Paul Frank (architect)

Paul Frank (born October 30, 1878 in Hamburg ; † May 19, 1951 there ; full name: Paul August Reimund Frank ) was a German architect .

Life and work

Arcade houses in Dulsberg

After leaving school, Frank first completed an apprenticeship as a painter, then studied architecture at the State Art School in Hamburg . From 1910, Frank initially worked as an employee in an architecture firm before setting up on his own in 1913. In 1925 he participated in the establishment of the non-profit building society for small houses and in 1928 in the establishment of the housing association Rationell , in which u. a. Karl Schneider was involved.

Grave of Paul Frank, Ohlsdorf cemetery

In the 1920s and 1930s, Paul Frank worked under the direction of the then Hamburg chief building director Fritz Schumacher in numerous residential development projects of the so-called " new building " (reform housing ). Most striking are his arcade houses in the Jarrestadt and on the Dulsberg as well as the Frank'sche settlement in the Klein Borstel district . Together with his brother Hermann Frank , he founded the Hermann-und-Paul-Frank-Siedlungsbaugesellschaft , which took care of the administration and rental of the properties. The successor company to the Hermann-und-Paul-Frank-Siedlungsbaugesellschaft is the Frank Group , which is led by two great-grandchildren of Paul Frank.

However, he was not only active as an architect, but also took care of the improvement of building materials. So he developed z. B. a new type of cement plaster, which was used for the first time in the Wandsbek Gartenstadt settlement , which his brother Hermann Frank had planned. In addition, he was u. a. Patent process for concrete ceilings and underground oil tanks.

Paul Frank was buried in the Hamburg cemetery in Ohlsdorf , grid square Q 6 (above the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery ). The Frankring in Hamburg-Volksdorf is named after him and his brother .

politics

Frank was a member of the DDP during the Weimar Republic . After 1945 he participated in the founding of the Free Democrats party , which later became the Hamburg regional association of the FDP . From 1946 until his death he was a member of the Hamburg citizenship , where he was the FDP spokesman for the reconstruction of the city.

literature

• Holger Martens : Frank, Paul . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 1 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 , pp. 101-101 .

Web links

• Portrait about the work of Paul Frank