Roland Korn

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Roland Korn (born May 11, 1930 in Saalfeld / Saale ) is a German architect . He was responsible for numerous prestigious buildings in East Berlin such as the State Council building , the Hotel Stadt Berlin and the entire Berlin-Marzahn housing estate . Since 1998 he has withdrawn from active construction work.

Life

Roland Korn was born as the son of a plumber in Saalfeld and after graduating from school he first completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer before studying at the technical college for construction in Gotha from 1948 to 1951 . He then worked as a civil engineer for VEB (Z) Projektierung in Berlin . Until 1955, Roland Korn worked with the interior designer Hans Erich Bogatzky for Kurt W. Leucht, the general project manager for the first socialist city of Stalinstadt .

The State Council building in Berlin shortly before completion in 1964

From 1959 to 1961, the Elbe Swimming Hall in Magdeburg was built according to the plans of Roland Korn, who emerged as the winner of an architectural competition. Immediately after the building went into operation, he switched to the VEB Berlin project and took over the collective management of the official building of the State Council of the GDR , which was completed in 1964. Korn was particularly responsible for installing the castle portal and the balcony. The next big project of his design collective under the direction of Hans Grotewohl were the reconstruction plans for Alexanderplatz in 1964, as part of the GDR overall strategy for the "accelerated reconstruction of the city centers of the most important cities in the GDR". Korn was here for a new hotel, which was to be both a structural counterpart to the television tower that was being built at the same time as the "tallest habitable building in the GDR".

House of Travel, 1971

In the same year Korn received the offer to go to Baghdad as chief architect . With the approval of the redesign plans of the Berlin architects' collective, the foreign assignment became obsolete. In addition, the Berlin SED leader Paul Verner decided: “The Korn does not go to Baghdad.” This is how Korn planned together with Heinz Scharrlipp (1916–1974) and Hans Bogatzky the later Interhotel Stadt Berlin . From 1968 to 1971 the House of Travel was also built on the new Alexanderplatz under his direction, together with Johannes Briske and Roland Steiger . In this 17-storey building, Korn let echoes of a Viking ship flow into the design of the facade. After completing his studies at the Weimar University of Architecture and Construction in parallel to this planning and construction supervision, the then Chilean government under Salvador Allende brought him to their country. His assignment here was to design prefabricated wooden houses that could be built quickly and without tools so that the slums should disappear. After a year, the GDR ambassador sent him back to the GDR with a reference to the impending putsch ("Go back, the situation is not safe."). When he returned in 1973, Korn officially became the chief architect of East Berlin. The biggest challenge now was the construction of a completely new urban district with living space for 250,000 people (today the districts of Marzahn and Hellersdorf ). In preparation, the planners carried out comparative studies in Prague , Moscow and even in Gropiusstadt .

While the large-scale mass housing construction with industrially prefabricated house parts began in Marzahn and was carried out until 1989, the collective around Korn received orders for the construction of the cathedral hotel and the Nikolaiviertel . Here there was a return to historical urban structures and more individually designed panel elements.

From 1989 to 1998, Korn worked as a freelance architect.

Selection of works

Honors (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Roland Korn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jan Sternberg: Mister Alex. He built the Forum Hotel on Berlin's Alexanderplatz, the State Council building, worked on the Palace of the Republic and still likes Marzahn today. Nobody shaped East Berlin's architecture like Roland Korn. Today he lives in the countryside in Brandenburg. Article in the Märkische Allgemeine from 8./9. May 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.maerkischeallgemeine.de  
personal data
SURNAME Korn, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Saalfeld / Saale