Peter Friedrich (architect)

Peter Friedrich (born June 28, 1902 in Orosháza , Hungary , Transleithanien , † July 30, 1987 in Berlin ) was a German architect and mathematician . His focus was on Berlin traffic planning in the post-war period .

Live and act

After attending grammar school in Szeged from 1913 to 1919, Peter Friedrich completed an internship as a bricklayer and carpenter from 1919 to 1920 . From 1920 to 1923 he studied architecture at the University of Applied Sciences in Budapest . From 1923 (according to other information 1924) to 1926 he was a master student of the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin in the studio of Hans Poelzig . Last year he attended lectures and exercises on urban planning , structural calculations and steel construction processes at the Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg .

In the years 1926 to 1928 I made a study trip to Rotterdam to JJP Oud , the acquaintance with Konrad Wachsmann , the occupation with the technical implementation of small apartment construction and various jobs with construction companies . From 1929 to 1930 Friedrich worked in the Poelzig office as well as in the staff of Martin Wagner at the Magistrate of Greater Berlin . Friedrich was involved in the joint project by Poelzig and Wagner, the exhibition halls on Kaiserdamm . He also designed prefabricated houses during this time . These were to be carried out for the 1932 construction exhibition in Cologne, which was planned but not realized, on the recommendation of Ludwig Hilberseimer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and with the consent of Theodor Heuss .

As a freelance architect in the 1930s, he made drafts for settlement projects on behalf of settlement and construction companies. His theoretical preoccupation with traffic planning is documented in typescripts such as On the question of the line layout and the question of the forms of settlement (1933) and the design of the route network from the point of view of economic efficiency (1937). His knowledge of mathematics resulted in the elaboration of exact urban planning methods with regard to settlement structures and traffic optimization on the basis of the vector fields . He learned a practical view through study trips to France, Italy and Switzerland.

In 1940 he was in the service of the Reichsbauamt. According to his designs, the (then) tax offices of Berlin-Wedding and Berlin-Gesundbrunnen were built for the Reich Finance Administration. In the period from 1941 to 1944 he was involved in district planning for construction companies, and at the German Academy for Housing in Berlin-Buch, he conceptualized settlements consisting of masses of prefabricated concrete houses. He taught at the private school " Art and Work " in Berlin-Schöneberg under Hugo Häring , who was enthusiastic about Friedrich's "principle of order". Friedrich himself was a guest student at the Technical University of Berlin in order to perfect the subjects of structural engineering ( strength theory , higher mathematics , shell theory , structural engineering ) .

After the end of the war , Peter Friedrich worked until 1950 under city planning officer Hans Scharoun in the main office for urban planning at the municipal authorities of Greater Berlin. His most important task was in the context of the " planning collective for reconstruction " formed from several architects in traffic planning , whereby he arranged the entire city plan on the basis of the location relationships in addition to traffic planning in the narrower sense and set up a new building program for Berlin. This meant that the historic city plan should be replaced by a rectangular system of expressways that lead through a green urban landscape. The existing interlocking residential areas should be dissolved in favor of small, clearly delimited residential areas. The first concept presented by the architects' group (collective plan) in the summer of 1946 amounted to a “complete reorganization of Berlin according to the principles of a relaxed, functionally structured urban landscape”. Beyond the obvious disregard for the cultural and material value of the structural and infrastructural substance that has been preserved , it was "an expression of socio-political and planning naivety in assessing the real problems of Berlin". As the city was increasingly heading towards a division , the plans came to nothing, even in the eastern part , where the SED approved the plans, there was a change of course at the end of the 1940s.

In the fall of 1947, Scharoun initiated the establishment of an institute for construction at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin , acted as its director and took his colleague Friedrich with him to assign him the post of head of the "traffic planning" department. In the spring of 1950 Scharoun and Friedrich were jury members in the competition for a Thälmann monument on Thälmannplatz in Berlin-Mitte . Here, too, the division of the city was one reason for the non-implementation of Ruthild Hahne's design , which was awarded DM 20,000 .

From 1951 to 1953 Friedrich continued his research on the "Mathematical Foundations of Urban Planning" at the Institute for Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences. In 1957 he took part in the Interbau building exhibition (IBA 57) in Berlin and shortly afterwards, together with Elfriede J. Lehning, in the "International Urban Design Ideas Competition Capital Berlin" announced by the West Berlin Senate .

From 1959 he was an employee of the Mainz City Planning Office. Between 1964 and 1968 he carried out research assignments for the Ministry of Transport of the Federal Republic of Germany . The book Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized , published in 1989 is based on writings and documents that Friedrich had prepared before his death on July 30, 1987 for publication as a guide, at least an illustration, for an interdisciplinary design theory.

