Martin Elsaesser

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Representation of Martin Elsaesser by Lino Salini

Martin Elsaesser (born May 28, 1884 in Tübingen , † August 5, 1957 in Stuttgart ) was a German architect and university professor , who was particularly known for a large number of church buildings.

Life

Elsaesser was born in 1884 as the son of a Protestant theologian . As a high school graduate, he was allowed to give a lecture on the Bebenhausen monastery complex at the closing ceremony of the Tübingen grammar school in 1902. From 1901 to 1906 Elsaesser studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich under Friedrich von Thiersch and at the Technical University of Stuttgart under Theodor Fischer . In 1905 he won the competition for the Evangelical Luther Church in Baden-Baden-Lichtental and began his freelance work. From 1906 to 1908 he was assistant to Theodor Fischer in Munich and from 1911 to 1913 to Paul Bonatz in Stuttgart . From 1912 to 1920 he was an associate professor for design, medieval architecture and structural theory at the Technical University of Stuttgart. He was also President of the Association of German Architects BDA from 1919 to 1920 .

From 1920 to 1925 he was the head director of the Kunstgewerbeschule in Cologne , which later became the Cologne Werkschulen . In 1925 he was appointed head of the building construction department in Frankfurt am Main by the new Frankfurt City Planning Officer Ernst May and worked on the New Frankfurt project . He stayed there until 1932. (Contemporary bon mot: May makes everything new - everything better Elsaesser. )

From 1933 to 1937 he worked as a freelance architect in Munich, and from 1937 to 1945 in Berlin . In National Socialist Germany he did not receive any more orders, but still carried out a few projects in Turkey from Munich . Nevertheless, he could not make up his mind to emigrate and spent the years of the Second World War in " inner emigration " with study trips and utopian designs.

After the war he first returned to Stuttgart and then taught from 1948 to 1955 as a temporary substitute for a full professorship for design at the Technical University of Munich . Due to his age, the Bavarian Ministry of Finance spoke out against Elsaesser's appointment to a full professorship. It was only after a long struggle with the Bavarian state that Elsaesser succeeded in acquiring at least the right to a minimum pension for his teaching activities.

In many of the churches he built, church paintings by the artist Käte Schaller-Härlin were created .

Martin Elsaesser Foundation

On March 30, 2009, Elsaesser's grandson Regine Elsässer and Thomas Elsaesser and his great-nephew Konrad Elsässer founded the Martin Elsaesser Foundation , which took part in an exhibition about his work organized by the German Architecture Museum in November 2009. The aim of this foundation, which is dedicated to the life and work of Martin Elsaesser, is to make his work and ideas accessible to the public in an appropriate form. According to the foundation, it wants to “make a sustainable contribution to research into socially responsible architecture. In addition, she advocates a history-conscious approach to architecture that is connected to the environment . ”The three founders form the foundation's board of directors.

Buildings (selection)

  • Evangelical town church in Gaisburg , 1910–1913

  • Interior view of the Evangelical St. George Church in Massenbach, 1912–1913

  • Markthalle Stuttgart, 1912–1913

  • Town hall in Ebingen , 1912–1913

  • Interior view of the Evangelical Lorenz Church in Leingarten, 1913

  • Pestalozzi School in Frankfurt-Seckbach, 1925–1926

  • Model of the Villa Elsaesser in Frankfurt am Main, 1925–1926

  • Villa Elsaesser in Frankfurt am Main, 1925–1926 in 2010

  • Fechenheim indoor garden pool in Frankfurt-Fechenheim

  • Großmarkthalle Frankfurt am Main before the partial demolition for the new building of the European Central Bank (ECB), 1927–1928

  • Interior view towards the west of the Großmarkthalle Frankfurt

  • Extension of the Society House of the Palmengarten Frankfurt am Main, 1929.

Martin Elsaesser's house was created according to his own design in a preferred location on the edge of the Höhenblick development in Frankfurt-Ginnheim at Höhenblick 37. In the language of the architecture, it is deliberately set apart from the housing development. It is a cubic , flat-roofed clinker building with pylon-like reinforced corners. It is surrounded by a spacious garden designed by Leberecht Migge .
  • 1925–1926: Pestalozzi School with gym and swimming pool in Frankfurt am Main- Seckbach
  • 1926: Partial new building of the Protestant Laurentius Church in Stuttgart-Rohr (replaced by a new building in 1980)

As part of the "New Frankfurt" project

To Frankfurt / late work

Fonts

  • The modern country house. In: Das Schöne Heim , 1st year (1930), pp. 129–136.
  • Buildings and designs from the years 1924–1932. Berlin 1933.

literature

  • Oswald Hederer:  Elsässer, Martin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 462 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Elisabeth Maier : Fruitful Polarity. Martin Elsaesser on the hundredth birthday. In: The Architect , No. 3/1985, pp. 124–127.
  • Elisabeth Spitzbart-Maier: The south church in Esslingen by Martin Elsaesser. In: Esslinger Studies , Volume 29/1990, pp. 281-305.
  • Katharina Blohm, Winfried Nerdinger : Architecture School Munich 1868–1993. Munich 1993.
  • Rainer Meyer: Martin Elsaesser from 1925–1932. On the work of an avant-garde architectural artist. Dissertation, University of Bremen, 1988.
  • Elisabeth Spitzbart-Maier: The church buildings of Martin Elsaesser and their requirements in Protestant church building theory and liturgy discussion. Dissertation, University of Stuttgart, 1989.
  • Rainer Meyer: Traditionality and Modernity. On the topicality of Martin Elsaesser's oeuvre. In: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, Issue 10/1998, pp. 18–21.
  • Bernd Nicolai: Modernity and Exile. German speaking architects in Turkey. Berlin 1998.
  • Susan R. Henderson: Ernst May and the New Frankfurt, 1926–1931. Peter Lang, 2013.
  • Elisabeth Spitzbart, Jörg Schilling: Martin Elsaesser, church buildings, parish and parish houses. Tübingen, Berlin 2014.

Web links

Commons : Martin Elsaesser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.martin-elsaesser-stiftung.de/
  2. ↑ Martin Elsaesser and the New Frankfurt , article on the website of the German Architecture Museum
  3. ↑ Article in the FAZ from May 5, 2008.
  4. ↑ a b http://www.martin-elsaesser-stiftung.de/stiftung.html
  5. ^ Neckar bridge in Tübingen
  6. ^ "Buildings by Elsaesser in Frankfurt" City Planning Office Frankfurt, page 11
  7. ↑ Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , Vol. 80, 1930, pp. 144–145 ( digitized version of the Central and State Library Berlin ).
  8. ↑ http://www.derwesten.de/ehrenmal-in-weidenau-img1-id11366778.html
personal data
SURNAME Elsaesser, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alsatian, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Tübingen
DATE OF DEATH 5th August 1957
Place of death Stuttgart