Walter Maria sponsor

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Ev. Peace Church Monheim-Baumberg (1966–1971)
Catholic Church of St. Gallus in Lichtensteig (1968–1970)
Catholic Church Center Heiligkreuz in Chur (1966–1969)
Catholic Church of St. Franziskus Rapperswil-Kempraten (1978–1979)

Walter Maria Förderer (born March 21, 1928 in Nohl ; † June 29, 2006 in Thayngen ) was a Swiss sculptor , architect , university professor and politician . He was best known for building churches and schools.

Life

Walter Maria Förderer spent his childhood and youth in Basel and Schaffhausen . After attending secondary school and the arts and crafts school specializing in sculpture in Basel, he initially did an internship with the architect Hermann Baur . Before that, he made his way as a freelance sculptor, laborer for a landscape gardener and assistant draftsman in the office of the architect Willi Gossweiler. He lived in Schaffhausen from 1950 to 1955, where he also met his future wife Ursula Hübscher.

In 1956 he opened his own architecture office with Rolf Georg Otto in Basel , which existed from 1958 to 1964 as an office community with Rolf Otto and Hans Zwimpfer . Förderer worked in particular on competition tasks. After early school buildings, the Förderer / Otto / Zwimpfer office group achieved international success with the construction of the St. Gallen University in 1963. After the joint architecture office was dissolved, Förderer, who converted to the Roman Catholic faith in 1951 , primarily built Catholic churches and individual Protestant community centers.

In 1970, together with long-time employees Rudolf Lüscher and Jost Meier, he again founded an office community in Schaffhausen, which lasted until 1978. After that he gave up architecture completely and devoted himself again to sculpture. His so-called space picture boxes were created . He also designed his first stage design work. In 1984 Förderer was awarded the Konstanz Art Prize.

1965 received sponsor a reputation as a professor of cooperative design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe , from 1986 as honorary professor of design at the University of Stuttgart . In 1993 he retired. In addition to his teaching activities, journalism remained important.

From 1973 to 1980 he was a member of the Schaffhausen SP cantons.

Walter M. Förderer died on June 29, 2006 at the age of 78 after a long and serious illness.

plant

Walter M. Förderer was a major exponent of neo-expressionist church building in the 1960s. His church buildings, designed in fair-faced concrete , are characterized by polygonal floor plans, the combination with a parish center, complicated and nested volumes and indirect lighting. Förderer's architectural work is limited to almost 20 years, which explains the artistic unity of his work. Before and after that, sculptural works were created. The architecture of Förderers is attributed to Brutalism - an architectural trend emerging at the beginning of the 1950s that emphasizes concrete in its originality and rawness, strives for a high degree of plasticity in the building forms and the construction details and likes to leave installations visible.

Whether as a lecturer in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, whether as a traveling speaker and journalist - Förderer was also theoretically involved in school and church building. With open spaces, he wanted to invite people to lively encounters and discussions. Forward-looking, he advocated that the Christian denominations rent in city and shopping centers, schools and train stations. After Förderer became known for his ornate sacred buildings, for which he is still valued today, he published his new approach at the end of the 1960s: a "church without a threshold", in which not only services are celebrated. When the professional world was discussing church building in the “post-sacred” era, Förderer dreamed of a hall that could be used for secular events beyond worship and confessional boundaries - a vision that was hardly ever implemented.

buildings

Fonts (selection)

  • with Lucius Burckhardt: Building a process. Teufen 1968.
  • Church building today for tomorrow? Questions of today's architecture and art. Zurich / Würzburg 1964
  • Being creative. St. Gallen 1985.
  • with Alois Riklin: Art and Politics. St. Gallen 1994.

Literature (selection)

  • Max Bächer: Walter M. Förderer 1928–2006. In: Kunst und Kirche, 2, 2007, pp. 49–51.
  • Fabrizio Brentini: Building for the Church. Lucerne 1994.
  • Michael Hanak, Eva Nägeli: The buildings by Walter Maria Förderer in the canton of Schaffhausen , Bern: Society for Swiss Art History GSK [2019] (Swiss Art Guide; 1049 = Series 105), ISBN 978-3-03797-624-1 .
  • Zara Reckermann: Constructions of high pointlessness. Walter Maria Förderer's tightrope walk between architecture and sculpture using the example of St-Nicolas in Hérémence. VDG, Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-89739-635-7 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Förderer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monheim | Friedenskirche. Accessed October 2, 2019 (German).
  2. ↑ http://www.heimatschutz.ch/SH-Neuhausen-Parkrestaurant-am-Rheinfall.346.0.html
personal data
SURNAME Sponsor, Walter Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Förderer, Walter M .; Sponsor, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor, architect, university professor and politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Nohl , Canton of Zurich , Switzerland
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 2006
Place of death Thayngen , Canton of Schaffhausen , Switzerland