Walter Raschka

Walter Raschka (born November 11, 1891 in Teschen ; † March 15, 1971 in Vienna ) was an Austrian architect .

Life

Walter Friedrich Ludwig Raschka was born the son of the pharmacist Eduard Raschka and his wife Anna and grew up with his siblings Ernst and Cornelia. He attended secondary school in Bielitz , did his military service and then studied between 1912 and 1915 at the Technical University of Vienna . In 1915 he moved to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna where he attended Leopold Bauer's master class . Following the outbreak of the First World War , Raschka was drafted into military service between 1916 and 1918, after which he continued his studies at the academy from 1918 to 1919 with Franz Krauss . In 1919 he passed the diploma examination.

Raschka worked as a freelance architect from 1920 and worked with Ernst Egli from 1924 . After that he was again an independent architect from 1925. Raschka became a civil architect in 1935 and was involved as an informant for the SS security service from around 1933 and also became a member of the NSDAP around 1933 ( membership number 6.133.762). In 1938 he found a job at the Vienna City Planning Office through a "Führer present" , where he worked for the Technology Office of the Vienna Gauleitung. After the office was dissolved in August 1939, Raschka did not appear for work at the municipal building department and was subsequently dismissed without notice. Therefore, he volunteered at the General Command XVII 1c of the German Abwehr and was used as an informant in Poland for three months in 1939 . In 1940 he applied for self-cleaning proceedings in connection with allegations made upon his dismissal and was rehabilitated in 1941.

During the Second World War , Raschka worked from 1940 to 1941 as a technical assistant in the urban planning department of the Niederdonau Reich Governorate. From 1941 he worked as a construction advisor to the General Directorate for Monopolies in the Office of the Governor General in Krakow , and in 1942 he worked in the Office for Land Use of the Government of the General Government . At the beginning of 1944 he finally started working in Berlin , where he was allegedly employed in the Ministry of Armaments and War Production . Nothing is known about his further life and career after the end of the war.

In addition to his work as an architect, Raschka wrote specialist publications such as essays on new construction options with reinforced concrete and urban development. From 1922 he was married to the secretary Isabella Lenius and in 1940 married his second wife, the graphic artist Valerie Elisabeth Marie Braun v. Braunthal, with whom he had a son (Klaus). He got involved in divorce proceedings lasting several years, in which he was described as an “incompatible, contentious character” who “seemed to be taken up by his broadcast as a spatial and urban planner to the point of being ridiculous”. Due to the medical expenses of his first wife, he had high debts and suffered constant seizures.

Works

Dornbacher Strasse 84A

• Rental house, Wien- Landstrasse , Weyrgasse 5 (1924, with Ernst Egli)
• Villa, Vienna- Währing , Max-Emanuel-Straße 13 (1924, with Ernst Egli)
• Villa for the grain dealer Max Feigl, Vienna- Döbling , Scheibengasse 12 (1924–1925)
• Housing complex of the municipality of Vienna, Vienna- Hernals , Dornbacher Strasse 84A (1928)
• Housing complex of the municipality of Vienna, Vienna- Penzing , Rupertgasse 5–7 (1930)
• Apartment building, Vienna-Döbling, Himmelstrasse (1931)

Web links

Commons : Walter Raschka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Walter Raschka. In: Architects Lexicon Vienna 1770–1945. Published by the Architekturzentrum Wien . Vienna 2007.