Vilhelms Bokslafs

Wilhelm Bockslaff ( Latvian Vilhelms Bokslafs; * 12 Oktoberjul / October 24 1858greg in Riga, Latvia, .. † March 9, 1945 in Poznań ) was an architect in Riga; he is regarded as one of the most important representatives of the cityscape still influential today directions of eclecticism, the Neo-Gothic and Art Nouveau.

Life

Wilhelm Ludwig Nikolai Bockslaff came from a German-speaking people of Riga merchant family. The grandfather co-founded with others the first Baltic linen weavers. He studied architecture in 1878 at the Riga Polytechnic; after graduating, he is first employed as an assistant in the Polytechnic and as an employee in the architectural firm Koch. In addition to the design of numerous private houses, he succeeds soon received orders for large buildings in Riga.

In addition to own buildings Wilhelm Bockslaff primarily dealt with the receipt and reconstruction of historic buildings such as the Castle Ropa ( Straupe ).

Wilhelm Bockslaff lived in one of the most difficult periods of the history of present-day Latvia by the tsarist Russifizierungsbemühungen about revolution and freedom up to the German -Soviet non-aggression pact; Baltic German as he had to leave Riga in 1939; he died during constant bombardment in the city of Poznan " to a funeral could not think of one, and the daughters, after they had wrapped the deceased father in a blanket, buried him in the yard " ( Priede, p 60).

Important buildings

  • Exchanges - Commercial School in Riga (now Art Academy ), historicist large building in neo-Gothic style
  • Office and residential building of the Great Guild, Amatu iela 4, Riga
  • House, Laipu iela 1, Riga
  • British Club, Lielā Pils iela 11, Riga (now the Danish Embassy )
  • Holy Cross Church, Ropažu iela 120, Riga (together with Edgar Fries Dorff )
  • Hunting lodge Jaunmokas, ( now the town Tume district Tukums )
  • Church, Dubulti
  • St. John's Church in Tartu, remodeling 1899-1904

Literature and source

  • Priede, Gunars: Arhitekts Vilhelms Bokslafs un Riga. The architect Wilhelm Bockslaff and Riga. Riga 1997 ISBN 9984-07-070-0
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