Paul Tornow

Metz, main facade of the cathedral, neo-Gothic portal (main work by Paul Tornow)

classicist portal by Blondel before the complete redesign by Tornow (Metzer Dombaublatt 7, panel IV)

Otto Karl Paul Tornow (born June 14, 1848 in Zielenzig ( Neumark ), † June 6, 1921 in Metz ) was a German architect , construction officer and monument conservator , who mainly worked as a cathedral master builder in Metz.

life and work

Paul Tornow completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Brandenburg an der Havel during the summer months of 1864 and 1865 . He lost his right hand in an accident at work, which forced him to give up training. Despite his disability, Tornow was a talented draftsman. During the winter months he was trained in drawing by the master builder Ebel in Zielenzig. He studied at the Berlin Bauakademie from 1866 to 1867 . Without finishing his studies, he took up a position in the Cologne cathedral building administration in 1867 . Because of his abilities, Tornow was commissioned by the church art historian Franz Bock with the graphic documentation of Rhenish monuments of the Middle Ages as part of the work of Rhineland's architectural monuments of the Middle Ages . He then went on study trips to Belgium and the Netherlands . From 1870 he worked in the office of the London architect George Edmund Street (1824-1881). Here he worked on the restoration of the Minster of York and the Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin . During the construction of the Royal Courts of Justice (1873-1882) he was involved in drawing up the construction plans. In August 1871 Tornow returned to Germany and worked on the restoration of Minden Cathedral until 1874 . In Bad Oeynhausen he was entrusted with the management of the new buildings of the Protestant Church of the Resurrection (1872–1879, burned down in 1947 and replaced by a new building) and the Catholic Church of St. Peter and Paul (1871–1874, based on a design by Friedrich August Stüler ).

In 1874, the regional government of Alsace-Lorraine appointed Paul Tornow as district building inspector for the Lorraine part of the country. Since the Metz cathedral was state-owned, the office of master builder of the diocese of Metz was connected with it. In addition, in 1892 Tornow became the first curator of monuments in the Lorraine region . He held both offices until 1906. With regard to the cathedral of Metz, after the roof fire in May 1877, Tornow erected a new, steeper roof structure, provided the transepts with high triangular gables (1877-1886), restored the Liebfrauen portal and had the alterations to the cathedral from the 18th century abandoned (1879 -1885). In the years from 1897 to 1903 he replaced the classical portico by Jacques-François Blondel with a neo-Gothic west portal with abundant sculptural decorations.

Paul Tornow had already given up the office of district master builder in 1887 due to severe professional overload. As a Lorraine conservationist, he led the restoration of the churches in Mörchingen (from 1888), Fèves (1888), Obergailbach (1902), Bévoye , Lorry-Mardigny and the fortified church of Chazelles . On behalf of the German Emperor Wilhelm II , Tornow built the so-called "Imperial Church" of Courcelles-Chaussy between 1893 and 1895 . Under strong influence of Wilhelm II. Built Tornow in collaboration with the architect H. Albrecht Metzer and the government and building officer Blumhardt in Gravelotte Memorial Hall for the Battle of Gravelotte .

Forbach, "Saareck" tower on the Schlossberg, 328 m above sea level ; The original castle from the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century was built during the Thirty Years' War on the orders of Louis XIII. destroyed in 1634. The current octagonal tower was built on the foundations of the round, medieval Saareck tower from 1437 by Paul Tornow in 1891.

The ruins of the medieval castle on the Forbacher Kappelberg or Schlossberg, which had been bought for private use in 1886 by the Forbach entrepreneur Gustav Jacob Adt , were redesigned by Tornow from 1891 onwards. Tornow placed a neo-Gothic octagonal lookout tower on the round foundation walls of the former castle tower and built a neo-Gothic ballroom next to it. The facility was named "Saareck". Around two hundred meters below the complex, Gustav Jakob Adt had the so-called “Burghof” built as an agricultural estate in the medieval-historic style between 1901 and 1906 . In collaboration with his assistant Wilhelm Schmitz , Tornow directed the restoration of the German Gate in Metz from 1892 . The battlements of the Torburg were also restored. In the years 1880/1881 Tornow restored Eltz Castle and took the relevant building findings.

