Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) 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 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 Werkbund (German work federation, 1907), as well as member of the German version of the Garden city movement. In 1909 Fischer accepted a position as professor for architecture 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 ...

Notable pupils

Famous pupils of Fischer include

Paul Bonatz Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II, and from 1954 until his death. He worked in many styl ...

, Hugo Häring, Ernst May,

Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic Functionalism (architecture), functionalism in his projects for department ...

, JJP Oud,

Bruno Taut Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...

German Bestelmeyer German Bestelmeyer (8 June 1874 – 30 June 1942) was a German architect, university lecturer, and proponent of Nazi architecture. Most of his work was in South Germany. Life and career Bestelmeyer was born in Nuremberg, the son of a militar ...

and Paul Schmitthenner.

Style

Originally an imitator of historical styles, he changed direction, seeking a style which was closer to German tradition; his rediscovery of the expressive qualities of stone influenced many of his pupils, and his search for a more genuinely volkisch style explains his nationalist utterances in the early part of the Third Reich. Fischer described his own style as something between

historicism 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 ...

and

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 ...

. He tried to always work in the local context, and the socio-cultural character of the region, with an eye toward the social effect of his plans.

Bibliography

* (1988): ''Theodor Fischer: Architekt Und Staedtebauer'', Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn Verlag fur Architektur und technische Wissenschaften (German edition) *Falko Lehmann (1988): ''Friedrich Theodor Fischer, 1803-1867: Architekt im Grossherzogtum Baden (Studien zur Bauforschung)'', Geiger-Verlag (German edition)

External links

19th-century German architects 1862 births 1938 deaths People from Schweinfurt Technical University of Munich alumni Technical University of Munich faculty Art Nouveau architects 20th-century German architects Bavarian architects {{Germany-architect-stub