Manfred Gerner

Manfred Gerner (born March 12, 1939 in Haan ) is a German architect and monument conservator . He is considered an international expert for half-timbered buildings .

Life

Gerner was born the son of a master carpenter and first learned the carpentry trade before studying architecture from 1959 to 1963. After completing his studies as a graduate engineer for structural engineering, he worked in the structural engineering department of the city of Frankfurt am Main . By 1972 he built numerous day-care centers and schools. In addition, was involved in the restoration of historical buildings, including the Imperial Cathedral of St. Bartholomew . In 1975 Gerner became a research assistant in the Department of Monument Preservation in Frankfurt am Main. Until 1980 he devoted himself extensively to half-timbered construction.

From 1981 to 2000 Gerner was head of the German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation - Propstei Johannesberg (ZHD) in Fulda , which developed into a competence center for training restorers in the craft sector , but filed for bankruptcy in 2001 . In 1983 he was sworn in as an expert for half-timbered restoration. As early as 1980, Gerner was also internationally active as a guest lecturer at universities, taking on teaching assignments and seminars. From 1991 he was a lecturer for building renovation technology at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt and taught from 1997 to his retirement in 2009 as a professor for building renovation technology at the Institute for Constructive Design at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, the postgraduate course "building renovation and restoration". After 2000 Gerner worked as the head of the advice center for handicrafts and monument preservation in Fulda and has been running his own consultancy office since 2004, which deals with half-timbered buildings. Until 2013, Gerner was managing director of the Working Group on Historic Half-timbered Towns (ARGE); has been the president of the ARGE since 2013. As part of his work at the ARGE, he was the initiator of projects such as Fachwerk macht Schule and the Fachwerk Triennale .

From 1962 on, Gerner undertook numerous trips and expeditions to Tibet , Nepal and, above all, Bhutan , where he carried out comparative architectural studies. He is “one of the best connoisseurs of traditional architecture and craftsmanship not only in Bhutan, but in the entire Himalayan region”. In 2003 he was elected President of the German Bhutan-Himalaya Society.

power

Half-timbered house Schellgasse 8

Gerner is considered "one of the most distinguished half-timbered specialists in Germany". Gerner, also known as the “half-timbered pope”, uncovered or renovated more than 250  half-timbered buildings . He also succeeded in “the spectacular proof of the Gothic half-timbered house” on Schellgasse 8 in Frankfurt am Main, which is considered one of the oldest half-timbered houses in Germany. One focus of his work was the half-timbered houses in the border triangle of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, which he brought to the attention of the preservation of monuments and made known through restoration measures. Together with state curator Gottfried Kiesow , Gerner significantly shaped "the development of monument preservation and further training for craftsmen in what was then the Federal Republic". As a monument conservator, Gerner successfully campaigned for the preservation of the Königsberg Cathedral, among other things .

Gerner is the author of numerous publications on half-timbered and half-timbered research, timber construction and monument preservation. His standard work Fachwerk , published in 1979 . Development, Structure, Repair was published in the 8th edition in 1998. He has also written several books on architecture in Europe and especially Asia. His 2003 book Forms, Jewelry and Symbolism in Half -Timbered Buildings caused controversy , in which he “[adopted] folk-ideological interpretations of striving figures on modern half-timbered buildings as 'runes', as they were most recently by Nazi researchers such as Karl Theodor Weigel in the 1930s. ”Gerner was publicly criticized by the art historian G. Ulrich Großmann . The publisher took the book off the market in 2004.

Awards

For his half-timbered research and the establishment of the German Center for Handicrafts and Monument Preservation (ZHD), Gerner was awarded the German Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984. In 1993 he received the Hessian Monument Preservation Prize and was appointed a member of the Hessian Academy of Research and Planning in Rural Areas the following year. In 1996 Gerner received the Kant diploma from the University and Kant Society of Kaliningrad / Russia. In 1997 he was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2011, Bhutan launched a postage stamp that shows Manfred Gerner in addition to the Duderstadt town hall . A postage stamp followed in 2014 with the motif of the wheelwright's house in Zgorzelec and Manfred Gerner.

