Martin Elsaesser

Martin Elsaesser (28 May 1884 – 5 August 1957) was a German architect and professor of architecture. He is especially well known for the many churches he built.

Life From 1901 to 1906, Elsaesser studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich under Friedrich von Thiersch and the Technical University of Stuttgart under Theodor Fischer. In 1905 he won the competition for the Lutheran church of Baden-Baden and started to be active as a freelance architect.

From 1911 to 1913, he served as an assistant to Professor Paul Bonatz, at Stuttgart Technical University. In 1913, he became professor for medieval architecture at the same institution (until 1920).

From 1920 to 1925, he was managing director of the School of Arts and Crafts at Cologne (later known as the Kölner Werkschulen). In 1925, Ernst May, then government building surveyor in Frankfurt am Main, made him chief of the city's municipal building department which was responsible for the New Frankfurt project. Elsaesser kept that post until 1932. His largest construction during his time at Frankfurt was the Grossmarkthalle.

During the reign of National Socialism, Elsaesser did not receive any commissions. Nonetheless, he did not opt for emigration; instead he spent the war years in internal exile, pursuing architectural study tours and utopian designs.

After the war, he was professor of design at Munich Technical University from 1947 to 1956.

Many of his churches contain paintings by the artist Käte Schaller-Härlin.

His grandson was the international film historian Thomas Elsaesser.

Buildings (selection)

1909: Königliche Fachschule für Edelmetallindustrie Schwäbisch Gmünd, today Hochschule für Gestaltung 1909–1910: Lutheran church of St. Eberhard, Tübingen 1909–1910: Secondary School, Tübingen 1910: Railway bridge, Tübingen 1910–1913: Lutheran Church, Stuttgart-Gaisburg 1911: Lutheran church of St. George, Massenbach 1911–1914: Covered market, Stuttgart 1913–1914: Wagenburg-Gymnasium (secondary school), Stuttgart-Gänsheide 1922–1924: extension to Kölner Werkschulen 1922–1924: Office block for Rheinisches Braunkohlensyndikat, Mannheim 1924–1925: Private home, Dr. S., Cologne 1925–1926: Lutheran Südkirche, Esslingen 1925–1926: own home, Frankfurt am Main 1926: Part rebuilding of Lutheran Church of St. Laurentius, Stuttgart-Rohr (replaced in 1980) 1926–1928: Grossmarkthalle, Frankfurt am Main 1929–1931: Städtische und Universitätsklinik für Gemüts- und Nervenkranke, Frankfurt am Main, Niederrad 1928–1929: Primary school in Römerstadt, Frankfurt am Main 1930–1932: Villa Reemtsma, Hamburg-Altona 1937–1938: Sumerbank Headquarters, Ankara, Turkey 1950–1951: Residential high-rise, Munich 1953–1954: Rebuilding of Gustav-Siegle-Haus (Stuttgart Philharmonic)