Edmund Collein
| Edmund Collein | |
|---|---|
| Born |
10 January 1906 Bad Kreuznach, Germany |
| Died |
21 January 1992 Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation |
Architect urban planner |
| Spouse(s) |
Lotte Gerson (m. 23 February 1931) |
Edmund Collein (10 January 1906 – 21 January 1992) was a German architect and urban planner. Between 1966 and 1975 he served as President of the "Association of Artchitects in the German Democratic Republic" ("Bund der Architekten der DDR").[1]
Life
Edmund Collein was born during the fast moving first decade of the twentieth century in Bad Kreuznach, a spa town in Prussia's western province.[1] He studied, between 1925 and 1927, at the Technical Academy in Darmstadt and then, till 1930, at the Bauhaus design school in Dessau. His teachers included both Walter Gropius and Hannes Meyer.[2] Between 1930 and 1940 he was employed by a succession of architectural firms in Munich, Berlin and Vienna.[2] The focus of his work during this period was on social housing and hospitals.[1] Meanwhile, in 1931, he married Lotte Gerson,[3] another Bauhaus student.[2]
War resumed in 1939: between 1940 and 1945 Collein served in the army, ending up as a prisoner of war. He was released relatively promptly, returned in 1945 to Berlin where he worked for the municipal authorities.[2] Between 1945 and 1951 he was employed by the city's Central Buildings Department, becoming head of the City Planning Office.[1] Since 1945 Berlin had been at the heart of the Soviet occupation zone in what remained of Germany: in October 1949 the zone was re-invented as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic, which is the country in which Edmund Collein pursued the rest of his professional career. During 1950 he undertook the first of several visits to the Soviet Union[4] and in 1951 he became Professor for Urban Planning and Vice-president at the newly created East German Building Academy (DBA / Deutsche Bauakademie).[1]
In 1958 he took over as head of the Institute for District, Town and Village Planning at the DBA. Together with Josef Kaiser and Werner Dutschke he was involved in the high-profile reconstruction along the "Karl-Marx-Allee" (till 1961 the Stalinallee, and before 1949 the Große Frankfurter Straße ) in Berlin,[1] notably the section between Strausberger Platz and Alexanderplatz. More generally the decade ahead spawned a new vision for socialist urban planning, as the architects of the time identified the weaknesses of existing urban solutions: Collein was prominent as an advocate for the new ideas.[5] Between 1963 and 1971 he was chairman of the DBA's important Economic Council. From 1966 till 1975 he also served as DBA president in succession to Hanns Hopp.[1]
Award
In 1962 Edmund Collein received the National Prize of East Germany.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Gerd Dietrich. "Collein, Edmund * 10.1.1906, † 21.1.1992 Architekt, Präsident des Bundes der Architekten" (in German). Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken. ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 "Edmund Collein". Source includes photo-portrait of Edmund Collein. Bauhaus Kooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar gGmbH, Berlin. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ↑ "Diplomarchitekt Lotte Collein" (PDF). Deutsches Museum Digitalisierungsprojekt DigiPortA, München. Leibniz-Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung Wissenschaftlichen Sammlungen. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ↑ Peter Müller. ""Ich bin kein Russe" Ein Beitrag in Zeitschrift Bauhaus 5". " ... Politiker, Architekten und Städteplaner haben den Auftrag, den sowjetischen Planungs- und Gestaltungskanon auf die DDR zu übertragen. Unter ihnen befinden sich mit Waldemar Alder und Edmund Collein auch zwei Bauhäusler, die bei Hannes Meyer studiert hatten und nun den Wiederaufbau Ost-Berlins prägen sollen.". Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ↑ "OST-BERLIN Platz dem Landvogt: STÄDTEBAU". "im Hinblick auf die Ausarbeitung theoretisch-prinzipieller Grundlagen ... des Städtebaus ernste Schwächen" Edmund Collein. Der Spiegel (online). 2 December 1964.