Werner Jakstein

Werner Jakstein (born February 26, 1876 in Potsdam ; † May 8, 1961 in Hamburg ) was a German architect , painter , writer and architectural historian .

Life and work as a building councilor

Werner Jakstein was the son of a Potsdam city councilor. His mother worked as a drawing teacher. In Potsdam he attended a secondary school , which he left with the Abitur in 1895. From 1896 to 1897 he did his military service as a one-year volunteer . For his achievements during his subsequent studies at the Technical University of Charlottenburg , he received a prize from the university in 1904, which was endowed with a monetary bonus. After passing a state examination in 1909, Jakstein was a Prussian government master builder .

In 1910 Werner Jakstein went to Altona . Here he headed the building maintenance office of the building authority. During his time in Altona he examined and described many architectural monuments in Altona and Schleswig-Holstein. These appeared in building magazines, including the Bau-Rundschau , and daily newspapers. Like Ernst Sauermann , museum director in Flensburg, and the Hamburg professor Oskar Schwindrazheim , with whom Jakstein was friends, he was influenced by the homeland security movement . As a building officer, he promoted modern traditionalism and particularly promoted the construction of new brick buildings. Friedrich Ostermeyer took up Jakstein's suggestions. In 1912 Jakstein was promoted to city planning inspector. He stopped working during the First World War . He did military service as a non-commissioned officer of the IX. Army Corps . Since he published a lot during this time, it can be assumed that he was only used marginally as a soldier. Immediately after the end of the war, Jakel organized a German building exhibition that took place in Bergen , Norway .

In 1921 Jakstein received the title of building officer . In 1927 he received his doctorate in engineering. at the Technical University of Braunschweig . In his doctoral thesis entitled Old Building Drawings , he dealt in particular with buildings from Altona. Both on business and beyond, Jakstein dealt with old buildings, which he was fascinated by. Jakstein, who was described by his friend Werner Kallmorgen as a “little fat building officer” because of his physique, left office on October 1, 1945 at the age of almost 70 years.

Werner Jakstein died in Hamburg in May 1961. In 1965 the Jaksteinweg in Groß Flottbek was named after him.

Part-time activities

Werner Jakstein was seen as a versatile artist. For this reason, he was probably not promoted to the senior building officer. From 1931 to 1933 he organized the events “Cultural Employment Welfare”, which was extremely well received. These were lectures, guided tours through museums and concerts, which were supposed to offer the unemployed a useful range of leisure activities. The series of events was banned by the National Socialists .

Jakstein was active as an artist and writer. He drew and painted watercolors. In books and columnist articles, he dealt with topics that were far from his field of expertise. One of the preferred subjects was Denmark and Danish architecture. Due to a trip after finishing his studies, he wrote his first article about the newly built town hall in Copenhagen. Since the beginning of his activity in Altona he has dealt with the buildings of the architect Christian Frederik Hansen . After years of work, the book Landesbaumeister Christian Friedrich Hansen, the Nordic Classicist , was published in 1937 , and it developed into a standard work. Christian X. awarded Jakstein to the Dannebrogden as a token of recognition for this on September 3, 1937 in the Danish capital .

In 1940 Jakstein wrote Liebe Alte Stadt . The book was created on the basis of the Greater Hamburg Law of 1937, which led to the incorporation of Altona into Hamburg. The book describes Altona as one of the last works before it was destroyed by Operation Gomorrah . Even in his retirement, Jakstein dealt with architectural history topics. After the end of the Second World War , he turned his apartment into the “Altona Building History Archive”. He contacted well over 300 German mayors with the request to determine the degree of damage to historical buildings. Jakstein traveled a lot. In 1954 he traveled to Italy, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Egypt. He also traveled to Denmark several times. At the age of 80, Jakstein wanted to write about "The Beginnings of Stone Construction in Northern Europe". He started work and applied for financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for a trip to England, which he did not receive.

Jakstein had been an honorary member of the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg since 1961 . Part of his estate is kept in the Hamburg State and University Library. In 1963 a memorial exhibition opened by Werner Kallmorgen commemorated the former building officer and artist.

family

Werner Jakstein was married to the translator Thyra Dohrenburg , with whom he had two daughters. He remained closely connected with his sister Gertrud Jakstein, who worked as a drawing teacher and illustrated Jakstein's publications.

Trivia

Werner Jakstein collected historical playing cards. Because of this hobby, his wife left their apartment. At the end of his life Jakstein owned one of the largest private collections in Germany. The cards can be found today in the German Playing Card Museum .

literature

• Hans-Werner Engels: Jakstein, Werner . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 4 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0229-7 , pp. 175-176 .
• Olaf Bartels : Architecture as a national question? The Hansen reception by Werner Jakstein and the Altona architecture between 1910 and 1930 . In: Schwarz, Ullrich (ed.): Christian Frederik Hansen and architecture around 1800 . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-422-06366-2 , p. 181-196 .
• Olaf Bartels and Holmer Stahncke: Werner Jakstein. The structural development of the city of Altona . Two essays. Rainville Edition, Hamburg 2019.