Hans Auer
Hans Wilhelm Auer ( born April 26, 1847 in Wädenswil, † August 30 1906 in Konstanz ) was a Swiss architect. The son of a merchant, studied at the Zurich Polytechnic with Gottfried Semper and the Vienna Academy under Theophil von Hansen. From 1874 to 1883 he led on behalf of Hansen's construction of the Vienna parliament building, from 1885 he was a professor. By far the most famous building Auer is the Federal Palace in Bern: from 1888 to 1892 was about his plans of the east wing, then from 1894 to 1902, the Parliament building, which he conceived as the Swiss national monument. In addition, Auer designed several buildings on behalf of post and rail, including the Lucerne train station. His daughter Grethe Auer (1871-1940) was a writer.
Biography
Youth and studies
Auer's parents were originally from Mountain Forest businessman John Auer and Emma Eliza Auer ( born Henking ), daughter of silk and chemical manufacturer Heinrich Henking from Heidelberg. Hans Wilhelm was the eldest son and spent his childhood in Zurich. When he was 14 years old, the parents divorced. Two years earlier the mother had moved with her two sons to St. Gallen. There, Hans Wilhelm Auer attended high school, which he completed in 1863. He then completed an internship with a builder in Riesbachstrasse in Zurich.
From 1865 onwards, Auer studied architecture at the Polytechnic, now the ETH Zurich. His teachers have included Wilhelm Lübke and Gottfried Kinkel, but the greatest influence exerted from Gottfried Semper. Among his fellow students was Hans Konrad Pestalozzi. Auer joined the fraternity New Zofingia, which was then presided over by later Federal Ludwig Forrer. In August 1868, he finished his studies as top of his class, his thesis was to design a spa hotel in Bad Ragaz.
After graduating Auer worked for several months in the city building department of Schaffhausen. He retired in October 1869 to Vienna, and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts. He decided to be trained by Theophil von Hansen continues, who led a master school of ancient architecture. He consciously decided against Friedrich von Schmidt, whose neo-Gothic style considered the Semper students deprecated. In Vienna, Heinrich Henking, Auer's maternal grandfather lived, who was married in second marriage to a Hungarian. Auer fell in love with Maria Elisa Henking, its only four years older, step- aunt. After she became pregnant, he married her at the beginning of the year in 1871.
From Wizard professor in Vienna
Shortly after Auer had taken up his studies again, Hansen was given by Emperor Franz Joseph I. the planning contract for several buildings, including the Parliament building. To support Auer occurred in spring of 1870 after only one semester as an employee in Hansen's studio one. He also wrote on behalf of the art historian Carl von Lützow several articles on the under construction representative buildings of the Ringstrasse, including those of other architects. 1874 was Hansen Auer construction management for the state house, he also appointed him teaching assistants. These tasks he carried out over the next nine years. 1877 Auer received for his services the Golden Cross of Merit with Crown, 1884 the Franz Joseph Order. As Carl von Hasenauer was preferred in the filling of Hansen's successor as Professor Auer had to increasingly participate in architectural competitions, especially since he had not boast its own building. With his designs, among other things, for the development of the Museum Island in Berlin, he initially had no success.
1885 Auer scored in the competition for the extension of the Federal Palace in Bern second place behind Alfred Friedrich Bluntschli. While Bluntschli according to the prevailing theory of architecture undertook a hierarchical weighting of the parts of the building, Auer designed a symmetrical building complex, where he enrolled at the Capitol in Washington, DC oriented. The jury criticized the symmetry as functionally incomprehensible and criticized in particular the dome. 1887 but continued to Parliament on this decision away and awarded the construction contract to Auer. From 1885 to 1888 Auer worked as a professor at the State Trade School in Vienna. 1886/87 was the first building according to his plans, a sanatorium in Vienna -Josefstadt.
Activities in Switzerland
In March 1888 Auer relocated to Bern, half a year later, construction began on the Federal Palace East. As Auer was not busy with this task, he took over numerous other commitments. He was a member of the Academic Committee of the Canton of Bern Art and the Bernese Art Society, was a director of the Berne Municipal Theatre and from 1890 Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Bern. In 1891 he was elected by the Federal Council, the Swiss Federal Art Commission, which he served until 1898, the last two years as president. Also in 1891 he built the Festbauten for the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the founding of Bern.
Although the Federal Palace East 1892 was completed, the start of construction of the parliament building but passed another two years. To bridge this waiting period led Auer several orders for post and rail. 1892 Station Post the main post office in Solothurn was completed in Liestal, two years later (1975 aborted). Came in 1896 after three years of construction added to the Lucerne train station, he built for the Swiss Central Railway. The station burned in 1971 and 1990 was almost entirely replaced by a new building.
From 1894 Auer was for the most part with the building of the parliament building, the central part of the Federal Parliament, busy. Auer's intention was to give rise symbolically in the Parliament building, the whole of Switzerland, thereby creating a national monument. He sat by the almost exclusive use of Swiss building materials and undertook the selected artists he to comply with the iconographic program. After eight years of construction Auer's main work was completed. For his achievements, the University of Basel as a honorary doctorate and the city of Bern honored him as an honorary citizen.
After the completion of the Federal Palace Auer increasingly suffered from severe depression. One reason for this may be that the neo-Renaissance style of the parliament building was seen as increasingly anachronistic and he had therefore can be partly fallen fierce criticism. Apart from one attachment to his Bernese home and participating in the competition for the Peace Palace in The Hague Auer no longer had the strength for further projects. In April 1906 he was admitted to a sanatorium in Konstanz, where he died at the age of 59 years, four months later.