On behalf of the Strasbourg ministry, Tornow, in collaboration with the architect Karl Winkler (1834–1908), prepared an expert report on the restoration of the Thann Minster in Alsace in 1886 . According to his plans, the Protestant Mathildenstift (since 1919 L'Hôpital des Remparts de Belle-Isle , since 1923 Hopital Belle-Isle ) in Metz was built in the neo-Gothic style in the years 1886 to 1889 . He also prepared expert reports for the Evangelical City Church in Metz built by Conrad Wahn and for the neo-Romanesque church in Sorbey on the French river Nied, built by the municipal architect Keil . In addition, he was a member of the jury in the architectural competition for the district and regional court in Strasbourg , which was finally built according to the design by the architect Skjøld Neckelmann , and in the competition for the Metz Hauptbahnhof , which was based on the award-winning design by the architect Jürgen Kröger in neo-Romanesque Style was executed.

At the first “Day for Monument Preservation” in Dresden in September 1900, Tornow gave a lecture on September 25th on the topic of the principles of the restoration of monuments , which he had formulated in 16 theses and which were available to the participants in print. These principles were based on the experience he had made during the restoration of the Metz Cathedral. This sparked a controversial debate with the art historian Cornelius Gurlitt and the other participants.

An uproar around him came in 1906. Allegedly had money Tornow embezzled , neglected his duties and privately amassed considerable debt. As a result, he was removed from office. The background to the matter was - at least according to his colleague Louis Auguste Dujardin - a dispute between Tornow and the German Kaiser. Tornow then lost all offices. In spite of his considerable life's work, which was also recognized by the French, he was no longer able to acquire contracts in the construction sector until his death in 1921. After his “recall” in 1906, he settled in Scy-Chazelles within sight of the fortified church he had restored. Despite his impeachment, he remained a member of the Prussian Academy of Building , his re-election in 1908 was confirmed by Wilhelm II.

As part of the expulsion of the Reich Germans after Germany lost World War I from the former Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine to the German Reich, Tornow planned to move to Untermarchtal in Upper Swabia . Shortly before his planned departure, he died on June 6, 1921 in Chazelles near Metz. He died at the age of 73 and found his final resting place next to his wife, who had already died on September 9, 1916 at the age of sixty-eight. The grave is in the cemetery of the parish of Scy-Chazelles .

Tornow's successors as monument conservators were Georg Wolfram from 1906 to 1909 and Wilhelm Schmitz Schmitz from 1909 to 1919, followed by Tornow as master builder from 1906 to 1919, after he had been its first assistant since 1890.

Tornow was an Evangelical Lutheran denomination. In 1871 he had married Anna-Maria Voltmer (* December 27, 1847 in Oberfell on the Moselle; † September 9, 1916) in London- Whitechapel , whom he had met in Cologne . In the same year the couple returned to Germany.

Honors

A street near the Metz Cathedral was named after Paul Tornow.

Publications

Paul Tornow made 214 sheets of pen drawings (building recordings) for the following works:

• Franz Bock: The monumental Rhineland. Autographical illustrations of the most outstanding monuments of the Middle Ages on the Rhine and its tributaries and a brief description. Cologne 1869.
• Rhineland's monuments of the Middle Ages. A guide to the strangest medieval buildings on the Rhine and its tributaries. Cologne 1868–1872.

Paul Tornow published independently:

• Series of memoranda relating to Metz Cathedral and its restoration, Metz 1882 ff.
• The new portal of our Lady of Metz Cathedral. Brief description of the figurative jewelry and notes on the history of the portal. Metz 1885/1903.
• Basic rules and principles for the restoration of architectural monuments In: Die Denkmalpflege , 2nd year 1900, pp. 113–116 and pp. 122–124.
• Basic rules and principles when restoring (producing) architectural monuments. Metz 1902.

