Martin Elsaesser (28 May 1884 – 5 August 1957) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and professor of architecture. He is especially well known for the many churches he built.

Life

From 1901 to 1906, Elsaesser studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

under

Friedrich von Thiersch Friedrich Maximilian Thiersch, after 1897 Ritter von Thiersch (18 April 1852, Marburg – 23 December 1921, Munich), was a German architect and painter in the late Historicist style. Life and work His father, H. W. J. Thiersch, was a prominen ...

and the Technical University of Stuttgart under

Theodor Fischer Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) was a German architect and teacher. Career Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Wer ...

. In 1905 he won the competition for the

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

church of

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

and started to be active as a freelance architect. From 1911 to 1913, he served as an assistant to Professor Paul Bonatz, at Stuttgart Technical University. In 1913, he became professor for

medieval architecture Medieval architecture is architecture common in the Middle Ages, and includes religious, civil, and military buildings. Styles include pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, and Gothic. While most of the surviving medieval architecture is to be seen in ...

at the same institution (until 1920). From 1920 to 1925, he was managing director of the School of Arts and Crafts at Cologne (later known as the

Kölner Werkschulen The ''Kölner Werkschulen'' (Cologne Academy of Fine and Applied Arts), formerly Cologne Art and Craft Schools, was a university in Cologne training artists in visual arts, architecture and design from 1926 to 1971. History Origins The origins ...

). In 1925,

Ernst May Ernst May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a List of German architects, German architect and :German urban planners, city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar R ...

, then government building surveyor in

Frankfurt am Main 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 ...

, made him chief of the city's municipal building department which was responsible for the

New Frankfurt New Frankfurt (German: ''Neues Frankfurt'') was an affordable public housing program in Frankfurt started in 1925 and completed in 1930. It was also the name of the accompanying magazine that was published from 1926 to 1931 dedicated to interna ...

project. Elsaesser kept that post until 1932. His largest construction during his time at Frankfurt was the Grossmarkthalle. During the reign of

National Socialism 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 Naz ...

, Elsaesser did not receive any commissions. Nonetheless, he did not opt for emigration; instead he spent the war years in internal exile, pursuing architectural study tours and utopian designs. After the war, he was professor of design at Munich Technical University from 1947 to 1956. Many of his churches contain paintings by the artist Käte Schaller-Härlin. His grandson is the international film historian

Thomas Elsaesser Thomas Elsaesser (22 June 1943 – 4 December 2019) was a German film historian and professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He was also the writer and director of ''The Sun Island'', a documentary essay film abou ...

Buildings (selection)

*1909: ''Königliche Fachschule für Edelmetallindustrie''

Schwäbisch Gmünd Schwäbisch Gmünd (, until 1934: Gmünd; Swabian: ''Gmẽẽd'' or ''Gmend'') is a city in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the city is the second largest in the Ostalb district and ...

, today Hochschule für Gestaltung *1909–1910: Lutheran church of St. Eberhard,

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...

*1909–1910: Secondary School, Tübingen *1910: Railway bridge, Tübingen *1910–1913: Lutheran Church, Stuttgart-Gaisburg *1911: Lutheran church of St. George, Massenbach *1911–1914: Covered market, Stuttgart *1913–1914: Wagenburg-Gymnasium (secondary school), Stuttgart-Gänsheide *1922–1924: extension to

*1922–1924: Office block for ''Rheinisches Braunkohlensyndikat'',

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...

*1924–1925: Private home, Dr. S.,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

*1925–1926: Lutheran Südkirche, Esslingen *1925–1926: own home,

*1926: Part rebuilding of Lutheran Church of St. Laurentius, Stuttgart-Rohr (replaced in 1980) *1926–1928: Grossmarkthalle,

*1929–1931: Städtische und Universitätsklinik für Gemüts- und Nervenkranke,

, Niederrad *1928–1929: Primary school in Römerstadt,

*1930–1932: Villa Reemtsma, Hamburg-Altona *1937–1938: Sumerbank Headquarters,

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, Turkey *1950–1951: Residential high-rise,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

*1953–1954: Rebuilding of Gustav-Siegle-Haus (Stuttgart Philharmonic)

References

External links

* * * * *
Martin-Elsaesser-Kirchen

Biography of Martin Elsaesser

Martin-Elsaesser-Stiftung

Fotografische Sammlung zum Neuen Frankfurt von Matthias Matzak mit zahlreichen Abbildungen der Bauten von Martin Elsaesser.

Großmarkthalle Frankfurt am Main
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsaesser, Martin 1884 births 1957 deaths 20th-century German architects Expressionist architects Technical University of Munich alumni Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany