Aarhus Universitet - hovedbygnings bagside

Povl Christian Stegmann (1888–1944) was a Danish architect remembered for designing

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

in collaboration with

Kay Fisker Kay Otto Fisker, Hon. FAIA (14 February 1893 – 21 June 1965) was a Danish architect, designer and educator. He is mostly known for his many housing projects, mainly in the Copenhagen area, and is considered a leading exponent of Danish Functi ...

and

C. F. Møller Christian Frederik Møller (31 October 1898 – 5 November 1988), generally referred to as C. F. Møller, was a Danish architect, professor and, from 1965 to 1969, the first rector of the Aarhus School of Architecture. His former practice, Arki ...

. His name is included in the

Danish Culture Canon The Danish Culture Canon ( da, Kulturkanonen) consists of 108 works of cultural excellence in eight categories: architecture, visual arts, design and crafts, film, literature, music, performing arts, and children's culture. An initiative of Brian ...

Early life

Born in

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

, Stegmann apprenticed as a mason before attending Aarhus Technical School where he matriculated in 1908. He went on to study architecture at the

Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark. History The Royal Dan ...

under

Anton Rosen Anton Rosen (13 September 1859 – 2 July 1928) was a Danish architect, furniture designer, decorative artist and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In his architecture, he combined a free Historicist style with inspiration ...

and

Hack Kampmann Hack Kampmann (6 September 1856 – 27 June 1920) was a Danish architect, Royal Inspector of Listed State Buildings in Jutland and professor at the architecture department of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Marselisborg Palace in Aarhus, ...

from 1909 to 1919. Among his fellow students were

Aage Rafn Aage Rafn (21 April 1890 - 7 May 1953) was a Danish architect and designer. He headed Kunsthåndværkerskolen in Copenhagen from 1924. Early life and education Rafn was born on 21 April 1890 in Copenhagen, the son off Carl Hjalmar Rafn (1848-19 ...

and Einer Dyggve, all together with Stegmann participants in the development of the ''Skønvirke'' style, a blend of the German Jugendstil and the French

Art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

with a Danish

Historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

dimension.Poul Erik Skriver, "Povl Stegmann"
''Kunstindeks Danmark & Weilbachs kunstnerleksikon''. Retrieved 16 January 2013.

Career

Stegmann's first major assignment was the Aarhus housing development in Stadion Allé (1930). The same year a competition was launched for a university in Aarhus. Stegmann, who had studied contemporary university architecture while travelling in Europe, submitted a proposal together with Kay Fisker and his younger colleague

. Inspired 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 ...

's trades union college in Bernau near

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, it consisted of a structure divided into several small departments, carefully adapted to the building site with the assistance of the landscape architect C.Th. Sørensen. The proposal won first prize but when Stegmann became head of the

Technical School In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work. Associa ...

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

, he withdrew from the consortium. Stegmann is also remembered for his analysis of the detached one-family home (1933) which became compulsory reading for practicing architects."Povl Christian Stegmann"
Kendtes Gravsted. Retrieved 16 January 2013.

German occupation victim

Under the German occupation in November 1944, Stegmann was shot dead outside his home in Aalborg, apparently in return for the activities of the

resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stegmann, Povl Christian Danish architects 1888 births 1944 deaths Modernist architects People from Aarhus Danish murder victims