Willy Weyres

Willy Weyres (born December 31, 1903 in Oberhausen ; † May 18, 1989 in Aachen ) was a German architect and university professor . From 1944 to 1972 he was Cologne's cathedral master builder , for more than ten years diocesan master builder for the Archdiocese of Cologne and from 1955 until his retirement in 1972 he was a full professor of building history and monument preservation at RWTH Aachen University . Under his leadership, Cologne Cathedral was restored and further developed after the Second World War.

Life

Willy Weyres initially studied theology and art history at the University of Bonn from 1922 to 1924 . His teachers included Wilhelm Neuss , Wilhelm Worringer , Heribert Reiners and Paul Clemen . The latter in particular convinced him to study architecture , whereupon Weyres switched to the Rheinisch Westfälische Technische Hochschule in Aachen in 1924 , where Hans Karlinger was  one of his teachers. Karlinger's understanding of modern art and the compatibility of “old” and modern art is considered to have shaped Weyres' further path.

After completing his architecture studies in 1928, Weyres took a semester of glass painting at the Cologne factory with Jan Thorn-Prikker . From 1930 to 1932 he worked as a research assistant and architect at the Provincial Conservator and from 1932 to 1935 as a freelance architect specializing in the preservation of monuments . He restored the collegiate church in Münstermaifeld , the Quirinus Minster in Neuss  and the Limburg Cathedral . From 1935 to 1939 he took on the task of diocesan building council for the diocese of Limburg .

Since 1940, Weyres was responsible for the protection of the works of art in the Rhineland on behalf of the Provincial Conservator. Its task was to secure works of art on monuments as well as the relocation and safe recovery of movable objects of art. In November 1944 he was appointed provisional cathedral builder and from that time on was responsible for the already badly damaged Cologne Cathedral . This included taking appropriate security measures for the building quickly after every bomb attack. Before the end of the war, on April 13, 1945, Weyres began repairing the cathedral. Shortly afterwards, he officially took over the office of master builder, which he held until 1972.

1948 Weyres was from the RWTH Aachen University with a thesis on the west front of St. Victor's Cathedral in Xanten for Dr.-Ing. PhD.

Weyres had already been appointed as Cologne diocesan master builder in 1945 and was thus responsible for the reconstruction of around 200 destroyed churches in the archdiocese as well as around 25 new buildings until 1955.

Grave site in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne

In 1955, Willy Weyres was appointed full professor to the Chair of Building History and Monument Preservation at RWTH Aachen University. In addition to medieval architecture, the focus of his research was on architecture of the 19th century, on which he wrote a comprehensive work and supervised numerous dissertations . His successor at the Chair for Building History and Monument Preservation was Günter Urban . Even as emeritus , Weyres continued to supervise doctoral students until his death .

After his retirement and resignation as master builder in 1972, Weyres continued to scientifically accompany the archaeological excavations under Cologne Cathedral, which he had directed since 1963. In 1988 he published the extensive work Die Vorgotischen Bischofskirchen under the Cologne Cathedral on the early history of the cathedral.

Weyres died on May 18, 1989 in Aachen.

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Self-employed architect and preservationist

As a young architect with a focus on the preservation of monuments, Weyres was mainly involved in the repair of numerous churches in the Rhineland and the Eifel in the 1930s. During the repair of the collegiate church in Münstermaifeld, wall paintings from the 13th to 15th centuries were uncovered, followed by further repairs, but also extensions, interior painting and the design of church windows.

In 1937 one of the few new churches of this time was built in the Eifel village of Rinnen near Kall , based on designs by Willy Weyres .

Cathedral builder in the period of reconstruction

At the end of the war, Weyres' greatest task was the restoration of Cologne Cathedral, which had sustained considerable damage in the Second World War, even if it looked comparatively undamaged in the largely destroyed city. Numerous bombs had struck the roof trusses, 12 vaults had collapsed or badly damaged, tracery on the windows destroyed, the lead covering of the roof almost completely torn away, the crossing tower damaged and the old organ completely destroyed. The western part was much more heavily damaged than the older eastern part with the inner choir.

