Franz Ehrlich (28 December 1907 in Reudnitz near

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

– 28 November 1984 in

Bernburg Bernburg (Saale) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance castle. Geography The town centre is situated in the fertile Magdeburg ...

) was a German architect,

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

and graphic designer. He was a student at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

in Dessau from 1927 to 1930. Ehrlich was a Communist and was arrested and imprisoned by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime in 1935.

Life

After completing elementary schooling at Täubchenweg in Leipzig, Ehrlich began a metal working apprenticeship where he became a part of the German Metal Workers' Union Metallarbeitergewerkschaft (DMV) and the Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Jugend (SAJ). In 1923, he visited the Bauhaus exhibition of

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, wh ...

architecture which sparked his interest in the movement. After completing his apprenticeship and other schooling he studied at the

Bauhaus Dessau Bauhaus Dessau, also Bauhaus-Building Dessau, is a building-complex in Dessau-Roßlau. It is considered the pinnacle of pre-war modern design in Europe and originated out of the dissolution of the Weimar School and the move by local politic ...

from 1927 to 1930. In 1930, Ehrlich left the Bauhaus and followed

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

to work as a freelance designer in Berlin and later in Leipzig. After the takeover of power by National Socialism in 1933, Franz Ehrlich joined the Anti-fascist resistance and took part in the production of illegal magazines and leaflets for the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

known as the Kommunistische Jugendverband Deutschlands (KJVD). Initially imprisoned in the Waldheim penitentiary, he spent most of his sentence in the Zwickau penitentiary. In August 1937 he was released from prison and taken into protective custody. He was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp where, because he was an architect, he was tasked to design the entrance gates for the camp, including the motto ''

Jedem das Seine "'" () is the literal German translation of the Latin phrase '' suum cuique'', meaning "to each his own" or "to each what he deserves". During World War II the phrase was cynically used by the Nazis as a motto displayed over the entrance of Buch ...

'' (German: "to each his own" or "to each what he deserves"). Ehrlich subsequently became the paid main designer for the camp's construction office, designing furnishings for the commandant's house among other jobs. Later a fellow prisoner claimed Ehrlich had helped the Resistance by passing construction details to them. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

had concluded, Ehrlich worked on reconstruction in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

. During the 1960s he was employed as chief architect for the Leipzig Trade Fair. He designed a ''"Messeturm"'' (English: ''Trade Fair Tower'') for it, but this was never built. From 1954 to 1975, he served the Stasi as an informer.

Legacy

Ehrlich became an important architect in the GDR. He bequeathed the

Bauhaus Dessau Foundation The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a nonprofit organization devoted to research and teaching in the field of experimental design. It was founded by the German Federal Government in 1994 and is based in the Bauhaus Dessau building in the state of S ...

a collection of approximately 7000 items, including life drawings, art works, furniture, plans, studies, photographs and publications. The collection is of considerable significance as it sheds light on the work of former Bauhaus students between 1933 and 1945 and on those who subsequently worked in the GDR.Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Legacies.
Retrieved 19 April 2019

References

External links

Franz Ehrlich. ''A "Bauhäusler" in the Resistance and the Concentration Camp''
An exhibition of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, 2 August to 11 October 2009 at the Neues Museum in Weimar. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrlich, Franz 1907 births 1984 deaths 20th-century German architects Bauhaus alumni Architects from Leipzig German communists East German architects Buchenwald concentration camp survivors People of the Stasi