Paul Meissner (architect)

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Paul Heinrich Meissner (born May 7, 1868 in Eisleben , † September 5, 1939 in Darmstadt ) was a German architect , university professor and monument conservator .

Bust of the architect, university professor and monument conservator Paul Meissner

Life

Paul Meissner was born as the son of bank director Otto Meissner and his wife Emilie geb. Göbel was born in Eisleben in 1868. In the early 1890s he studied architecture with Carl Schäfer at the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg . During his studies he became a member of the Corps Pomerania-Silesia Berlin . Schäfer was a well-known representative of historicism .

After completing his studies, he initially worked as a private architect. From 1895 to 1901 he worked for Carl Schäfer. During this time he was probably involved in the renovation of the Freiburg town hall .

In 1902 Meissner came to Darmstadt because he was commissioned to restore the half-timbered town hall in Michelstadt in the Odenwald . On September 4, 1902, Meissner married Clara Helene Pauline Külz (born October 21, 1880) from Cologne, daughter of the businessman Franz Külz. The wedding took place in Darmstadt. Their daughter Elfriede was born on April 16, 1904. The family lived at Roßdörfer Straße 89 until 1928.

Meissner joined the construction department of the Hessian Ministry of Finance in Darmstadt in 1904. From July 12, 1904, he was initially deputy and from 1907 successor to Friedrich Pützer as monument conservator for the province of Rheinhessen .

Meissner achieved his professional breakthrough in 1905 when he received the first prize from a unanimous decision of the jury in the competition for the new building of the Landeshypothekenbank in Darmstadt.

Since the winter semester of 1904/1905, Meissner was also assistant at Chair I at the Technical University of Darmstadt , where he also completed his habilitation . On January 1, 1907, he was awarded the title of professor . Since the winter semester 1909/1910 he taught as a private lecturer at the university.

In 1908, based on plans by Meissner, the Darmstadt tax office was built on Mercksplatz after the E. Merck company previously located here had moved to Frankfurter Strasse. The colored glazing of the building was created by the glass painter Otto Linnemann, who was friends with Meissner .

In 1910 an intensive collaboration began with the construction company Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG in Wiesbaden-Biebrich , which lasted for over two decades. Several bridges and industrial structures have emerged from this collaboration.

On April 7, 1915, Meissner succeeded Georg Wickop, who died in 1914, on his chair for architecture III. He was dean of the architecture faculty several times (1916–1922, 1926–1928, 1932–1933).

In 1922/1923 Meissner planned and built the new factory buildings and the administration building for the Goebel machine factory in Mornewegstrasse in Darmstadt.

Meissner acquired the house at Eichbergstrasse 6 in Darmstadt's Paulusviertel in early 1928 .

In March 1933, Meissner came into conflict with the Nazis as dean of the architecture department. On March 6, 1933, one day after the Reichstag election , he refused to fly the swastika flag at the university as dean. He was then massively attacked by the SA in particular in the form of students, assistants and lecturers. At the forefront was Karl Lieser , who sharply attacked the representatives of the university, but especially some professors from the architecture department, in a speech at the Schlageter celebration on May 25, 1933. He is also considered to be the author of a memorandum for the rector, the NS state and the NS party, in which Meissner is described as tactless, unreliable, and Jewish .

After violent arguments at the university, Meissner was finally given leave of absence on July 31, 1933; he suffered a severe nervous breakdown from which he never fully recovered for the remainder of his life.

In 1935 Meissner gave up his position as a monument conservator.

Paul Meissner died on September 5, 1939 in Darmstadt's Elisabethenstift, a few days after the start of the Second World War. His wife Clara chose shortly after the suicide .

Paul Meissner was buried in the old cemetery in Darmstadt (grave site: II M 151).

Honors

  • 1913: Prussian Red Eagle Order IV class
  • 1990: Dedication of the grave in the old cemetery in Darmstadt as a grave of honor
  • Street name "Meissnerweg" in Darmstadt-Kranichstein

plant

Former administrative building of the Landeshypothekenbank, Darmstadt

Meissner created numerous residential buildings, churches, administration buildings, cemeteries and important industrial buildings. His best-known work is probably the construction of the Landeshypothekenbank (today: the seat of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau ) in Darmstadt and the design of Paulusplatz in Darmstadt together with Friedrich Pützer.