Under Weyres' direction, the roofs were first re-covered, with the procurement of materials with the help of an American art protection officer. The southern transept, the southwest corner of which had been severely damaged by a bomb strike, was also an early rescue measure. Weyres and his staff succeeded in restoring the eastern part of the cathedral - ambulatory, transepts and the two eastern yokes of the nave - by the 700th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone on August 15, 1948, so that the celebrations in the cathedral desired by Cardinal Josef Frings could take place. Weyres had the still unrenovated nave closed to the west with a temporary partition.

Weyres drove an important decision in 1945: he convinced the cathedral chapter to use the time of the restoration work for archaeological excavations under the cathedral. At his suggestion, Otto Doppelfeld  was entrusted with this in 1945. As early as 1946, Doppelfeld found parts of the previous building during the excavations; further excavations brought finds to light up to the 4th century AD. Weyres also made the far-sighted decision not to fill up the site about two meters below the current floor, but to secure it statically with concrete and make it permanently accessible.

The restoration work consisted of pure reconstructions for Weyres as well as new creations. He engaged young and established artists who brought numerous modern elements and sculptures to the freely designed components that did not directly affect the architectural form as a whole. Weyres' successor in office, his pupil Arnold Wolff , praised these works as "typical zones of young, fresh sculpture that fit harmoniously into the overall stock of the cathedral"; In contrast, Barbara Schock-Werner , cathedral builder from 1999 to 2012, regretted the often poor artistic or craftsmanship quality.

On the other hand, the new south portal doors by the artist Ewald Mataré , whose additional vision of a radically changed, flat overall facade of the south transept was not implemented, are considered to be artistically successful .

The destroyed organ was replaced by a new one, for which Weyres had a completely new concrete structure built on the east side of the north transept. The painting of the undersides of the gallery was done by the artist Peter Hecker  . In contrast to the large, modern west window by Vincenz Pieper from 1963, which was restored to its condition from 1870 under Arnold Wolff in 1980, the organ loft, despite a certain aesthetic displeasure in the cathedral, is a typical example for Barbara Schock-Werner that is worth preserving Weyres' work at the cathedral to the building.

Working as a diocesan master builder

From 1946 to 1956, Weyres was, in addition to his function as master builder of the cathedral, also the diocesan master builder for the Archdiocese of Cologne and thus responsible for the reconstruction of around 200 destroyed churches in the Archdiocese and around 25 new buildings. He drew architects such as Dominikus and Gottfried Böhm , Hans Schilling and Rudolf Schwarz , and during this time significantly promoted modern church building. The former Cologne city curator Ulrich Krings  praised Weyres as one of the “most important stimuli and pointers” of the architecture of the 50s in Cologne.

In terms of monument conservation aspects, Weyre's work as a diocesan master builder and that of his contemporaries Karl Band and Wilhelm Hartmann fell into a “creative” phase in which existing buildings and works of art were preserved and protected, but what was destroyed was not replaced by “imitative copies”, but rather by modern new creations were.

Weyres' approach to the new buildings in the diocese, which was considered to be successful, was shaped by the idea of ​​"[employing] the best possible architect and then [giving] him the greatest possible degree of freedom" "

In addition to the restoration and repair of the churches in the archdiocese, Weyres was also responsible as an architect for a number of new buildings. Together with Günter stand  realized Weyres 1953, the parish church of St. Assumption in Wuppertal - Nächstebreck , together with Kobe Bong  u. a. the parish church of St. Bernhard in Wittlich and the parish church of St. Hedwig in Bonn . Weyres was also involved in the restoration and refurbishment of the Romanesque churches of St. Maria im Kapitol  and St. Pantaleon in Cologne .

Awards

• Grand Cross of the Papal New Year's Order (1972)
• Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class (1979)
• German Prize for Monument Protection (1981)

Fonts

• The minster on the Maifeld. Münstermaifeld 1932.
• The George Cathedral in Limburg. Limburg 1935.
• The west building of St. Viktor in Xanten. Aachen 1948.
• New churches in the Archdiocese of Cologne 1945–1956. Düsseldorf 1957.
• Churches. Handbook for Church Building. Munich 1959.
• with Albrecht Mann : Handbook on Rhenish Architecture of the 19th Century 1800–1880. Cologne 1968.
• Draft for the design of the town hall towers of the Aachen town hall , 1968, not carried out
• with Eduard Trier (ed.): 19th century art in the Rhineland. 5 volumes, Düsseldorf 1979–1981.
• with Otto Doppelfeld : The excavations in Cologne Cathedral. Mainz 1980.
• The pre-Gothic episcopal churches in Cologne. Cologne 1988.