From 1886 Paul Tornow was the editor of the Metzer Dombau-Blatt .

literature

• For Paul Tornow's seventieth birthday. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , 52nd year 1918, No. 47, pp. 206–208 / No. 48, pp. 213–216.
• Paul Tornow †. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 41st year 1921, No. 65, p. 407 f.
• Tornow, Paul . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 33 : Theodotos vacation . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1939, p. 293-294 .
• Niels Wilcken: Architecture in the Border Area. Public construction in Alsace-Lorraine 1871–1918. (= Publications by the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland , Volume 38.) Saarbrücken 2000.
• Alain Hilbold, Gérard Leonard, Alphonse Schneider: Paul Tornow, architect, and Auguste Dujardin, sculptor. Her works in the department of Moselle 1874–1906, restoration and reconstruction of the cathedral of Metz, construction of the imperial church of Courcelles-Chaussy. (on the exhibition on Paul Tornow and Auguste Dujardin in the cathedral of Metz from April 30th to May 13th 2011; published in collaboration with the associations Histoire et Patrimoine Lorrains and Renaissance du Vieux Metz et des Pays Lorrains ; German translation by Hubert Baltes ) Saarbrücken 2011.

such as:

• The restoration of the Metz Cathedral . In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 25, 1891, No. 15 ff., P. 85 ff.
• Celebrating CW Hase's 80th birthday. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 32, 1898, No. 103, pp. 660–663 / No. 104, pp. 666–668 / No. 105, pp. 672–677.
• Baugewerks-Zeitung , 35th year 1903, No. 43.
• From the Metz cathedral building. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , 40th year 1906, No. 28, p. 193.

Web links

• Paul Tornow in the database architects and artists with direct reference to Conrad Wilhelm Hase (1818–1902) , last accessed on December 16, 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} gw.geneanet.org accessed on May 14, 2018.
2. ^ Paul Tornow in the database architects and artists with direct reference to Conrad Wilhelm Hase (1818–1902) , last accessed on December 16, 2019.
3. ^ "Em.": The memorial hall of Gravelotte. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung. 25th year 1905, No. 56 (from July 12, 1905), p. 349 f.
4. ^ Max Besler: History of the castle, the rule and the city of Forbach. o. O. 1913.
5. ^ Niels Wilcken: Architecture in the border area. Public construction in Alsace-Lorraine 1871–1918 (= publications by the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland. Volume 38.) Saarbrücken 2000, pp. 366–367.
6. ↑ Julien Trapp: Metz, the medieval city wall. Information brochure ed. from the city of Metz ( Service Patrimoine Culturel / Municipal Agency for Cultural Heritage), undated and undated
7. ^ Elz Castle on the Moselle. In: Deutsche Bauzeitung. 18th year 1884, No. 74, p. 441.
8. ↑ hpmetz.fr accessed on May 14, 2018.
9. ↑ Korrespondenzblatt of Gesammtvereins of German history and Alterthumsvereine. 1900, No. 10 and 11, pp 212-218. ( Digitale-sammlungen.de Accessed: June 29, 2008).
10. ↑ Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 28, 1908, No. 5, p. 33.
11. ^ Niels Wilcken: Architecture in the border area. Public construction in Alsace-Lorraine 1871–1918. (= Publications by the Institute for Regional Studies in Saarland , Volume 38.) Saarbrücken 2000, pp. 366–367.
12. ↑ The French source, note 2 (period of service 1906–1916), is incorrect. Schmitz had to stay in Lorraine after the "repatriation of the Germans" and continue his official duties until 1919. At the correct working hours of P. Tornow u. W. Schmitz see: Jörg Schmitz: Life and work of the architect Wilhelm Peter Schmitz (1864-1944). Cathedral builder, monument conservator, art writer and Lorraine conservator. A Rhenish architect of late historicism (Aachen, Cologne, Trier, Metz). Volume 1: biography and illustration part. Tönning 2005, ISBN 3-89959-382-0 .
13. ↑ Ministère de la culture et de la communication. Bulletin officiel, 157. Paris 2006. P. 54. ISSN  1295-8670 online version ( Memento of the original dated December 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved June 28, 2008. 
14. ↑ Jörg Schmitz in: Trier Organ Point. High Cathedral Trier trierer-orgelpunkt.de ( memento from April 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed: June 28, 2008.
15. ↑ Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 6th year 1886, No. 25, p. 248 ( book show: Metzer Dombau-Blatt ).