Wilhelm Emil Meerwein (17 September 1844, Amsterdam - 25 January 1927, Hamburg) was a German architect and politician.

Biography

He spent his childhood in Switzerland, and began his professional studies at the Polytechnikum in Zürich with

Gottfried Semper Gottfried Semper (; 29 November 1803 – 15 May 1879) was a German architect, art critic, and professor of architecture who designed and built the Semper Opera House in Dresden between 1838 and 1841. In 1849 he took part in the May Uprising in ...

. After further studies in Karlsruhe, where he met his future business partner,

Bernhard Georg Hanssen Bernhard Georg Jacob Hanssen (1844–1911) was a German architect and politician. Life and work After completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, he studied architecture in Karlsruhe (1863–64) and Stuttgart (1865). Following that, he work ...

, and at the

Bauakademie The Bauakademie (''Building Academy'') in Berlin, Germany, was a higher education school for the art of building to train master builders. It originated from the construction department of the Academy of Fine Arts and Mechanical Sciences (from ...

in Berlin, he briefly worked as a site manager at the Royal Prussian Mint. Following several study trips, throughout Europe and the Middle East, he settled in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

in 1871, where he worked with

Christian Friedrich von Leins Christian Friedrich von Leins (22 November 1814 in Stuttgart – 25 August 1892 in Stuttgart) was a German architect. Life He was the son of masonry foreman. Until 1837, Leins attended the Friedrich-Eugens-Gymnasium in Stuttgart, then s ...

. In 1873, after winning a design competition in Hamburg, he encountered his old friend, Hanssen, and they set up a practice there. It became one of the largest architectural firms in Hamburg. Their best known project is the , part of the Speicherstadt development at the Hamburg waterfront (1878-79). Since 2008, it has been the home of the International Maritime Museum. He was a member of the "Rathausbaumeisterbund", an association created in 1885 by Martin Haller, which was commissioned to create the new Hamburg City Hall; a project that lasted from 1886 to 1897. In 1899, he was one of the judges in a competition to design a scrapbook for the

trading card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...

s that came with chocolates from the Stollwerck company of Cologne. His fellow judges were Justus Brinckmann, an art director, , a bookbinder, Julius Christian Rehder (1861–1955), a painter, and

Bruno Schmitz Bruno Schmitz (21 November 1858 – 27 April 1916) was a German architect best known for his monuments in the early 20th century. He worked closely with sculptors such as Emil Hundrieser, Nikolaus Geiger and Franz Metzner for integrated arch ...

, an architect. In 1901, he became a member of the Hamburg Parliament and was no longer active in his architectural firm. He served as a member until 1919. Hanssen's health went into a period of decline, so he retired and closed their offices in 1905. A street in Hamburg's Winterhude district is named after him.Straßennamen Jarrestadt
/ref> His son,

Hans Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

, became a well known chemist.

References

External links

History of the Hamburg City Hall

@ Geschichtsspuren

@ Bildarchiv Hamburg {{DEFAULTSORT:Meerwein, Wilhelm Emil 1844 births 1927 deaths 19th-century German architects ETH Zurich alumni Members of the Hamburg Parliament Architects from Amsterdam