See also

Portal: Cologne Cathedral  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the subject of Cologne Cathedral

literature

• Curriculum vitae. In: Joseph Hoster, Albrecht Mann (ed.): Festschrift for Willy Weyres on the completion of his 60th year of life. Greven and Bechtold, Cologne 1964, pp. 9-11.
• Helmut Fußbroich : Architecture Guide Cologne. Sacred buildings after 1900. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 334 (architects' vitae).
• Herbert Rode: Cathedral builder Willy Weyres 65 years old. In: Kölner Domblatt , yearbook of the Zentral-Dombauverein , 28./29. Episode, Cologne Cathedral Publishing House, Cologne 1968.
• Barbara Schock-Werner : Willi Weyres and the Cologne Cathedral. In: Kölner Domblatt, yearbook of the Zentral-Dombauverein , 69th episode, Verlag Kölner Dom, Cologne 2005, pp. 265–288.
• Arnold Wolff : Willy Weyres. Architect, researcher and teacher. On the death of the Cologne cathedral builder Prof. Dr. Willy Weyres (1944–1972) † on May 18 at the age of 85 in Aachen. In: Kölner Domblatt, year book of the Zentral-Dombauverein , 54th episode, Verlag Kölner Dom, Cologne 1989, pp. 202–206.

Web links

• Literature by and about Willy Weyres in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ For the exact dates: Willy Weyres: The pre-Gothic episcopal churches in Cologne. Studies on the Cologne Cathedral 1 Cologne Cathedral publishing house, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-922442-09-9 (blurb with author's vita)
2. ^ ^{A b} Arnold Wolff: Willy Weyres. Architect, researcher and teacher. On the death of the Cologne cathedral builder Prof. Dr. Willy Weyres (1944–1972). Cologne 1989, pp. 202-206.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Barbara Schock-Werner: Willi Weyres and the Cologne Cathedral. In: Kölner Domblatt, yearbook of the Zentral-Dombauverein, 69th episode, Verlag Kölner Dom, Cologne 2005, pp. 265–288.
4. ^ ^{A b} Hans Georg Lippert: Historicism and cultural criticism. Cologne Cathedral 1920–1960. (= Studies on the Cologne Cathedral, 7.) Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-922442-33-1 , pp. 364–390: “What remained from the day. The restoration of the cathedral "
5. ↑ Ulrich Krings: The sacred building. In: Wolfram Hagspiel , Hiltrud Kier : Cologne. Architecture of the 50s . In: City of Cologne (Hrsg.): Stadtspuren - Monuments in Cologne . tape 6 . JP Bachem , Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-7616-0858-6 , p. 60 (With historical photos and new photos by Dorothea Heiermann).
6. ↑ Christoph Machat: The reconstruction of the Cologne churches. Landeskonservator Rheinland, workbook 40, Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7927-0951-1 , p. 16 f.
7. ↑ Curriculum Vitae. In: Joseph Hoster , Albrecht Mann (ed.): Festschrift for Willy Weyres on the completion of his 60th year of life. Greven and Bechtold, Cologne 1964, pp. 9-11.
8. ↑ Directory of the works of Willy Weyres In: Joseph Hoster, Albrecht Mann (ed.): Festschrift for Willy Weyres on the completion of his 60th year of life. Greven and Bechtold, Cologne 1964, pp. 381–389.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Helmut Fußbroich: Architecture Guide Cologne. Sacred buildings after 1900. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-7616-1683-X , p. 334 (architects' vitae)
10. ^ Arnold Wolff : Federal Order of Merit for cathedral builder Prof. Willy Weyres , in: Kölner Domblatt. Yearbook of the Zentral-Dombau-Verein 44/45. Episode, 1979/1980, p. 462.