Karl Langer

Karl Langer (1903–1969) was an Austrian-born architect in Queensland, Australia. A number of his works are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register.

Early life in Austria Karl Langer was born in Vienna in 1903, where he lived until emigrating to Australia in 1939 with his wife Gertrude. Karl studied architecture in Vienna, most notably in the Master Class run by Peter Behrens, at the Viennese Academy graduating in 1926. During this time Karl worked in the office of Josef Frank, who was to become well known in Swedish modernism, and later in the office of Schmidt and Aichinger. In 1928 he was appointed the architect in charge of Behrens Vienna office, where he designed and supervised important works such as the tobacco factory in Linz, Austria. At this time he also commenced studies in Art History at the University of Vienna, graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1933 with a thesis entitled "Origins and Development of Concrete Construction". In 1935 Karl established his own practice in Vienna.

Dr. Gertrude Langer inspecting a local art show, Brisbane, 1940 In 1932 he married a fellow student Gertrude Froeschel. They graduated the following year on the same night, with Doctorates of Philosophy in Art History. In 1938 with the annexation of Austria by the Third Reich, Gertrude, who was Jewish, and Karl left Vienna and traveled via Athens to Australia. The outcome of this enquiry found that Karl Langer was an individual whose talent and experience clearly distinguished him as the most suitable applicant. He was still prevented from taking up the position, as Queensland Railways, his employer, refused to release him invoking wartime manpower regulations. He remained in the service of the Queensland Railways until 1946 when he left to establish his architectural and planning practice in Brisbane. He worked throughout Australia and was the initiator of many influential urban design ideas such as the site for the Sydney Opera House and the pedestrianization of Queen Street. Karl lectured at the University of Queensland and the Queensland Institute of Technology in design, town planning and landscape architecture. Research carried out when he first arrived in Brisbane pioneered the field of climatic design and resulted in the 1944 publication of an influential booklet called "Subtropical Housing". He was instrumental in establishing, and was the first president of the Brisbane division of the Australian Planning Institute and the Queensland Branch of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and was a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

Karl Langer's work was featured in the Hot Modernism exhibition at the State Library of Queensland in 2014.

Works He was the designer of buildings, including: the Main Roads Building at Spring Hill St Peter's Lutheran College Chapel at Indooroopilly his own home Langer House at St Lucia the Four Seasons Hotel West's Furniture Showroom at Fortitude Valley (1952) extensions to Lennons Hotel, Brisbane (1957)

and worked in the regional centres of Queensland as an architect, town planner and landscape architect, producing these works: St John's Lutheran Church at Bundaberg Sugar Research Institute at Mackay Lennons Broadbeach Hotel on the Gold Coast Lennons Hotel, Toowoomba He also authored a number of books, including Sub-tropical housing, published in 1944 by the University of Queensland.