Heinrich Wenck


Heinrich Emil Charles Wenck was a Danish architect, known for the numerous railway stations he designed in his capacity of chief architect for the Danish State Railways from 1894 to 1921. During the years Wenck held the post, the railway network in Denmark experienced a strong expansion and he designed around 150 stations of which 15 are listed today. Among these are Copenhagen Central Station and the Øresund Railway stations which are examples of his National Romantic and Historicist styles. From 1903 he was a titular professor at the Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Biography

Heinrich Wenck was born on 10 March 1851 in Aarhus to Theodor Wenck, a military officer and later general à la suite who worked for the Danish road services, and his wife née Pacht. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1869 studying under Ferdinand Meldahl and Christian Hansen, graduating in 1876. In 1878 he won the Academy's small gold medal for a project for a library in Neo-Gothic style and received a travel scholarship which took him to Italy from 1883 to 1885.
From 1882 Wenck was employed by the Danish State Railways. He first worked under chief architect Niels Peder Christian Holsøe but from 1891, when Holsøe was hit by an eye disease, he gradually took over more of his responsibilities with title of First Architect, before succeeding him as Chief Architect in 1894. His first major assignment was Helsingør railway station which he designed in collaboration with Holsøe. It was inaugurated on 24 October 1891.
From 1895 to 1897 he worked on the stations for the Øresund Railway which connected Copenhagen to Helsingør. They are designed in a fabulating National Romantic style which draws on inspiration from Martin Nyrop. Wenck did not just design the stations proper but also a number of related buildings, such as carriage houses, offices, housing for workers, switchmen's houses, warehouses and lavatories. With many of the stations, his approach was that of Gesamtkunst to the effect that he also designed the signs, door handles, chandeliers and painted frescos. The stations won him the Eckersberg Medal in 1898.
Wenck retired from the State Railways in 1921 and was succeeded by Knud Tanggaard Seest. He died in 1936

Selected works