Wilhelm Franz (architect)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wilhelm Franz (born January 23, 1864 in Weilmünster , † November 26, 1948 in Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten near Berlin) was a German architect and university professor .

life and work

Wilhelm Franz attended high school in Wiesbaden. He began his architecture studies at the Technical University of Hanover and then studied from the winter semester 1886/1887 to the winter semester 1890/1891 at the Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg . Wilhelm Franz completed a legal clerkship at the city administration in Wiesbaden from 1893 . He was so successful there that from April 1894 he was appointed head of department in the city building department. During the construction of the New Town Hall in Wiesbaden, Franz got to know and appreciate the architect of the building, Georg von Hauberrisser . After Franz May 16, 1895 as city architect of St. Johann (Saar) (today Saarbrücken had changed) and there from August 1895 salaried Alderman had become, he gave in 1896 Hauberisser as an architect of the city hall of St. John . On July 30, 1896, the St. Johann city ​​council decided to accept Hauberrisser's preliminary project, and a short time later, on September 3, 1896, the contract with Hauberrisser was concluded by the city architect Franz.

Wilhelm Franz wrote in a letter to the mayor of St. Johann Neff on September 26, 1906:

“When we signed the contract, I knew Mr. Hauberisser as a capable artist and, in particular, from the management at Wiesbaden City Hall, I knew that he would be modest in his fee claims. I used that to our advantage. "

- Saarbrücken City Archives, St. Johann holdings, No. 372, p. 355.
Post office St. Johann, photo around 1900
Old post office St. Johann (Saarbrücken) after postmodern reconstruction

Franz designed the post office in St. Johann in 1898 (Dudweilerstraße 15/17, not far from the town hall) in neo-baroque forms.

In 1901 Wilhelm Franz moved from St. Johann to Charlottenburg , where on October 1, 1901 he was appointed full professor in the newly created professorship for structural and industrial structures in Department III for Mechanical Engineering (from 1922 Faculty III for Mechanical Engineering, from 1928 Faculty III for Mechanical engineering, subject area: civil engineering) at the Technical University (Berlin-) Charlottenburg . In the academic years 1902/1903, 1908/1909 and 1909/1910 he was head of department ( dean ) of department III. He retired on February 25, 1929 .

Wilhelm Franz died on November 26, 1948 in Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten near Berlin.

Between 1906 and 1908 Franz built an impressive town hall in the up-and-coming industrial community of Dillingen / Saar . The town hall of Dillingen / Saar is designed in a mixture of neo-renaissance and art nouveau elements. For the main gable, Franz quotes the neo-Romanesque gable of the Metz train station , the Worms central train station and the Aachen central train station . The reference made to the epochs of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, which were seen as idealized under Kaiser Wilhelm II, with the reception of massive styles, served to legitimize and glorify the contemporary empire and was intended to evoke a time in which the Holy Roman Empire was powerful and the ruling house an absolute one and had not been a constitutionally restricted one. The choice of the architectural style and the materials used was consciously used as a symbol of the power of Germanness.

For the two large-format wall paintings in the conference room, Franz arranged for the Charlottenburg landscape and architectural painter Otto Günther-Naumburg , who also taught as a professor at the Technical University of Charlottenburg.

Awards

The Technical University of Wroclaw awarded Franz an honorary doctorate (as Dr.-Ing. E. h. ). On July 12, 1929, Wilhelm Franz was made an honorary citizen of the Technical University of Berlin. The Philosophical Faculty of the University of Berlin also awarded him an honorary doctorate.

buildings

  • Old St. Johann fire station

  • Dillingen town hall, seen from the station forecourt

  • Otto Hahn High School, Saarbrücken-St. Johann

literature

  • Friedrich Hellwig: The Imperial Post and Telegraph Office in St. Johann on the Saar and its building history. In: Saarheimat , 34th year 1990, pp. 42–49.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There are two dates in the student registers for the diplomas: March 24, 1887 (probably for the "Baufführer -prüfung" = 1st state examination) and February 26, 1891 (probably for the "Baumeister examination" = 2nd state examination), Source: Student register vol. III, p. 252 and p. 269; Further sources in addition to the course catalogs and student registers, such as B. the student files have not been preserved due to the destruction in the Second World War.
  2. ^ Fr. Hellwig: The Saarbrücken town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 167, note no.10.
  3. ^ B. Huber: The New Town Hall in Munich, Georg von Hauberisser (1841–1922) and his main work. P. 226, note no.131.
  4. ↑ Charlotte Kranz-Michaelis: Georg Hauberisser's town hall in St. Johann on the Saar. P. 447, note no.15.
  5. ^ University archive of the Technical University of Berlin, Codex Professorum, Wilhelm Franz
  6. ^ VDI-Zeitschrift , Volume 91, No. 6 (from March 15, 1949) (obituary for Wilhelm Franz)
  7. ^ Friedrich Hellwig: The Imperial Post and Telegraph Office at St. Johann on the Saar and its building history. In: Saarheimat 34th year 1990, pp. 42–49, note 33.
  8. ^ Niels Wilcken: Architecture in the border area. Public works in Alsace-Lorraine (1871-1918). Saarbrücken 2000, pages 121-136, especially page 128.
  9. ↑ Manfred Berger: Historische Bahnhofsbauten, Volume 2. Berlin (East) 1987, pp. 91–94.
  10. ^ Lutz-Henning Meyer: 150 years of railways in the Rhineland. (= Contributions to the architectural and art monuments in the Rhineland , Volume 30.) Cologne 1989, pp. 524-526.
  11. ^ Railway building in Worms. In: Altlas for the construction journal , year 1906, sheet 1-4.
  12. ^ Manfred Berger: Historische Bahnhofsbauten, Volume 3. Berlin (East) 1988, pp. 223-227.
  13. ^ Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , 56th year 1906, sheet 1.
  14. ^ Niels Wilcken: Architecture in the border area. Public works in Alsace-Lorraine (1871-1918). Saarbrücken 2000, pages 121-136.
  15. ^ Dillingen Art Association (ed.): Art Guide Dillingen / Saar. Saarbrücken / Dillingen 1999, p. 17.
  16. ↑ A. Jakob: The Siersburg in the course of the centuries. Saarlouis 1958, p. 37.
  17. ↑ digitized course catalogs of the Technische Hochschule Berlin ( memento of the original from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ub.tu-berlin.de
  18. ^ Friedrich Hellwig: The Imperial Post and Telegraph Office at St. Johann on the Saar and its building history. In: Saarheimat , 34th year 1990, pp. 42–49, note 33.
  19. ^ University archive of the Technical University of Berlin, Codex Professorum, Wilhelm Franz
  20. ^ VDI-Zeitschrift , Volume 91, 1949, No. 6 (from March 15, 1949). (Obituary for Wilhelm Franz)
  21. ^ Albert Ruppersberg : History of the former county of Saarbrücken, history of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann 1815-1909, the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914. Volume III, part 2, 2nd edition, Saarbrücken 1914, P. 486.
  22. ^ Albert Ruppersberg: History of the former county of Saarbrücken, history of the cities of Saarbrücken and St. Johann 1815-1909, the city of Malstatt-Burbach and the united city of Saarbrücken up to 1914. Volume III, part 2, 2nd edition, Saarbrücken 1914, Pp. 132-133.
personal data
SURNAME Franz, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Weilmünster
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1948
Place of death Berlin