![Public art- Ore Obelisk2 Perth](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Public_art-_Ore_Obelisk2_Perth.jpg)
Paul Ritter (6 April 1925 – 14 June 2010) was a
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n architect, town planner, sociologist, artist and author. In his roles as the first city planner of the
City of Perth
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and subsequent two decades spent serving as Councillor for
East Perth
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from ...
, Ritter is remembered as a brilliant, eccentric and often controversial public figure who consistently fought to preserve and enhance the character and vitality of the central city district. Today he is primarily remembered for his involvement in preserving many of Perth's
heritage buildings at a time of rapid redevelopment and preventing the construction of an eight-lane
freeway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
on the
Swan River foreshore.
Ritter's later career was blighted by a 3-year prison sentence for making misleading statements in applying for
export marketing grants.
Early years
Ritter was born in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
on 6 April 1925 to Jewish parents Carl Ritter and Elsa (née Schnabel). In 1939, at the age of 13, Ritter was evacuated from
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
via the
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
. He graduated as a Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Civic Design from the
University of Liverpool
, mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning
, established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...
. In 1946 he married fellow-graduate Jean Patricia Finch with whom he eventually had five daughters and two sons.
[Ritter, Helen]
Honouree Profile of Jean Ritter
at Edith Cowan University
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is a public university in Western Australia. It is named in honour of the first woman to be elected to an Parliaments of the Australian states and territories, Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, and is the only Aust ...
Foundation
From 1954 to 1964, Paul and Jean Ritter ran the Ritter Press in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
, where Paul taught at the School of Architecture from 1952 to 1964, when the School moved to the University, and a new professor was appointed.
Throughout their life, the couple would combine their talents, shared interests and idealism in an enduring professional partnership which they named 'The Planned Environment and Educreation Research (PEER) Institute'.
[Ritter, Paul, (1989) ''Curses from Canberra : public service conspiracy and the failure of democratic safeguards'' Perth, W.A : P.E.E.R. Institute, 1989. ] Together they wrote and published their first book in 1959 entitled ''The Free Family'', describing how they applied their beliefs about child-rearing to their own children.
Early career
In the early 1960s, Ritter was teaching at the
Nottingham School of Architecture while acquiring an international reputation as an architectural theorist with new ideas and unquenchable energy. His 1964 book, ''Planning for Man and Motor'' contained his theories and advocacy for the separation of pedestrians and cars and brought him to the attention of the global planning profession. He was recognised as a world authority on town planning matters.
A world tour in promotion of this book brought him to Perth, a city for which he expressed great enthusiasm.
Career in Western Australia
Chief planner at the City of Perth
Mr.
W. A. McI. Green, Town Clerk of Perth City Council (PCC), invited Ritter to head the council's newly formed Department of Planning. Ritter accepted, and after migrating with his family to Perth in late 1964, began work as Perth's first City Planner in May of the following year.
Retiring in 1965, Green was unable to have his preferred candidate appointed City
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
, and his replacement, G. O. Edwards, was a man whom Ritter felt was inadequate, and who lacked the experience and ability to keep councillors in order and staff loyal and committed.
Ritter arrived at a transitional time in the history of Perth and his tenure as chief planner was short and turbulent. Ritter saw his role as including that of public advocate and educator and he delivered more than 200 speeches that brought town planning matters to widespread public attention. These public and media appearances led to tension and eventually outright conflict with City administration and some of the City’s Councillors. Mr Edwards, the CEO, tried to enforce a City regulation preventing staff speaking to the media about City business. When the Council banned Ritter from attending a conference in Brisbane it received national media attention and widespread ridicule.
The Council, then comprising 26 members, was split between supporters and opponents of RItter leading to some contentious special meetings on the issue.
In 1967, he was controversially sacked. Ostensibly Ritter was accused by the City Council of failing to produce the statutory planning scheme that was required by the
Metropolitan Region Planning Authority (MRPA). The MRPA had been formed in 1963 to convert the Stephenson-Hepburn ''
Plan for the Metropolitan Region'' into a statutory scheme for the whole of Perth. The relationship between the MRPA's Chief Planner, David Carr and Paul Ritter soon began to deteriorate. Perth historian
Jenny Gregory believes the falling out was due to the
state government
A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...
's (and Carr's) view that the role of the PCC was to fill in the details of the overarching metropolitan scheme. Ritter himself insisted that, despite some personal animosity, "the one and only major contention" between the two was regarding the Government Freeway Plan, which Carr backed and Ritter vigorously opposed.
