Lucy Hillebrand (6 March 1906, in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

– 14 September 1997, in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

) was a German architect.

Biography

After growing up in an artistic milieu in Mainz, she went on to study architecture under

Dominikus Böhm Dominikus Böhm (23 October 1880 – 6 August 1955) was a German architect specializing in churches. He built churches in Cologne, the Ruhr area, Swabia, and Hesse. Many of his buildings are examples of Brick Expressionism. Life and caree ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. As a result of her talented approach, she soon won a number of competitions leading to successful commissions. While she was the youngest member of the ''Werkbund'' in 1928,

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, pain ...

introduced her to 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., 200 ...

architect

Robert Michels Robert Michels (; 9 January 1876 – 3 May 1936) was a German-born Italian sociologist who contributed to elite theory by describing the political behavior of intellectual elites. He belonged to the Italian school of elitism. He is best know ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. As one of the first independent architects in Germany, she set up her first practice there. Marriage and family did not hold her back: she simply took her young daughter to the office."Lucy Hillebrand"
''FemBio''. Retrieved 10 February 2010. For a 12-year period while 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 was in power, as a "

half-Jew The term Halbjude (English: Half-Jew) is a derogatory term for people with a non-Jewish and a Jewish parent. The overwhelming majority of the so-called half-Jews were legally classified as " first-degree Jewish hybrids" during the era of Nazi Germ ...

" Hillebrand was unable to exercise her profession. Thanks to her husband Otto, she was nevertheless able to assist him on small commissions. After her studios in Frankfurt and

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

were destroyed during the war, she moved to

where she was one of the first architects to receive commissions for public buildings. Her more emancipated, simplistic designs for schools and churches proved effective. She continued in the same vein throughout her life, always willing to learn new approaches, especially for interior design. Her continuing interest can be seen in her plans for a museum for world religions for the Universal Exhibition of Architecture in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

in 1989. Strangely, always working for others, she never designed a home for herself. Mainz honours Lucy Hillebrand with the naming of a road leading to the

University of Applied Sciences Mainz The Mainz University of Applied Sciences (German language, German: ''Hochschule Mainz''), is a 1971-founded university located in Mainz, Germany. The University of Applied Sciences Mainz consists of three faculties: School of Technology, School ...

.Festvortrag Lucy Hillebrand
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillebrand, Lucy 1906 births 1997 deaths 20th-century German architects German women architects People from Mainz 20th-century German women artists