Richard Döcker (13 June 1894, Weilheim an der Teck - 9 November 1968,

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

) 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 associated with the functionalist style in architecture.

Biography

Döcker studied architecture from 1912 to 1918 at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in civil, mechanical, ind ...

, graduating with honors. From 1914 to 1917 he was a volunteer in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1921 he passed his Staatsexamen in Stuttgart, and from 1922 to 1924 he was an assistant for Paul Bonatz at the University of Stuttgart, where he received his doctorate, on the architecture of homes. In 1926, he joined '' Der Ring'', an artist's society, and in 1927 was appointed as construction manager of the

Weissenhof Estate The Weissenhof Estate (German: ''Weißenhofsiedlung'') is a housing estate built for the 1927 ''Deutscher Werkbund'' exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide inexpensive, s ...

in Stuttgart, a modern architectural project supervised by

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...

. He became a member of the

Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The ''Werkbund'' became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, parti ...

in 1928, and in that same year collaborated on the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne. From 1939 to 1941, he studied biology at the University of Stuttgart, and until 1944 performed military duty in Saarbrücken. He was appointed general construction director of Stuttgart, a position he gave up the next year after disagreements with the city's lord mayor, Arnulf Klett. He was elected regional president of the newly reformed Bund Deutscher Architekten. From 1947 to 1960 he was professor of city planning and reconstruction at the University of Stuttgart and chair of the architecture department; in 1957 he became a member of the

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts () is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The academy's predecessor organization was founded in 1696 by Elector F ...

in Berlin. He also taught at the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

, in 1958. He retired as emeritus in 1960.

Bibliography

* Friederike Mehlau-Wiebking: ''Richard Döcker. Ein Architekt im Aufbruch zur Moderne.'' Vieweg, Braunschweig, Wiesbaden 1989, . * Dieter Kimpel, Dietrich Worbs (eds.): ''Richard Döcker 1894–1968. Ein Kolloquium zum 100. Geburtstag.'' Stuttgart 1996, .

External links

* * * https://web.archive.org/web/20110930174957/http://www.weissenhof.ckom.de/03_architekten/index.php?kategorie=0&id=4 {{DEFAULTSORT:Docker, Richard 1894 births 1968 deaths 20th-century German architects People from Esslingen (district) University of Stuttgart alumni