Following his sacking in 1967, a committee comprising Sir
Walter Murdoch
Sir Walter Logie Forbes Murdoch, (17 September 187430 July 1970) was a prominent Australian academic and essayist famous for his intelligence and wit. He was a founding professor of English and former Chancellor of the University of Western A ...
,
Mary Durack Miller, Stella O'Keefe, Professor E. K. Braybrooke, Professor
G. C. Bolton,
Thomas Wardle
Sir Thomas Edward Wardle (born 1912 in West Leederville, Western Australia, died in 1997) was a businessman and supermarket proprietor from Western Australia. He was best known for his "Tom the Cheap" supermarket chain as well as revolutionisi ...
and Dr. R. B. Lefroy was formed to inquire into the dismissal. He later successfully sued for
wrongful dismissal
In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one or more terms of the contra ...
.
Councillor
With his public profile bolstered by his dismissal, five months later Ritter was able to return to the City of Perth as a councillor for the East Ward. From 1968 to 1986 he would become a prominent figure during the decline and subsequent transition of
East Perth
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from ...
. As a councillor he showed concern for the amenity of East Perth, encouraging improvements to programs of street-sweeping and rubbish-removal, and seeking to involve the community in the decision-making process.
As a member of the city's town planning committee he sought to hasten the construction of the city by-pass to overcome the deterioration of buildings in the freeway reserve and the exodus of business and residents. Ritter continued to self-publish newsletters and pamphlets outlining his ideas. "For too long", he wrote in one, "planning
East Perth
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from ...
was delayed because of Railway and Freeway uncertainties. Now that these have been overcome and we are pressing for special efforts to give the sort of attention that has been lavished on
West Perth to East Perth planning".
Architect, consultant and ministerial adviser
![Rockingham Park Kindergarten, March 2022 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Rockingham_Park_Kindergarten%2C_March_2022_02.jpg)
In 1968 and 1970, Paul Ritter was involved in the design of the subdivisions of Rockingham Park in Rockingham, and
Crestwood Estate
Thornlie is a large residential suburb of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, located south-east of the city's central business district. It is a part of the City of Gosnells local government area. The Canning River runs through the ...
in
Thornlie,
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. To these he introduced
Radburn principles
Radburn design housing (also called Radburn housing, Radburn design'', ''Radburn principle, or Radburn concept) is a concept for planned housing estates, based on a design that was originally used in Radburn, New Jersey, United States.
History ...
. Every house sits on the edge of a park, and movement on foot through the development via pedestrian underpasses is possible without encountering vehicles.
In 1971, he was appointed by the state Minister for Town Planning (
H. E. Graham) to report on the
MRPA proposals for the
Corridor Plan for Perth
The 1970 ''Corridor Plan for Perth'' provided a strategic framework for planning the growth of the metropolitan region of Perth, Western Australia. The plan superseded the 1955 '' Plan for the Metropolitan Region'' and established the principles ...
; however his report had little impact.
He spent 36 years as a ministerial adviser. He was a member of the Committee for a Vision of Perth in 2029 . He also produced the "1999 Ideas Plan" for the City of Perth, was involved with the "Perth in 2029" report and created a series of 13 half-hour
Channel 31 TV programs about the report, entitled "The Sensitive Future".
Imprisonment
During the late 1970 and early 1980s, Ritter became increasingly focussed on the promotion of a patented concrete moulding method he called “Sculpcrete”.
Ritter's business activities associated with this invention led to serious financial problems and ultimately, a conviction for fraud. In promoting his concrete technology overseas, Ritter had sought to obtain reimbursements for expenses under the Commonwealth government export grants program. After several successful claims, extensive investigations by the export board led to his subsequent applications being denied.
[Ritter, H. (2005). "My dearest Mum": a biographical journey based on my mother's letters from Australia to England 1968-1985. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/637] His family would later acknowledge that whilst his business practices had been questionable, he had always maintained that if he was doing anything wrong, the board would simply disallow the claims.
In 1983, the Federal police commenced an investigation into whether he had attempted to mislead the
export grants board. The investigation included interviews with his overseas business associates and contacts, and led to Ritter’s arrest in August 1984. He received a 3-year prison sentence, of which he served 16 months in
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
and
Karnet. Paul Ritter maintained that he was framed, but his appeal was dismissed in 1986, and he abandoned an appeal to the
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution.
The High Court was established fol ...
. After his release he published ''Curses From Canberra: public service conspiracy and the failure of democratic safeguards''. The imprisonment and subsequent efforts by the export board and tax office to force repayment of funds led to the bankruptcy of Ritter and his wife.
