Bruno Schmitz
Bruno Schmitz ( born November 21, 1858 in Dusseldorf, † April 27, 1916 in Berlin) was a German architect. He gained particular through its representative Denkmalbauten worldwide recognition.
Life and work
He received 1874-1878 at the Art Academy Dusseldorf His training. He then worked in the studio of the renowned Düsseldorf architect Hermann Riffart. 1883, the 1st Prize he was awarded in the competition for the Vittorio Emanuele Monument in Rome. However, it was built by a different architect.
In the 1890s, three of the most important Kaiser Wilhelm monuments arose after the draft Schmitz ': the Kyffhäuserdenkmal, the Monument at the German Corner in Koblenz and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial at the Porta Westfalica. On the occasion of the inauguration of the monument Kyffhaeuser Schmitz in 1896 awarded the Prussian Red Eagle Order IV class.
January 31, 1897 was held in Berlin under the direction of William Boeckmann the Constituent Assembly of the Committee on National German festivals which deliberated on a new hard for the German people. It should be a combination of Championship of Germany and National Festival, analogous to the Olympics of the Greeks. Even the words Fight and pilgrimage were used in the argument. William Boeckmann had previously visited the newly built Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial in Kyffhaeuser Mountains. Other participants suggested Berlin, Leipzig and Eisenach ago. In the end, however, the decision was made in favor of Wolwedatals next to the Kyffhäuserdenkmal.
Bruno Schmitz, who won the architectural competition for the Kaiser- Wilhelm- Memorial, was commissioned to create sketches for now to be built yet in close proximity to national fixed site. The plan was a land use in Wolwedatal of about 550 times 370 meters, 300,000 to 400,000 seats, an approximately 10 ha of water surface as well as the connection to the Kyffhäuserdenkmal. Sports clubs, as well as choral societies should bring forward proposals. As a sports rowing, cycling, swimming, and gymnastics were being considered. The project was not implemented. Also a later proposed smaller version (above Kelbra ) did not come as the planning phase.
For his friend Emil Jacobsen in 1899 he designed the so-called Havel Müller villa in Berlin- Tegel, Gabriel 70, which was demolished in 1975.
Schmitz was from 1899 judges in several contests to designing scrapbooks for Stollwerck collecting images, including the cover of the scrapbook section 3 together with Justus Brinckmann, architect Wilhelm Emil Meerwein and painter Julius Christian Rehder from Hamburg.
The 1913 finished Battle Monument in Leipzig was the culmination of Schmitz ' work.
Private
Bruno Schmitz married the singer Lucia Wanda Genelli ( a granddaughter of the graphic artist Bonaventura Genelli ). 1892, the first daughter Gabi was born on August 6, 1893, the second daughter Angelica. This later became known as a sculptor Gela Forster.
Schmitz was implicated by his wife and his friend Otto Hammann, press officer at the Foreign Office, in one of the most prominent adultery scandals of the Empire. The marriage ended in divorce in 1902.
His second wife, he married the soprano Hedwig Schweickershausen.
Schmitz was a member of the Confederation of the Freemasons.
Although Bruno Schmitz example, had also designed as an artist mausoleums, he decreed for themselves bequeathed a simpler form of burial, in which his ashes should be spread into the Rhine. This last wish was not met him on the basis of German law, his ashes were instead buried in Kyffhäuserdenkmal.
In the 1930s, a road was in a Leipzig- Paunsdorfer small settlement named after him (at the Seller houses cemetery). In the 1960s, his hometown Dusseldorf named a street in the growing neighborhood Garath after him.
Work (selection)
Monuments
The German Corner at the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine in Koblenz
Empress Augusta monument in the Koblenz Rheinanlagen
Battle of the Nations Monument in Leipzig
Mausoleum Aschrott in Berlin-Weissensee
Building
Villa Stollwerck in Cologne
Rosengarten in Mannheim
Weinhaus Rheingold in Berlin