Fonts (selection)

Location relationships and transport network design of the new Berlin. In: Der Bauhelfer, issue 11/1946, pp. 8-14.
The calculation of variations as a planning method in urban and regional planning (= publications by the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning ; Volume 32). Walter Dorn Verlag, Bremen-Horn 1956.
Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized. Edited by Elfriede J. Lehning. EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Eva-Maria Barkhofen (ed.): Architecture in the archive. The collection of the Academy of Arts . DOM Publishers, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86922-492-3 , Peter Friedrich, p. 124-127 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Elfriede J. Lehning: Peter Friedrich . * 1902 in Hungary / † 1987 in Berlin (West). In: Elfriede J. Lehning (Ed.): Peter Friedrich. Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized . EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989, p. 171 .
^ Elfriede J. Lehning: Peter Friedrich . * 1902 in Hungary / † 1987 in Berlin (West). In: Elfriede J. Lehning (Ed.): Peter Friedrich. Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized . EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989, p. 173 (Appendix to the biography on p. 171).
^ Peter Friedrich Archive. Description of the stock. In: adk.de. Academy of the Arts, accessed April 3, 2020 .
↑ ^a ^b Hans Stimmann : 70 years ago architects wanted to erase Berlin. Opinion / post-war period. In: welt.de . August 23, 2016, accessed April 3, 2020 .
↑ ^a ^b Werner Sewing , Christine Hannemann : Reconstruction in the “four sector city” 1945–1957 . In: Lothar Juckel , Christina Hegnal, Brigitte Jacob, Woldemar Mertens (eds.): Living in Berlin. 100 years of residential construction in Berlin. Urban housing associations shape the cityscape . Catalog for the exhibition from April 21 to June 13, 1999 in the advisory center of the Investitionsbank Berlin . Edition StadtBauKunst, Berlin / Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-927469-19-X , reconstruction or rebuilding? Theoretical positions and plans 1945–1950, p. 209-213 .
↑ Karl Böttcher : Report on my work (= supplements to the project history of the Berlin apartment building in the research focus theory and history of building, space and everyday culture of the architecture department of the University of the Arts . No. 2 ). Press office of the HDK, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-924206-06-6 , head of department in the institute for construction, p. 64 .
↑ Competition for a Thälmann memorial . In: New Germany . Central organ of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. No. 23/1950 , January 27, 1950, pp. 3 .
↑ Elfriede J. Lehning: For guidance . In: Elfriede J. Lehning (Ed.): Peter Friedrich. Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized . EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989, p. 2 .

Web links

Literature by and about Peter Friedrich in the catalog of the German National Library
Peter Friedrich Archive in the Archive of the Academy of Arts , Berlin

personal data
SURNAME	Friedrich, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German architect and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH	June 28, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH	Orosháza , Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	July 30, 1987
Place of death	Berlin

[Barkhofen-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Eva-Maria Barkhofen (ed.): Architecture in the archive. The collection of the Academy of Arts . DOM Publishers, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86922-492-3 , Peter Friedrich, p. 124-127 .

[Lehning-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Elfriede J. Lehning: Peter Friedrich . * 1902 in Hungary / † 1987 in Berlin (West). In: Elfriede J. Lehning (Ed.): Peter Friedrich. Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized . EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989, p. 171 .

[3] Elfriede J. Lehning: Peter Friedrich . * 1902 in Hungary / † 1987 in Berlin (West). In: Elfriede J. Lehning (Ed.): Peter Friedrich. Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized . EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989, p. 173 (Appendix to the biography on p. 171).

[4] Peter Friedrich Archive. Description of the stock. In: adk.de. Academy of the Arts, accessed April 3, 2020 .

[Stimmann-5] Hans Stimmann : 70 years ago architects wanted to erase Berlin. Opinion / post-war period. In: welt.de . August 23, 2016, accessed April 3, 2020 .

[Sewing-6] Werner Sewing , Christine Hannemann : Reconstruction in the “four sector city” 1945–1957 . In: Lothar Juckel , Christina Hegnal, Brigitte Jacob, Woldemar Mertens (eds.): Living in Berlin. 100 years of residential construction in Berlin. Urban housing associations shape the cityscape . Catalog for the exhibition from April 21 to June 13, 1999 in the advisory center of the Investitionsbank Berlin . Edition StadtBauKunst, Berlin / Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-927469-19-X , reconstruction or rebuilding? Theoretical positions and plans 1945–1950, p. 209-213 .

[7] Karl Böttcher : Report on my work (= supplements to the project history of the Berlin apartment building in the research focus theory and history of building, space and everyday culture of the architecture department of the University of the Arts . No. 2 ). Press office of the HDK, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-924206-06-6 , head of department in the institute for construction, p. 64 .

[8] Competition for a Thälmann memorial . In: New Germany . Central organ of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. No. 23/1950 , January 27, 1950, pp. 3 .

[9] Elfriede J. Lehning: For guidance . In: Elfriede J. Lehning (Ed.): Peter Friedrich. Three phases of gestalt formation: seen - derived - concretized . EJ Lehning, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1989, p. 2 .