Philosophy, legacy and achievements
Orgonomic Functionalism
Between 1954 and 1964, Ritter Press mainly published the journal ''Orgonomic Functionalism'', devoted to the work of
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
, which appeared in 38 issues in 10 volumes. Paul Ritter was the editor and main contributor. Reich did not accept him as his follower, and wrote in a letter to
A. S. Neill: "He claims now to establish the TRUE Functionalism. I am a kind of precursor. He is ending in utter confusion." After Reich's death in 1957 Ritter edited a ''Reich Memorial Volume'' with contributions by the Ritters, Neill,
Nic Waal
Nic Waal, born Caroline Schweigaard Nicolaysen in Kristiania, Norway (1 January 1905 – 28 May 1960) was a Norwegian psychiatrist, noted for her work among children and adolescents in Norway where she is known as "the mother of Norwegian pediatr ...
, and the later Reich biographer
Myron Sharaf
Myron Russcol Sharaf (July 7, 1926 – May 13, 1997) was an American writer and psychotherapist. He was a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the director of the Center for Sociopsychological Research and Education at Boston State Ho ...
.
Education and child-rearing
Paul Ritter was powerfully affected by his experience of the
holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
and spent his life trying to understand humanity and to promote healthy ways of thinking and being. He was strongly influenced by the work of
A.S. Neill
Alexander Sutherland Neill (17 October 1883 – 23 September 1973) was a Scottish educator and author known for his school, Summerhill School, Summerhill, and its philosophy of freedom from adult coercion and community self-governance. Raised i ...
and
Wilhelm Reich
Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
. He focussed on the self-regulation of children, educreation (education for creation, growth and change) and city-planning for pedestrians as well as motor cars. At the end of his life he had developed a 'science of relating' that emphasised the need for a therapeutic and empathic approach to all problems. He analysed healthy interactions as having three complete phases: attraction, fusion and liberation.
Planning achievements at the City of Perth
To some he was a maverick planner, a progressive modernist whose radical ideas took Perth by storm. Yet Ritter saw himself as a counter to the decisive and destructive influence of economic rationalism on the planning and growth of the city at the time.
Ritter's ideas and achievements left a profound and enduring legacy. He created the City's town planning department from scratch, and was responsible for 'a far sighted parking plan' and multilevel structure that took advantage of the central city topography to lay the foundations for a vibrant pedestrian precinct with walkways linking the Northbridge cultural centre via arcades to St Georges Terrace. He worked to preserve many historic buildings through a variety of means, including the alteration of plot-ratio requirements, was partially successful in limiting reflective glass on skyscraper facades and participated in the successful campaign to save the
Barracks Arch
The Barracks Arch is located on the corner of Malcolm and Elder Streets, at the western end of St Georges Terrace in Perth, Western Australia.
The Barracks
Designed by Richard Roach Jewell, the Barracks were originally built from 1863 to 18 ...
from demolition. He held frequent public meetings to persuade people of his ideas and drew up a draft town-planning scheme for Perth.
Freeway along the Swan River Foreshore
Despite substantial differences that resulted in his dismissal shortly afterwards, Ritter convinced the council to reverse an earlier resolution supporting the Government Freeway Plan and instead to oppose it. This is now considered Ritter's greatest legacy, for the plan would have run a freeway down the
Swan River foreshore to surround the city with what architect
Theodore Osmundson described as an "iron collar
hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
can only eventually choke the central city to death".
Ritter successfully argued that a freeway along the foreshore would cut the city off from the waterfront and was unnecessary in terms of traffic volumes, and that the proposed
northern freeway leg would be sufficient to carry commuter traffic.
Ritter claimed that this challenge to Carr's authority was not lightly forgiven, but in spite of this the two individuals "cooperated on virtually all other issues".
Views on Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book '' The Death and Life of Great American Cities ...
's 1961 work ''
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
''The Death and Life of Great American Cities'' is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States. ...
'' was criticised by many modernist planners and architects of the time, Paul Ritter included. He called her a "muddle-headed influence in planning" and declared that she should never have had the chance to put her ideas forward. Her book was a "shallow analysis of planning problems" and she undermined the best planning practices by taking no account of changes to the car, to the environment and to the modern city. He ridiculed her "confused thinking" and insistence upon streets and small blocks over the
superblock for which he was an advocate in his 1964 work, ''Planning for Man and Motor'':
Awards
* Man of the Year, ''Architects' Journal'', London 1962
* Runner-up, Citizen of the Year, Western Australia, 1974 and 1976
Memberships
* Founder Director, International Traffic Segregation Research Office, 1953
* Member of Advisory Committee of the
Civic Trust
* Member of the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
* Fellow of the
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
(United we advance architecture)
, predecessor =
, merged =
, successor =
, formation =
, extinction =
, status = Professional body; members association
, headquarters = L1/41 Exhibition St, Melbourne
, leader_title = CEO
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* Fellow of the
Royal Town Planning Institute
The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the professional body representing planners in the United Kingdom, and Ireland. It promotes and develops policy affecting planning and the built environment. Founded in 1914, the institute was gra ...
