Reinhold Niemeyer

Karl Friedrich Reinhold Niemeyer (born November 25, 1885 in Peckelsheim , † July 24, 1959 in Brackwede ) was a German architect and urban planner .

Life

Reinhold Niemeyer studied architecture in Munich and civil engineering in Hanover and did his military service during the First World War .

After the end of the war he went to Opole in 1919 as the Prussian government master builder and building officer . In 1922 he became head of the housing association "Oberschlesische Heimstätte". In 1927 he was appointed senior government building officer and was head of regional planning for the province of Upper Silesia .

time of the nationalsocialism

In April 1931 he ran for the office of city councilor for construction in Frankfurt am Main , was able to prevail against 72 competitors after initial difficulties and replaced the more progressive Ernst May in the Frankfurt city council . On April 18, 1933, he joined the NSDAP (membership number 1,811,542). In 1934 he was appointed chairman of the German Academy for Urban Development, Reich and State Planning (DASRL). He held this office until the end of the Second World War . When he got into the talk about his alcohol addiction and a love affair, Friedrich Krebs, in his function as Frankfurt Mayor , initiated criminal proceedings with the aim of impeachment. Niemeyer was suspended in 1936 . Accusations accumulated in the examination procedure that was initiated. In January 1937 the examination committee came to the conclusion that burdens and discharges were balanced; The proceedings were discontinued on payment of a disciplinary fine of 1,000 Reichsmarks and the costs of the proceedings because they were insignificant. Niemeyer resigned from his office in 1938, thus evading further dismissal requests from Krebs. In the meantime, he unsuccessfully applied for a position as a regional planner in the Kurmark .

After negotiations between Lord Mayor Krebs, the district president in Wiesbaden Friedrich Pfeffer von Salomon , the ministerial officials in Berlin and the chief president of the Brandenburg province Emil Stürtz , Niemeyer was transferred to Berlin in mid-1938 as regional councilor and regional planner for the Brandenburg province. In 1940 he took over the city planning of Prague as president of the planning commission for the capital of Prague and the surrounding area. When he took over the management of a research and planning department for the occupied eastern territories in 1942 - at that time as regional councilor - his planning work for the Prague area came to a standstill. From 1943 he was head of department in Albert Speer's staff for the reconstruction of cities destroyed by bombs, with the responsibility for "spatial planning and railway systems".

Post-war years

After the end of the war he went to Brackwede, from where he worked as a freelance reconstruction plan for several Westphalian cities destroyed by bombing, for example from 1946 to 1950 as chief planner for Paderborn and 1949/1950 for Espelkamp .

In autumn 1945, Niemeyer, on behalf of some colleagues, approached Stephan Prager with the request to re-establish the DASRL, which, after consideration, he followed in 1946 by founding the German Academy for Urban Development and Regional Planning (DASL).

When rebuilding Paderborn, he and the other people in charge were primarily concerned with realizing the possibilities of modern urban planning based on the Athens Charter of 1933. In addition to traffic planning tailored to individual motorized traffic with wide streets and parking lots in the city center and the creation of as many as possible The redesign of the western Paderquell area into a green area that can be used in a variety of ways for citizens played a key role here.

Niemeyer belonged to the so-called " Anholter Circle ", which first met in August 1947 at Anholt Castle on the initiative of Rudolf Wolters and Friedrich Tamms . Despite his promise, Niemeyer did not appear at the first meeting, but took part in the second meeting in August 1949 and the third and final meeting in 1950.

Awards

Federal Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz), awarded on July 4, 1952
Cornelius Gurlitt Memorial Medal of the DASL, 1957

Publications

Requirements for a future planning and building law. Otto Elsner Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin 1942.
with Carl Pirath : Urban development and local transport (= reports on spatial research and spatial planning. Volume 8). KF Koehler Verlag, Leipzig 1941.
with Rudolf Müller: Brandenburg State Planning Association. Memorandum on the formation of a water association for the Spree. Berlin 1939.
Big city problems. Lecture in the House of Technology . Essen 1935.
Housing Welfare Society for Upper Silesia (Ed.) Upper Silesian Housing Shortage. Lindner-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1928 (with foreword by Alfons Proske ).

literature

Bettina Tüffers: The brown magistrate. Personnel structure and power relations in the Frankfurt city government 1933-1945 (= studies on Frankfurt history. Volume 54). Waldemar Kramer Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-7829-0558-X .
Reinhard Jaspert (ed.): Architecture. Handbook of Modern Architecture. Safari-Verlag, Berlin 1957.

Web links

Literature by and about Reinhold Niemeyer in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd edition. Volume 2, KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-25032-0 , p. 461.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Peter Knoch: From model to argument. Concepts and instruments of spatial planning in the Federal Republic of Germany 1960–1990. Dissertation, Faculty for Spatial Planning at the University of Dortmund, 1999.
↑ ^a ^b ^c The brown magistrate: Karl Friedrich Reinhold Niemeyer , City of Frankfurt am Main, 2005.
↑ Wolfgang Hofmann: Spatial planner between the Nazi state and the Federal Republic. On the continuity and discontinuity of spatial planning from 1933 to 1960 . In: Heinrich Mäding (Hrsg.), Wendelin Strubelt (Hrsg.), Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (Hrsg.): From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning . Hanover 2009, p. 40.
^ Reinhold Niemeyer: Planning and implementation, basic ideas. In: Stadt Paderborn (ed.): A decade of construction and planning 1945–1955. Stuttgart 1955, pp. 4-11.

personal data
SURNAME	Niemeyer, Reinhold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Niemeyer, Karl Friedrich Reinhold (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German architect and urban planner
DATE OF BIRTH	November 25, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH	Peckelsheim
DATE OF DEATH	July 24, 1959
Place of death	Brackwede

[DBE-1] Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd edition. Volume 2, KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-25032-0 , p. 461.

[Knoch-2] Peter Knoch: From model to argument. Concepts and instruments of spatial planning in the Federal Republic of Germany 1960–1990. Dissertation, Faculty for Spatial Planning at the University of Dortmund, 1999.

[brauner_Magistrat-3] The brown magistrate: Karl Friedrich Reinhold Niemeyer , City of Frankfurt am Main, 2005.

[4] Wolfgang Hofmann: Spatial planner between the Nazi state and the Federal Republic. On the continuity and discontinuity of spatial planning from 1933 to 1960 . In: Heinrich Mäding (Hrsg.), Wendelin Strubelt (Hrsg.), Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning (Hrsg.): From the Third Reich to the Federal Republic. Contributions to a conference on the history of spatial research and spatial planning . Hanover 2009, p. 40.

[5] Reinhold Niemeyer: Planning and implementation, basic ideas. In: Stadt Paderborn (ed.): A decade of construction and planning 1945–1955. Stuttgart 1955, pp. 4-11.