Egon Eiermann


Egon Eiermann was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a furniture designer. From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe.

Biography

Eiermann was born in , the son of Wilhelm Eiermann, a locomotive engineer and his wife Emma Gellhorn. He archived his Abitur at the Althoff-Gymnasium and studied architecture at Technische Universität Berlin. From 1925 to 1928, he was master student of Hans Poelzig. After graduating in 1928, he gained professional experience in the construction departments of Karstadt AG in Hamburg and the Berlin electricity works. From 1931 to 1945, he was an independent architect in Berlin and initially planned residential buildings. Before World War II he had an office with fellow architect. During the Nazi era, he mainly created industrial architecture. In 1945, he escaped to Buchen in West Germany, the birthplace of his father. From 1946 to 1965, he had a shared office with Robert Hilgers. In 1948, the office was relocated to Karlsruhe. He joined the faculty of the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe in 1947, working there on developing steel frame construction methods. Students were Oswald Mathias Ungers and. During a study trip to the United States in 1950, he met Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Konrad Wachsmann in Boston and in 1956 also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In 1967, Eiermann chaired the jury in the architectural competition for the Olympic Park in Munich.

Personal life

In 1940, he married in Berlin interior designer Charlotte, Friedheim and in 1954 in Berlin architect Brigitte, née Feyerabendt. He had two children: with his first wife Andreas, from his second marriage Anna.
He died in Baden-Baden, aged 65. He is buried at the Buchen Cemetery.

Works

During the years of reconstruction, his steel-frame industrial buildings became exemplary. The buildings are transparent, inviting, democratic, making order visible.
A functionalist, his major works include: the textile mill at Blumberg ; the West German pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair ; the Embassy of Germany, Washington, D.C. ; the highrise Langer Eugen for the German Parliament in Bonn ; the IBM-Germany Headquarters in Stuttgart ; and, the Olivetti building in Frankfurt. By far his most famous work is the new church on the site of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.
The sets of the 1926 film The Pink Diamond were designed by Eiermann.
Source:
  • 1929–1930 Substation of the Berliner Elektrizitätswerke AG, Berlin-Steglitz
  • 1931–1933 Hesse residential building, Berlin-Lankwitz
  • 1936–1937 Steingroever residential building, Berlin-Grunewald
  • 1938 factory building and boiler house of the Degea-AG-Auergesellschaft, Berlin-Wedding
  • 1938–1939 expansion and conversion of the Total-Werke Foerstner & Co, Apolda
  • 1939–1941 factory buildings of Märkische Metallbau GmbH, Oranienburg
  • 1948–1950 administration and factory building of Ciba AG, Wehr/Baden
  • 1949–1950 handkerchief weaving mill/spinning mill, Blumberg/Black Forest
  • 1950–1953 administration building of the United Silk Weaving Works, Krefeld
  • 1951–1956 experimental power plant of TU Karlsruhe
  • 1953 St. Matthew Church, Pforzheim
  • 1953–1954 Burda Moden publishing house, Offenburg
  • 1954–1961 residential building, Interbau, Hansaviertel, Berlin-Tiergarten
  • 1955–1957 Volkshilfe administration building, Cologne
  • 1956–1958 German Pavilion, World Exhibition in Brussels
  • 1956–1960 administration building of Steinkohlebergwerke AG, Essen
  • 1957–1963 Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin-Charlottenburg
  • 1958–1961 Head office of Neckermann Versand KG, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1958–1961 administration building of the steel structure Gustav Müller, Offenburg
  • 1958–1964 Chancellery building of the German Embassy, Washington
  • 1959–1962 Eiermann house, Baden-Baden
  • 1961–1967 buildings for the DEA-Scholven GmbH refinery, Karlsruhe
  • 1965–1969 high-rise building for members of the German Bundestag, Bonn
  • 1967–1972 Administration and training center of Deutsche Olivetti, Frankfurt am Main,
  • 1967–1972 IBM headquarters, Stuttgart-Vaihingen

    Design

From 1949, the first functional and serially produced seating furniture made of wood and tubular steel was created in cooperation with the Esslingen company.
Source:
  • 1950 SE 68 tubular steel chair
  • 1952 E 10 wicker chair
  • 1952–1953 SE 18 wooden folding chair
  • 1953 table frame Eiermann 1
  • 1960–1961 Church seat SE 121
  • 1965 table frame Eiermann 2

    Awards

Source:
In 1997, the Egon Eiermann Society was founded in Karlsruhe. In 2004, the Bundespost honored Eiermann with a special postage stamp. In Karlsruhe, Egon-Eiermann-Allee was named after him in 2009. One of the lecture halls in the architectural building of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology bears his name. The is an international ideas competition in architecture.

Memberships

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