Otto Bridler

Colonel Bridler, Commandant of Mountain Brigade 18 (1914-1918)

Otto Bridler (born May 9, 1864 in Altnau ; † May 14, 1938 in Winterthur ) was a Swiss architect and Corps Commander . From his work, the stately homes for Winterthur factory owner families stand out in particular.

Live and act

Otto Bridler, who comes from Thurgau, attended the canton school in Frauenfeld, followed by a year of practical construction work in Basel before studying architecture in Stuttgart , Berlin and Munich . During his stay in Stuttgart in 1884 he joined the Alemannia Stuttgart fraternity . In Munich he then worked for Gabriel von Seidl .

After his return to Switzerland, he and Ernst Georg Jung became partners in the Jung und Bridler office in 1888 , which after his retirement in 1907 was renamed Bridler und Völki together with Lebrecht Völki . During his partnership, his office built historically important industrial villas in Winterthur, probably also through his marriage in 1891 to Hedwig Sträuli from the soap manufacturer dynasty, as well as some larger public buildings, such as the station building or the sanatorium in Wald.

The design part of Bridler in this office cannot be fully clarified, also because he began a military career from 1886, which occupied him from the beginning of the First World War . From 1917 he therefore left the management of the office entirely to his partner, who from around 1920 only operated it under his own name. From 1917 to 1924 he led the 6th Division as a colonel division and then until 1931 as a high corps commander of the 2nd Army Corps . From 1931 to 1938 he taught military geography at the ETH Zurich . In 1932 he took part in the Geneva Disarmament Conference as a Swiss delegate .

Works (selection)

With Ernst Georg Jung

• Villa Rychenberg , Winterthur, 1887–1888
• Wart Castle , Neftenbach, 1889–1891
• Winterthur main station , renovation and new construction, 1894–1895
• Villa Kjelsberg, new building, 1898
• Cantonal sanatorium , Wald ZH, 1899–1901
• Masonic Lodge Akazia , Winterthur, 1903–1904
• Administration building Gebrüder Volkart , Winterthur, 1903–1905

With Lebrecht Völki

Villa Sträuli in Winterthur

• Villa Obere Halden , Winterthur, 1907
• Villa Sträuli , Winterthur, 1908
• Villa Blumenhalde , Winterthur, 1909
• Villa Selvana , Winterthur, 1909
• Crematorium Friedhof Rosenberg , Winterthur, 1909–1910
• Heiligberg school building , Winterthur, 1909–1912
• City parish hall , Liebestrasse Winterthur, 1912–1913
• Museum of History and Ethnology , St. Gallen, 1913–1920
• Winterthur printing works , Winterthur, 1915
• Switzerland. Bankgesellschaft , Rapperswil, 1915–1920
• Villa Oberes Alpgut , Winterthur, 1916–1920

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , p. 91.
• Franziska Kaiser: Bridler, Otto. In: Isabelle Rucki, Dorothee Huber (Hrsg.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 92 f.

Web links

• Christoph Zürcher: Bridler, Otto. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Bridler Otto, Architect, 1864–1938 in the Winterthur Glossary.
• Publications by and about Otto Bridler in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library

supporting documents

1. ↑ Willy Nolte : Fraternity members regular role. Berlin 1934, p. 57.
2. ↑ Christoph Zürcher: Bridler, Otto. In: Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz , accessed on May 5, 2013 .
3. ↑ The works are listed in the architectural dictionary in: Regula Michel: Jung, Ernst Georg. In: Isabelle Rucki, Dorothee Huber (Hrsg.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 302 f.
4. ↑ The works are listed in the architectural dictionary in: Franziska Kaiser: Völki, Lebrecht. In: Isabelle Rucki, Dorothee Huber (Hrsg.): Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland - 19./20. Century. Birkhäuser, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7643-5261-2 . P. 554.