  • 1895–1901: Participation in the renovation of the New Town Hall in Freiburg
  • 1902: Restoration of the half-timbered town hall in Michelstadt
  • 1903: Conversion and expansion of the Elisabethenstift in Nieder-Ramstadt
  • 1903/1904: Cemetery chapel in Riegel am Kaiserstuhl ( Meyer & Söhne brewery company )
  • 1904–1906: Restoration of the castle of the Count of Isenburg-Büdingen in Offenbach
  • 1905/1906: Houses in the Buchschlag villa colony
  • 1905–1908: Administration building of the Landeshypothekenbank on Paulusplatz in the Paulusviertel (Darmstadt) , today the administrative seat of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau ( EKHN ).
  • 1907/1908: Carl Merck house in Darmstadt, Ohlystraße 50 (destroyed in 1944)
  • 1905–1907: Evangelical Church in Worms-Neuhausen
  • 1908: New building of the tax office in Darmstadt
  • 1908/1909: West choir of the Katharinenkirche in Oppenheim
  • 1909: New building of the Catholic club house in Alzey
  • 1911: new wing of Villa Oettinger in Darmstadt
  • 1911–1923: Various Adam Opel AG factory buildings in Rüsselsheim
  • 1912: Catholic Church in Nackenheim
  • 1912: Competition design for the new building of the synagogue in Offenbach am Main (awarded 3rd prize)
  • 1912/1913: Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge in Trier
  • 1912/1913: Bismarck Bridge over the Saar in (Saarbrücken-) St. Johann
  • 1914: Garden room of the Heylshof in Darmstadt
  • 1917: Competition design for the central cemetery in Erfurt (awarded 1st prize)
  • 1919 ?: Crypt chapel of the Opel family in Rüsselsheim
  • 1922/1923: Administration building of the Goebel machine factory in Darmstadt (demolished in 1989)
  • 1924: Restoration of the Carmelite monastery church in Mainz
  • 1927–1929: Extension of the Rococo garden palace in Braunshardt near Darmstadt
  • 1927–1930: Indoor swimming pool and Capitol cinema in Marburg
  • 1928/1929: Well house with foyer in Bad Wildungen
  • 1929: Opel tower in Rüsselsheim
  • 1930: Sparkasse building in Bad Wildungen
  • 1930: Car hall with chauffeur's apartment in Rüsselsheim
  • 1931: Villa for Fritz Opel in Rüsselsheim
  • 1932: Forest cemetery in Rüsselsheim
  • 1934–1937: Renovation (re-vaulting of the west choir) of the Katharinenkirche in Oppenheim

Exhibitions

literature

  • Helmut Böhme: The Technical University of Darmstadt 1933–1945. Look at the expulsion of lecturers and resistance. In: Exodus of Science and Literature. Darmstadt 2004, pp. 13-36.
  • Melanie Hanel: The Technical University of Darmstadt in the “Third Reich”. Dissertation, Darmstadt 2013.
  • Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt. Darmstadt 1977.
  • Georg Zimmermann: Paul Meissner, a Darmstadt architect. In: Archive for Hessian History of Antiquity , year 1991, pp. 291–342.
  • Annegret Holtmann-Mares, Christiane Salge (eds.): Paul Meißner (1868–1939). An architect between tradition and new beginnings. Spurbuch-Verlag, Baunach 2019, ISBN 978-3-88778-571-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Address list of the Weinheimer SC. Darmstadt 1928, p. 34.
  2. ↑ Sketches and photos are in the Linnemann archive.
  3. ^ Frankfurter Israelitisches Familienblatt dated May 3, 1912 (on the result of the competition)
  4. ^ Technical University of Darmstadt: PAUL MEISSNER. An architect between tradition and new beginnings. Retrieved June 26, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Meissner, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meissner, Paul Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, university professor and monument conservator
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisleben
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1939
Place of death Darmstadt