Ulrich Schmidt from Altenstadt

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Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt , called Ulrich S. von Altenstadt or Ulrich von Altenstadt (born May 27, 1928 in Insterburg , East Prussia ), is a German architect , urban planner and author .

Life

Schmidt von Altenstadt is the great-grandson of Major General Eduard Schmidt von Altenstadt , nephew of Major General Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt and the second son of farmer and reserve officer Sigmund Schmidt von Altenstadt (1899–1962) and his wife Margarethe, née Bogun von Wangenheim from Berlin (* 1899 ). He grew up on a large estate in the rural community of Medunischken and took part in the Second World War from 1943 as a flak helper and in 1944/1945 as a soldier . There he saw the downfall of Danzig .

In 1947 he passed his Abitur in Soest . Then he went through internships and apprenticeships as a wood carver, carpenter and printer (graphic printer). In the winter semester of 1948 he began studying architecture at RWTH Aachen , which he completed with a diploma in 1953. At the chair for art history there, he worked under Hermann Beenken as a student assistant. In 1951 he became friends with Eckhard Schulze-Fielitz in the student association Corps Marko-Guestphalia Aachen , which he joined in 1950 . In the summer semester of 1952, both of them developed a design for a town hall in Lüdenscheid as part of a competition, which they designed as a twelve-story high-rise building made of reinforced concrete and skeleton construction.

After brief activities at the Rijksgebouwdienst in The Hague and in Wilhelm Wortmann's architectural office in Bremen , Schmidt von Altenstadt joined the Suter + Suter office in Basel in 1953 . Soon afterwards he moved to Egon Eiermann's office in Karlsruhe . In Karlsruhe, he and Eiermann's colleague Peter von Seidlein lived in Eiermann's former studio. During this time he worked with von Seidlein, Schulze-Fielitz, Ernst Jung (1921-2010) and Flavio Emery in several competitions, so in 1954 together with Schulze-Fielitz and Emery a design in the competition for a plenary building for the Lower Saxony state parliament in Hanover which they celebrated a success with one of six 2nd purchases and prize money of 4000 DM. In the 1954 competition for a city and exhibition hall in Wiesbaden , Schmidt von Altenstadt and Schulze-Fielitz were able to win a 4th prize endowed with DM 3,000. With a competition entry for the state parliament in Stuttgart , von Seidlein and Schmidt von Altenstadt even won first prize and received 20,000 DM for it.

Forum in Leverkusen, 2012

On April 1, 1955, Schmidt von Altenstadt, together with Schulze-Fielitz and Ernst von Rudloff, founded an architecture office in Essen , an industrial city booming during the “ economic miracle ” with almost 680,000 inhabitants at the time. The architectural community recorded its first success in 1956 with a 2nd prize and the contract to build the Cologne State House . In 1958/1959 the architectural community separated. Schmidt von Altenstadt then opened his own office in Essen, with which he continued to successfully participate in competitions. In 1968 he moved it to Leverkusen , where the Forum cultural center , which he designed as a structuralist polygon and is now a listed building , was built as the first part of a new city center in the Wiesdorf district .

In 1965 he was one of the signatories of the Bochum declaration published by the SPD , "Towards a contemporary organization of our living space". He acted as a judge for the Association of German Architects and the North Rhine-Westphalia Chamber of Architects, and from 1976 also as a member of the editorial committee of the magazine Der Architekt . In addition, he was involved as a city planner in Leipzig and on the design advisory board of the city of Halle an der Saale . His biographical work on his uncle, Major General Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt (1904–1944), appeared in 2014 and 2016.

Schmidt von Altenstadt was married twice, has three children and two stepchildren and lives in Münster and Leipzig. His legacy is looked after by the Archive for Architecture and Civil Engineering NRW .

Publications (selection)

  • Leverkusen cultural center . In: Bauwelt , year 1961, issue 23, pp. 662–663.
  • Forms of thinking in building . In: The Month , Volume 15, 1962, Issue 171.
  • Urban planning between emotion and science . In: Merkur , Volume 18, 1964, pp. 720–738.
  • An urban center for Castrop-Rauxel . In: Bauwelt , year 1978, issue 27/28, pp. 1042-1049.
  • Yesterday's utopias . In: Der Architekt , born 1983, Issue 32, pp. 254-259.
  • The instrument of competition . In: Minister for State and Urban Development North Rhine-Westphalia (Ed.): Architecture of the State. A critical assessment of state building in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1946 to the present day . Kleve 1984.
  • Cost reduction through conversion of old building structure: result report, final report . Building research reports by the Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development, Volume 2095, IRB-Verlag, Stuttgart 1988.
  • Cost reduction through conversion of old building fabric . Research series of the Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development, Volume 469, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1989.
  • with Christoph Bauer: Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt - 1904–1944. Epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8477-5 .
  • with Christoph Bauer (Ed.): Eid und Gewissen. Between Hitler's millstones. Research on the history of the General Staff Officer Hans Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt . Epubli, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-7375-8594-1 .
  • with Christoph Bauer (Ed.): My mother said: You are a lucky child . Epubli, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-7467-1302-1 .

literature

  • Ulrich S. v. Altenstadt . Section portraits of young architects . In: Baumeister , year 1965, issue 8, pp. 869–876.
  • Stephan Strauß: The archive for architecture and engineering in North Rhine-Westphalia . Dortmund 1999, pp. 8-11.
  • Stephan Strauss: Eckhard Schulze-Fielitz and the space city . Dissertation, TU Dortmund, 2005, p. 17 ff. ( PDF ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sigmund Schmidt von Altenstadt , genealogical data sheet in the portal adelsmatrikel.de , accessed on June 30, 2018
  2. ↑ Genealogical pocket book of the letter aristocratic houses . Perthes, Gotha 1928, p. 537
  3. ↑ Ulrich Schmidt von Altenstadt: Hans-Georg Schmidt von Altenstadt - 1904-1944 . Epubli, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-8442-8477-5 , p. 73
  4. ↑ Detlef Braun: Leverkusen . Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-86680-970-3 , p. 22
  5. ↑ Kulturzentrum Forum , website in the portal leverkusen.de , accessed on July 1, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Altenstadt, Ulrich Schmidt from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Altenstadt, Ulrich S. von; Altenstadt, Ulrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, urban planner and author
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Insterburg , East Prussia