Ludwig Karl Hilberseimer (September 14, 1885 – May 6, 1967) was a German architect and

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

best known for his ties 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., 20 ...

and to

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

, as well as for his work in urban planning at Armour Institute of Technology (now

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

), in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Illinois.

Life

Hilberseimer studied architecture at the Karlsruhe Technical University from 1906 to 1910. He left before completing a degree. Afterward he worked in the architectural office Behrens and Neumark. Until 1914 he was coworker in the office of Heinz Lassen in Bremen. Later he led the planning office for Zeppelinhallenbau in Berlin Staaken. Beginning in 1919 he was member of the Arbeitsrat für Kunst and November Group, worked as independent architect and town planner and published numerous theoretical writings over art, architecture and town construction. In 1929 Hilberseimer was hired by

Hannes Meyer Hans Emil "Hannes" Meyer (18 November 1889 – 19 July 1954) was a Swiss architect and second director of the Bauhaus Dessau from 1928 to 1930. Early life Meyer was born in Basel, Switzerland, trained as a mason, and practiced as an architect ...

to teach at the

Dessau Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßl ...

, Germany. In July 1933 Hilberseimer and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

were the two members of the Bauhaus that the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

identified as problematically left-wing. Like many members of the Bauhaus, he fled Germany for America. He arrived in 1938 to work for Mies van der Rohe in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

while heading the department of urban planning at IIT College of Architecture. Hilberseimer also became director of Chicago's city planning office.

Work

Street hierarchy The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the netw ...

was first elaborated by Ludwig Hilberseimer in his book ''City Plan'', 1927. Hilberseimer emphasized safety for school-age children to walk to school while increasing the speed of the vehicular circulation system. Beginning in 1929 at the Bauhaus, Hilberseimer developed studies concerning town construction for the decentralization of large cities. Against the background of the economic and political fall of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

he developed a universal and global adaptable planning system (The new town center, 1944), which planned a gradual dissolution of major cities and a complete penetration of landscape and settlement. He proposed that in order to create a sustainable relationship between humans, industry, and nature, human habitation should be built in a way to secure all people against all disasters and crises. His most notable built project is

Lafayette Park, Detroit Lafayette Park is an neighborhood located east of Downtown Detroit. It contains a residential area of some 4,900 people and covers 0.07 sq mi. The northern section planned and partially built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is listed in the Nationa ...

, an urban renewal project designed in cooperation with architect

and landscape architect

Alfred Caldwell Alfred Caldwell (May 26, 1903 – July 3, 1998) was an American architect best known for his landscape architecture in and around Chicago, Illinois. Family and education Caldwell and his wife Virginia had a daughter, Carol Caldwell Dooley, born ...

. The Ludwig Karl Hilberseimer Papers collection, including drawings, photographs, and other printerial material, is held by the

Ryerson & Burnham Libraries The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries are the art and architecture research collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The libraries cover all periods with extensive holdings in the areas of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century architecture and 19th-century ...

in the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

Published writings

*Building of large cities; Aposs - publishing house, Hanover, 1925 *Large-town architecture; Julius Hoffman publishing house, Stuttgart, 1927 *Concrete as Form; with Dr. Julius Vi, Julius Hoffmann publishing house, Stuttgart, 1928 *International new architecture; Julius Hofmann publishing house, Stuttgart, 1928 *Hall constructions; J.M. Gerhardt, Leipzig, 1931 *The New City. Principles of Planning; Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1944. ASIN B0007DTJQQ. *The New Regional Pattern. Industries and Gardens. Workshops and Farms; Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1949. ASIN B0007DW0NA. *The Nature of Cities. Origin, Growth, and Decline. Pattern and Form. Planning Problems; Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1955 *Mies van der Rohe; Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1956 *Entfaltung einer Planungsidee; Bauwelt Fundamente 6, Berlin, Frankfurt, Wien, 1963 *Contemporary Architecture, Its Roots and Trends; Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1964 *Berlin architecture of the 20s; Florian copper mountain publishing house, Mainz, new building house books, 1967

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilberseimer, Ludwig 1885 births 1967 deaths 20th-century German architects German urban planners Modernist architects from Germany Bauhaus teachers Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Illinois Institute of Technology faculty Architects from Karlsruhe * ''In the light of Hilberseimer'', ''Plácido González Martínez'' Vibok Works (2016)