard: Short biography of Ludwig Ruff (1878-1934). In: Nuremberg - Place of the Masses: The Nazi Party Rally Grounds - Prehistory and Difficult Legacy , Links, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86153-322-7 , p. 54
  • Ernst Klee : Ludwig Ruff. In: ders .: The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 .
  • Helmut Beer: Building in Nuremberg 1933–1945, architecture and forms of construction under National Socialism. An exhibition of the Nuremberg City Archives. Tümmels, Nuremberg 1995, ISBN 3-921590-38-8 .
  • Technical University of Munich (Winfried Nerdinger, ed.): Building under National Socialism - Bavaria 1933–1945 , Munich 1993

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Thomas Heyden: Ludwig Ruff (1878–1934): The leader's second builder
personal data
SURNAME Ruff, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Dollnstein
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1934
Place of death Nuremberg