Egon Eiermann

Egon Eiermann (29 September 1904 – 19 July 1970 ) was one of Germany's most prominent architects in the second half of the 20th century. He was also a furniture designer. From 1947, he was Professor for architecture at Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe (today Karlsruhe Institute of Technology).

Biography Eiermann was born in (now part of Babelsberg, Potsdam), the son of Wilhelm Eiermann (1874–1948), a locomotive engineer and his wife Emma Gellhorn (1875–1959). working there on developing steel frame construction methods. Students were Oswald Mathias Ungers and . During a study trip to the United States in 1950, he met Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Konrad Wachsmann in Boston and in 1956 also Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Personal life In 1940, he married in Berlin interior designer Charlotte, Friedheim (1912–2001) and in 1954 in Berlin architect Brigitte, née Feyerabendt (1924–2019). He had two children: with his first wife Andreas (born 1942), from his second marriage Anna (born 1956).

He died in Baden-Baden, aged 65. He is buried at the Buchen Cemetery.

Works During the years of reconstruction, his steel-frame industrial buildings became exemplary. The buildings were transparent, inviting, democratic, making order visible.

A functionalist, his major works include: the textile mill at Blumberg (1951); the West German pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair (with Sep Ruf, 1958); (A pavilion group consisting of eight elegant, transparent glass cubes was created.)

1929–1930 Substation of the Berliner Elektrizitätswerke AG, Berlin-Steglitz 1931–1933 Hesse residential building, Berlin-Lankwitz 1936–1937 Steingroever residential building, Berlin-Grunewald 1938 factory building and boiler house of the Degea-AG-Auergesellschaft, Berlin-Wedding 1938–1939 expansion and conversion of the Total-Werke Foerstner & Co, Apolda 1939–1941 factory buildings of Märkische Metallbau GmbH, Oranienburg 1948–1950 administration and factory building of Ciba AG, Wehr/Baden 1949–1950 handkerchief weaving mill/spinning mill, Blumberg/Black Forest 1950–1953 administration building of the United Silk Weaving Works, Krefeld 1951–1956 experimental power plant of TU Karlsruhe 1953 St. Matthew Church, Pforzheim 1953–1954 Burda Moden publishing house, Offenburg 1954–1961 residential building, Interbau, Hansaviertel, Berlin-Tiergarten 1955–1957 Volkshilfe administration building, Cologne 1956–1958 German Pavilion, World Exhibition in Brussels (with Sep Ruf, exterior planning by Walter Rossow) 1956–1960 administration building of Steinkohlebergwerke AG, Essen 1957–1963 Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin-Charlottenburg 1958–1961 Head office of Neckermann Versand KG, Frankfurt am Main 1958–1961 administration building of the steel structure Gustav Müller, Offenburg 1958–1964 Chancellery building of the German Embassy, Washington 1959–1962 Eiermann house, Baden-Baden 1961–1967 buildings for the DEA-Scholven GmbH refinery, Karlsruhe 1965–1969 high-rise building for members of the German Bundestag, Bonn 1967–1972 Administration and training center of Deutsche Olivetti, Frankfurt am Main, 1967–1972 IBM headquarters, Stuttgart-Vaihingen

Gallery

Design From 1949, the first functional and serially produced seating furniture made of wood and tubular steel was created in cooperation with the Esslingen company .

Source:

1950 SE 68 tubular steel chair 1952 E 10 wicker chair 1952–1953 SE 18 wooden folding chair 1953 table frame Eiermann 1 1960–1961 Church seat SE 121 1965 table frame Eiermann 2

Awards

Source: In 2004, the Bundespost honored Eiermann with a special postage stamp. The is an international ideas competition in architecture.

Memberships Source: 1931 Member of the Association of German Architects 1931 Member of Deutscher Werkbund 1951 Founding member of the German Design Council 1955 Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin (West), Section Architecture 1960 Honorary member of the Central Association of Austrian Architects 1962 Member of the planning council for the new buildings of the German Bundestag and the German Bundesrat in Bonn 1963 Corresponding Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1969 Founding member of the Housing and Environment Institute of the Hessian state government