Works

• Repairing and maintaining historic houses: individual living and monument protection. Bauverlag, Wiesbaden 1978, ISBN 3-7625-0812-7 . New edition: Preserving and repairing historic houses. Augustusverlag, Augsburg 1990, ISBN 3-8043-2490-8 .
• Truss. Development, structure, repair. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-421-02475-8 . (8th edition 1998)
• Bhutan: Culture and Religion in the Land of the Dragon Kings. Verlag Indoculture, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-921948-05-3 .
• Half-timbered sins. German National Committee for Monument Protection, office at the Federal Minister of the Interior, Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-922153-03-8 .
• Architectures in the Himalayas. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-421-02587-8 .
• Handcrafted wood connections by the carpenters. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-421-03027-8 .
• Surrounding sins with Adrian Hehl. Fulda: German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation, Osnabrück: German Federal Environment Foundation, 1994, DNB 942480805 .
• Surrounding structures in the border triangle of Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany as well as in Russia, Tibet and China: a contribution to the history of the creation of surrounding structures from a technical point of view. German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation, Fulda 1995, ISBN 3-931991-06-7 .
• Joinery signs: Carpenters signs and building research. German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation, Fulda 1996, ISBN 3-931991-09-1 .
• Handicraft and monument preservation in Hessen with Karin Grösch and Gerwin Stein. German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation, Propstei Johannesberg, Fulda 1996, ISBN 3-931991-06-7 .
• Fachwerklexikon: Handbook for half-timbered and wooden structures. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-421-03146-0 .
• Werner von Ursel: Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and Chronicle of Niederursel. German Center for Crafts and Monument Preservation, Propstei Johannesberg, Fulda 1998, ISBN 3-931991-20-2 .
• Cemetery culture. Hohenheim-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-89850-051-9 .
• Shapes, jewelry and symbolism in half-timbered buildings. Fraunhofer-IRB-Verl., Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8167-6354-5 .
• Framework: development, repair, new construction. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-421-03575-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Manfred Gerner in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography of Manfred Gerner on randomhouse.de
2. ↑ Gabriele Angelstein: Made an impression with the red building. Germany Prize from Europa Nostra . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , April 18, 1997, p. 28.
3. ↑ Martin Angelstein: Built-on sprayer for the ailing framework. Center for Handicrafts and Monument Preservation is looking for money to secure its livelihood . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , September 5, 2001, p. 35.
4. ↑ Continuing education . In: Basler Zeitung , February 13, 1999, p. 12.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Farewell to the new office ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . journal.fachwerkagentur.de, May 23, 2014.
6. ^ Ostheimer Fachwerk viewed critically . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse , April 12, 2003, p. 21.
7. ↑ Through six federal states - 25 years of the German Half-timbered Road . Oberhessische Zeitung , January 12, 2015.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Manfred Gerner - short biography on fachwerk-arge.de.
9. ↑ Lecture on Alsfeld town hall . In: Oberhessische Zeitung , April 28, 2012.
10. ^ Profile of Manfred Gerner on bhutan-gesellschaft.de
11. ↑ Dragon skin protects against lightning. Half-timbered expert praises the old town . In: Nassauische Neue Presse , February 24, 2007, p. 3.
12. ^ Andreas Klöppel: Half-timbered symbolism interpreted ideologically . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , May 25, 2010, p. 21.
13. ↑ Quarrel about the entablature . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 2004, p. 169 ( Online - Mar. 1, 2004 ).
14. ↑ Erik Westermann: Half-timbered greetings from the roof of the world . goettinger-tageblatt.de, January 21, 2011.
15. ^ Zgorzelec wheelwright's house adorns postage stamps in the Himalayas . In: Sächsische Zeitung , March 4, 2014, p. 18.