Käthe Menzel-Jordan

Käthe Menzel-Jordan (née Hertel; 7 September 1916 – 1 March 2026) was a German architect and preservationist. She worked mainly in the field of restoring historic buildings in Erfurt and in the region after the destruction of World War II, including the Goethe House in Weimar, and the Augustinerkloster and Schloss Molsdorf in Erfurt.

Life and work Käthe Hertel was born in Erfurt on 7 September 1916.

During the 1930s, Menzel-Jordan studied architecture and art history at the Technische Hochschule Dresden. The outbreak of World War II surprised her there; she decided to take advantage of another training opportunity and dealt with business administration and technical administration. She survived the air raids on Dresden by chance, as she was on home leave during the time.

After her return, Menzel-Jordan intentionally took on many emergency security assignments and projects to alleviate the housing shortage in Weimar which was also destroyed by air raids.

As a freelance architect in the Ulbricht era, Menzel-Jordan initially only found offers that did not present a challenge for her creative skills and knowledge, but finally found a rich field of activity in cooperation with the church building authorities in Erfurt and later also the respective building departments in the city administration. She led the project to restore the Augustinerkloster and Augustinerkirche, which had been destroyed by British mine bombs, and transform it to a facility for conferences and meetings of the church. and Predigerkloster, Her projects included around 50 more churches, estates and houses throughout Thuringia.

On 10 September 2016, Menzel-Jordan celebrated a service for her 100th birthday in the Erfurt Michaeliskirche with many companions and guests at the invitation of the Erfurt Church District of the Evangelical Church of Central Germany.

She lived at the Augusta-Viktoria-Stift in Erfurt from 2021, an institution that she supported as a child and as a curator of the foundation from 1957 to 1994, responsible for building and restoration matters.

Menzel-Jordan died on 1 March 2026, at the age of 109. She was the oldest member of the Thuringian Chamber of Architects.

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Publications Erfurt, eine Stadt der Wassermühlen. Untersuchung über die Art und Form der mittelalterlichen Mühlen in Erfurt sowie die Bedingung ihrer Existenz. (dissertation), Technische Hochschule Dresden, 1955. Zur Erneuerung der Predigerkirche in Erfurt. In: Kunst und Kirche. 1966, No. 1, pp. 33–39.