Wilhelm Walter (architect)

Wilhelm Walter (born June 16, 1850 in Rüdenhausen ; † February 8, 1914 in Berlin ) was a German architect and construction clerk in the service of the postal administration and, most recently, the Reich Post Office in Berlin.

Life

Origin and education

Born as the son of a pastor in Rüdenhausen in Franconia , Wilhelm Walter attended the Bernhardinum grammar school in Meiningen , which he left in the spring of 1870 when he passed the school leaving examination . As a one-year volunteer , Walter took part in the German-French War with the 4th field artillery regiment "König" of the Bavarian Army . And as a result also at the siege of Paris . After his return, he completed the construction traineeship at the Hamburg-Venloer Bahn , which was still common at that time , before entering the Hanover Polytechnic as a student . There he became one of Conrad Wilhelm Hase's “favorite students” and dedicated himself in particular to studying Gothic . With the completion of the foreman examination, he found work under the direction of Gotthilf Ludwig Möckel in new church buildings in Dresden.

“His pronounced talent and preference for medieval architecture then led him to a large number of private commissions in the field of church architecture in the province of Pomerania , after the Lord President v. Behr-Negendank had come to appreciate it as a particularly skilled person for such work. Here, as in Silesia and the Mark Brandenburg , a number of mansions owe their artistic expansion and partial restoration to him. "

- Obituary

Thanks to his numerous activities, at the age of 42, he passed the Grand State Examination in 1892 with subsequent appointment as Royal Prussian Government Builder.

Career

After a short time, Wilhelm Walter found work as a government master builder in the technical construction office of the Reich Postal Administration in Berlin, in whose service he ultimately remained until his death. When he joined, the postal administration was under the direction of the “creative” State Secretary Heinrich von Stephan . Stephan recognized Walters' talent that went beyond official matters and, in addition to further work, enabled him to study trips to Italy and England .

His first major independent construction task within the Reich postal administration was the planning of the Oberpostdirektion in Karlsruhe, which was carried out from 1897 to 1901. When he returned from Karlsruhe in 1901, he was appointed post construction inspector and a short time later also appointed imperial building officer in the Reich Post Office, Walter subsequently stayed in Berlin. In 1905 he moved to the Oberpostdirektion Berlin , filling the post office building there . Numerous buildings were built over the next few years based on his designs . The parcel post office and the main telegraph office in Berlin were among the last major buildings, the design of which he worked on there and the execution of which he was still initiating . The complex, which was only completed after his death, was one of the most elaborate post offices in the German Empire at the time.

On August 3, 1911, Walter was finally appointed to the Reichs-Postamt as a secret building officer and lecturer . According to the ranking, the highest position in this subject area. As head of department , he was responsible for project planning across the whole of Germany. At the same time, it was largely withdrawn from its own design activities.

Wilhelm Walter had been married in a childless marriage since 1877. His special passion was the high mountains of Tyrol .

plant

Buildings and designs

Construction year	place	address	image	object	measure	Remarks
1880-1881	Semlow	Hauptstrasse 28, 18334 Semlow		Cemetery chapel (based on the mausoleum of Archduke Johann of Austria in Merano)	New building	still used as a chapel, a listed building
1891-1892	Längenfeld			Spa (hotel with thermal baths)	New building	Demolished in 1980
1897-1901	Karlsruhe	Kaiserstrasse  217-219		Oberpostdirektion	New building	today post gallery
around 1905–1911	Berlin	Silesian train station		Post loading point	New building
around 1905–1911	Schöneberg	Luckenwalder Strasse		Postbahnhof	New building	built to handle the mail traffic of the Potsdam and Anhalter train stations
1907-1909	Steglitz	Bergstrasse 1 / Heesestrasse 13/14		Post office Steglitz 1	New building	under monument conservation
1907-1908	Templin			Rest home for post office workers	New building	off-duty construction project
1908-1911	Berlin center	Linkstrasse 4/5		Post office W 9	New building	Construction management and drafting by post construction inspector Ludwig Mayer
1908-1912	Berlin center	Französische Strasse  9/12 / Jägerstrasse  67/68		Post office W 8	New building	Construction management and drafting by post construction inspector Ludwig Mayer; under monument conservation
1910-1916	Berlin center	Oranienburger Strasse  70-76		Parcel post office and main telegraph office	New building	under monument conservation
1912-1914	Tub	Post office , Wanner Strasse 23 location		Post office	New building	top project management by Walter; under monument conservation

Fonts

• Curbad Längenfeld in Oetzthal in Tyrol. In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 13th year 1893, No. 13 (from March 31, 1893), p. 132 f.

literature

• Walter, Wilhelm . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 35 : Libra-Wilhelmson . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1942, p. 121 .

Web links

• Wilhelm Walter. at stille-zeitzeugen.de, accessed on May 13, 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Secret Building Councilor Wilhelm Walter †. In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , 34th year 1914, No. 17 (from February 28, 1914), p. 148.
2. ^ Curbad Längenfeld in the Oetzthal in Tyrol. (see writings)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Thieme-Becker (see literature)
4. ↑ Post office Steglitz 1 in the Berlin State Monument List
5. ↑ Post office W 8 in the Berlin State Monument List