* Member of the Royal Australian Planning Institute, Perth (now the
Planning Institute of Australia
Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) is the peak national body representing town planning and the planning profession in Australia. PIA represents approximately 5000 members nationally and internationally. It is governed by a National Board of D ...
)
* Member of the
Metropolitan Regional Planning Authority, W.A.
Bibliography
;Environment
* ''Planning for Man and Motor'' Oxford: Pergamon Press 1964, 1970
* ''Humanizing Concrete'' Ritter Press 1967
* ''Kids and Concrete'' Ritter Press 1979
* ''Concrete fit for people: Towards a Bio-functional Eco-architecture: a Practical Introduction'' Down to Earth Bookshop/Pergamon Press 1980
* ''Concrete Renaissance'' Down to Earth Bookshop/Pergamon Press 1982
* ''Bio-Building'' Down to Earth Bookshop/Pergamon Press 1983
;Sociology
* ''Housing and Social Patterns'' Ritter Press, Nottingham 1957
* ''Deck Housing'' Ritter Press, Perth 1965
* ''Faces of Perth'' Ritter Press, Kelmscott 1967
;Education
* ''The Free Family'', Paul and Jean Ritter, Gollancz, 1959
**Translated into German by Rowohlt, 1972 & 1978;
**Translated into Dutch by Nelissen and Bloemendaal, 1973;
**Translated into Hebrew by Massada, 1973;
**A later edition, ''The Free Family and Feedback'', Gollancz, 1975, had a large additional section with comments from the children, now young adults, on their upbringing.
*''Educreation'', Paul Ritter, Oxford Press, 1966
**''Educreation and Feedback'', Pergamon Press, 1979
*''A Fascinating Record: 25 Years 1953–1978, Peer Institute Perth'', Paul and Jean Ritter, PEER Institute, 1978.
;Biography and philosophy
* ''Orgonomic Functionalism'' (Periodical) Edited by Paul Ritter, Ritter Press, 1954–1964
* ''Universal Manifestations of Orgone Energy in Spirals'' Ritter Press, Nottingham 1954
* ''Some New Formulations in Orgonomy'' Ritter Press, Nottingham 1955
* ''Wilhelm Reich; Memorial Volume'', Edited by Paul Ritter, Ritter Press, 1958
* ''The Ten Taboos'' Down to Earth Bookshop Press, Perth 1981
* ''Prison Poems'', Karnet 1986
* ''Prison Poems'', Karnet 1987
* ''Curses from Canberra'' PEER Institute, Perth 1989
;Other
*''Perth in Peril'', Paul Ritter, Ritter Press, 1968.
*’'Perth Break Through of Break Down: A Crisis in Regional Planning'’, Paul Ritter, PEER Institute, Perth 1971
*’'Perth central area design co-ordinating study'’ Section: An Answer to the Stephenson Report on Central Perth'’, Paul Ritter, City Council Town Planning Committee, 1975
Other work
In
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
and later in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, he and Jean Ritter ran several exhibitions called "The Child's Eye View", where everything was built 2.5 times normal size to show adults what it was like to be a child.
In the
Supreme Court Gardens
__NOTOC__
Supreme Court Gardens is a park in the central business district of Perth, Western Australia, bounded by Riverside Drive, Barrack Street, Governors Avenue, and the buildings of the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
In the late 188 ...
in central Perth, his sculpture "The Ore Obelisk" (1971) symbolises the diversity of mining industry from which Western Australia's wealth is largely derived.
The Ore Obelisk
at Australia Down Under
References
Further reading
* Gregory, Jenny ''City of light: a history of Perth since the 1950s''. Section: "Paul Ritter - career of Perth's first City Planner, controversies and achievements and his work as a Perth City Councillor", pp. 134–152. City of Perth, 2003.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritter, Paul
2010 deaths
1925 births
Australian Jews
Australian non-fiction writers
Australian people of Czech-Jewish descent
20th-century Australian sculptors
Australian urban planners
Jewish sculptors
People from Perth, Western Australia
Architects from Prague
Radburn design housing estates