Otto Czekelius

Otto Czekelius (born August 21, 1895 in Sibiu ; † March 21, 1974 there ) was a Romanian architect and civil engineer from the German-speaking minority of the Transylvanian Saxons .

Life

Czekelius was born the son of the doctor Hermann Karl Daniel Czekelius, city ​​physicist and director of the Citizens' Hospital in Sibiu, and Wilhelmine geb. Rosenthal. His grandfather, the qualified engineer Daniel Johann Czekelius, was the head of the Transylvanian regional building department.

Youth and Studies

After graduating from high school, he was drafted into military service and fought for four years as a first lieutenant in the First World War . During this time he made more than 200 subtle drawings of various landscapes, settlements and monuments, including in Dalmatia , Galicia , Carpathian Ukraine and Upper Hungary . In 1918 he returned to Sibiu.

In the same year Otto Czekelius began studying architecture and urban planning in Munich and Berlin-Charlottenburg . During his studies he already took on various positions in architecture offices, such as with Professor Alfred Breslauer - student, employee and successor of Alfred Messel , who played a major role in the more recent architectural history of Berlin as a revolutionary in architecture.

activity

In October 1922 he received an offer to work as an architect on behalf of Breslau in Madrid and to erect the building of the German embassy here. He then studied the structures and floor plans of the old cities of Toledo , Aranjuez , Avila , Segovia , El Escorial , La Granja (Cáceres) and Seville .

Czekelius took part in numerous international competitions for urban modernization, such as the competition for the urban expansion of Madrid, where he received the 2nd prize; the first prize went to Hermann Jansen , his former teacher for urban planning in Berlin. During this time he also drafted numerous systematisation plans for Seville , Zagreb and other European cities and in this way gained extensive professional experience.

From 1925 to 1936 Czekelius was the city architect of Madrid . In 1929, together with Francisco García Mercadal, on behalf of the Spanish government and the Instituto Geográfico Nacional, he designed the systematization plans for the capital (“Plano de Madrid 1: 2,000”).

At the same time, Czekelius worked as a representative of a film studio, was an author of cartoons and a film producer .

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 , Czekelius fought in the Republican Army against Francisco Franco side by side with the International Volunteer Corps. After General Francisco Franco won in 1939, Czekelius was interned as a prisoner of war for a year.

He then worked as an engineer for a large dredging company.

In 1943 Czekelius returned to Sibiu. However, because there was no work for him there at the time, he turned to researching local art history . In the Brukenthal Museum he began to set up the Transylvanian-German artist lexicon, taking into account both the fine arts and architecture. This was later to result in a trilogy with the writers' lexicon and the planned music lexicon of the Transylvanian Germans , which captured the cultural heritage of the 800-year history of the Transylvanian Germans. By 1949 the number of documentary folders had grown to 750 names and was then handed over by Czekelius to the construction technician and art lover Rolf Schuller , who continued work on the Transylvanian-German artist archive.

In 1950 Otto Czekelius was appointed city ​​building officer and chief architect of the design and restoration department and, based on his specialist knowledge and historical documents, he said he took up the "fight with ignorance". He was supported by his friend, the architect Joseph Bedeus von Scharberg ; Together they carried out the first systematisation sketch of Sibiu, which put an end to the demolition of valuable building structures from the Middle Ages and the arbitrary, haphazard reconstruction, begun in the mid-19th century and continued by the communist authorities.

Czekelius is also responsible for the preservation of the synagogue in Sibiu, which was built between 1898 and 1899 , although the number of Jews in this city also fell considerably as a result of fascism and then during the dictatorship under Nicolae Ceaușescu .

From the extensive documentary material in the municipal building archive, Czekelius developed the catalog of the Sibiu monuments (200 documentary folders with 14 maps each), which he completed in 1973.

He could no longer complete his three-volume life's work, the research and scientific recording of all plans, sketches, pictorial representations (vedute, etc.), on which Czekelius had worked for almost 40 years. The planned first volume of this trilogy, for which Czekelius the title The Historically Grown City. City plans and vedutas of Sibiu from four centuries, 1550–1950 , were published in 2007 by his specialist colleague architect Hermann Fabini .

It is thanks to Czekelius that Sibiu has preserved its architectural and artistic monuments to this day. "What I have prevented in these twenty years - not what I have restored, that is the positive thing about my work." (Czekelius / Robert Kisch, 1974).

In his honor, a lecture hall in the Sibiu Universitatea româno-germană "Sala Otto Czekelius" was named.

Works

• Otto Czekelius, Hermann Fabini: The old Hermannstadt. Vedute and city maps from four centuries. Monumenta-Verlag, Sibiu 2007
• Otto Czekelius: Writings from the estate. Ed. And foreword by Brigitte Stephani. Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest 1985
• Otto Czekelius: Antiguas sinagogas de España. In: Arquitectura. XII, Madrid, 1931

Scientific studies and communications

• The historically grown city. Plant, fortifications, churches, etc. a. Buildings, houses and population. Notes from the estate of Otto Czekelius. In: People and Culture . 1983, issue 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 and 1984, issue 2
• Old Sibiu. Contemporary descriptions, vedute, plans. In: New Literature . Vol. 32/1981, issue 1
• Around the Little Ring. Records. In: People and Culture. Volume 32/1980, issue 1
• Around the big ring. (A series about Old Sibiu, 21 essays.) In: Neuer Weg . Vol. 28/8467 of August 4, 1976, p. 6ff. up to and including year 28/4898 of September 10, 1976
• The city spreads out over the old walls. What will Sibiu look like in fifty years? In: New way calendar . 1972
• Thoughts and suggestions for redesigning the Great Ring. Where does the well go? In: New way . Vol. 24/7244 from August 19, 1972
• Sibiu in 2000. Comments and considerations on a systematization plan. In: New way . Vol. 23/6851 from May 18, 1971
• Joy of preservation. Twenty years of monument preservation in Sibiu. 180 architectural and art monuments still preserved. What remains to be done In: Hermannstädter Zeitung . Volume 3/119 from April 10, 1970
• Awakened from a hundred years of sleep. Half-figures discovered in the garden hall of the Old Town Hall. In: Hermannstädter Zeitung. Born 2/85 BC 15th August 1969
• Antiguas sinagogas de España. In: Arquitectura. XII, Madrid, 1931

literature

• Brigitte Stephani: Otto Czekelius - un architect european și identitatea sa sibiană / The Architect Otto Czekelius - an European Architect and his Hermannstadt Identitiy. In: Europa identităților. Complexul Muzeal Arad , Arad 2008
• Paul Philippi: On the volume “Das alte Hermannstadt” by Otto Czekelius and Hermann Fabini. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung of November 23, 2007
• Brigitte Nussbächer-Stephani: “This city belongs to me and you.” 100 years ago, architect Otto Czekelius (1895–1974) was born . In: Hermannstädter Heimat-Bote, vol. 13 / no. 50/1995
• Paul Constantin: Dicționar universal al architecților. Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, București 1986, p. 82
• Brigitte Stephani (Ed.): Otto Czekelius: Writings from the estate . Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest 1985
• Brigitte Nussbächer (d. I. Brigitte Stephani): Greetings from Munich. To the friendship Willi Geiger - Otto Czekelius. In: New Literature. Vol. 35/1984, issue 9
• Brigitte Nussbächer: ... eight hundred years in Transylvania. Notes from the estate of Otto Czekelius. In: New Literature. Vol. 32/1981, issue 1
• Brigitte Nussbächer: Documents of a friendship. Letters from Otto Folberth to Otto Czekelius. In: New Literature. Vol. 30/1979, issue 12
• Zeidner, Helmut: Classical Transylvanian-German architecture. Striving for restoration of the example of two architects ... . In: Siebenbürgische Zeitung, vol. 26 v. 15th February 1975
• Kisch, Robert: Hermannstadt in 2000 and Otto Czekelius . In: Südostdeutsche Vierteljahresblätter, vol. 23/1974
• Zehschnetzler, Ernst: Burn brightly for a lifetime. What is performance - what remains after us? It is not chance, but passion that determines human happiness . Interview with Dipl. Ing. Architect Otto Czekelius. In: New way. Born 25/7736 BC March 22, 1973

Web links

• Maja Wassermann: Jewish presence in Sibiu