Willy Graf

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Wilhelm "Willy" Graf , from 1919 Wilhelm Ritter von Graf (born May 26, 1881 in Schwäbisch Hall ; † July 2, 1965 in Stuttgart ), was a German architect who lived and worked in Stuttgart. He was also a reserve officer in the Bavarian Army , most recently in the rank of captain of the reserve.

Life

Former main synagogue in Mainz

Graf was the son of the builder Johann Georg Graf. He studied at the Technical University of Stuttgart , then worked for three years in the Württemberg state service and passed the state examination in building construction in 1904. He then worked as a freelance architect until the outbreak of war.

First years as a freelance architect

For several years he worked with his former fellow student Franz Roeckle in the architectural office Graf & Roeckle. Together with him he won the competition to build the Frankfurt Westend Synagogue , which was built from 1908 to 1910. The designs for the prestigious facade of the Gumbel bank in Heilbronn also originated from the time he worked with Roeckle .

To Graf's famous buildings from this period include the 1909/10 in Art Nouveau style built high school in Kufstein and the 1911-1912 incurred and in the Night of Broken Glass in 1938 destroyed the main synagogue in Mainz .

In 1910 Willy Graf won first prize in a competition for the renovation of the town hall in Heidelberg . In the years 1910 and 1911 a school building was also built in Stuttgart's Weimarstrasse according to his plans.

War deployment in the First World War

During the First World War he served as a reserve officer . As a first lieutenant in the reserve and company commander in Cyclist Battalion 3, he was deployed in Romania at the end of 1916 in the battle for Bucharest fortress . With his company of only 53 men, he explored the front line on the night of December 5th to 6th, 1916 and, after a brief firefight, penetrated four other fortress sections of the northwestern front via Fortul Mogoșoaia without resistance, whose armored turrets were without artillery. When retreating, his troops captured a supply column , then came under Romanian fire and held the position until their own reinforcements arrived. The reconnaissance operation was described as a prerequisite for the subsequent attack operation .

Graf received the Order of Knights of the Military Max Joseph Order on October 28, 1919 for this war mission in Romania in 1916 .

Weimar Republic and Third Reich

Terraced rental houses on Sonnenbergstrasse 6A-6F in Stuttgart.

After the end of the war, the meanwhile ennobled Wilhelm Ritter von Graf worked as an architect again. He designed the plaque of honor for the Jewish soldiers from Stuttgart who died in World War I in the anteroom of the prayer room of the synagogue and the Hospitalstrasse community center , which was executed in sandstone by Josef Zeitler .

The row rental houses on Sonnenbergstrasse 6A to 6F in Dobel , which were built in 1925 according to Graf's plans, are listed as historical monuments .

It is also known that he 1937 - now a respected architect - at the body company Wendler was a progressive "hunting car" in order that the manager and designer Helmut Schwandner taking advice from Reinhard von Koenig-Fachsenfeld and use of patents Paul Jarays for him built. In the 1938 completed streamliner is a six-seat sedan with Ford - V8 engine , which served as a family vehicle. The car was confiscated by the Allies during the invasion after World War II. Von Graf never saw the vehicle again; his widow kept the construction plans.

In the last years of the war from 1944 to 1945 he worked in Stuttgart to restore the buildings that had been destroyed by bombing.

Years after 1945

After the end of the war, Wilhelm Ritter von Graf became head of the Stuttgart maintenance office, which, with its headquarters at Rotebühlstrasse 72, was responsible from September 3, 1946 for the control and management of the repair of war damage to living spaces. He was supported in his task by 71 architects who reported to him as maintenance manager. The office, which worked closely with the US military government , was incorporated into the building subsidy office in 1948.

Afterwards he worked again as a freelance architect and designed mainly residential and industrial buildings.

In 1954, for example, a petrol station with a car care hall and sales pavilion in Reinsburgstrasse 1 / 1a was built in the international style next to the Hamburg-Mannheimer -haus in Stuttgart . The former gas station is now also a listed building.

Honors

  • 1919: Order of Knights of the Military Max Joseph Order
  • The Willy Graf-Straße in Kufstein is named after him.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dieter Krienke, Hedwig Brüchert and the Association for Social History Mainz: The Mainz synagogues: an overview of the Mainz synagogue structures with additional articles on important Mainz rabbis, the old Jewish quarter and the libraries of the Jewish communities . Ed .: Association for Social History. 2008, p. 107 ( google.com ).
  2. ↑ a b c d Knights of Graf. In: Rudolf von Kramer , Otto Freiherr von Waldenfels , Günther Freiherr von Pechmann : Virtuti pro patria. The Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order. Royal Bavarian Military Max Joseph Order, 1966, p. 302.
  3. ↑ Historical Register of Architects on www.kmkbuecholdt.de
  4. ↑ Hans Riebsamen, Franz Roeckle. Example for human meanness , in: FAZ , December 29, 2009 ( online at www.faz.net )
  5. ↑ http://heuss.stadtarchiv-heilbronn.de/index.php?ID=80410
  6. ↑ Gymnasium, Bundesrealgymnasium. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved April 29, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Main Synagogue Mainz on regionalgeschichte.net, accessed on November 6, 2012
  8. ↑ Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung: table of contents… from the Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung… . W. Ernst & Sohn, 1910, p. 268.
  9. ^ Royal Institute of British Architects: RIBA Journal 1915, p. 492.
  10. ↑ a b Graf, Wilhelm Ritter von. In: Bavaria's golden book of honor 1914–1918. Bavarian War Archives , Verlag Joseph Hyronimus, Munich 1928, p. 25. ( online )
  11. ↑ List of cultural monuments. Immovable architectural and art monuments , April 25, 2008 ( digitized version )
  12. ^ A b Ralf JF Kieselbach: Streamlined Cars in Germany. Aerodynamics in car construction 1900 to 1945. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1982, pp. 87-90.
  13. ↑ Ralf JF Kieselbach: Custom-made bodies. Erhard Wendler 1923 to 1963. Kohlhammer, 1982, p. 82. ISBN 978-3-170-07625-9
  14. ↑ Photos by Ritter von Grafs Wendler V8: front view , side view
  15. ^ Edgar Lersch : Stuttgart in the first post-war years. Klett-Cotta, 1995, p. 56. ISBN 978-3-608-91287-6
  16. ^ Office building of the Hamburg-Mannheimer Versicherung with a former gas station. In: Martin Wörner; Gilbert Lupfer; Ute Schulz: Architectural Guide Stuttgart. Reimer, 2006, p. 73.
personal data
SURNAME Count, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graf, Wilhelm Ritter von; Graf, Wilhelm (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect and Bavarian reserve officer
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwäbisch Hall
DATE OF DEATH July 1965
Place of death Stuttgart