Hamburg and Hanover, Wilhelmshaven and Bad Zwischenahn:Many northern German cities have Fritz Höger and his Expressionism to thank for a landmark. A portrait.
by Annette Volland
The Chilehaus in Hamburg, the town hall in Wilhelmshaven, the indicator high-rise in Hanover, the hospital in Delmenhorst, the water tower in Bad Zwischenahn, as well as churches, administration buildings, residential buildings, factories, schools and memorials:the master builder has more than 3,000 buildings and designs Fritz Höger until his death in 1949 according to his own statements. Alongside his older colleague Fritz Schumacher, he stands for Brick Expressionism in northern Germany.
From carpenter to builder
Fritz Höger, actually Johann Friedrich Höger, was born on June 12, 1877 as the first of six children of a carpenter in Elmshorn. As a teenager, he did an apprenticeship with a carpenter and at the same time continued his education at night school. Then he attended the construction trade school in Hamburg for two years. In 1899 he passed his master's examination. After military service, Höger began working as a technical draftsman and site manager in 1901 in the respected architects' office Lundt &Kallmorgen in Hamburg. The office was one of the most important in the city, but designed buildings from pattern books in all styles. The ambitious Höger didn't like that.
Höger's first own office
Höger began working for the building contractor Fritz Oldenburg and married his daughter Annie in 1905. Encouraged by her, he founded his own architecture office at the age of 30. Because he had no university education, he was not allowed to join the Association of German Architects and called himself a "master builder". Until the beginning of the First World War, he mainly planned and built private houses in and around Hamburg. Soon his first larger business and office buildings were built in the city:the Rappolthaus and the Klöpperhaus in Mönckebergstraße.
Supporters of the homeland security movement
Höger was close to the Heimatschutz movement, which wanted to strengthen regional tradition and craftsmanship. It was fitting that Höger preferred to use North German brick as the material. He had 4.8 million of them installed in the famous Hamburg Chilehaus.
From 1914, Höger served in World War I as a member of a construction company in France and Flanders. He built bunkers - and it was over for the time being with his own architectural office. After the war it was difficult to pick up on the pre-war orders and build up the business again. But then Höger won the architectural competition for the Chilehaus, which the rich Hamburg shipowner Henry Brarens Sloman had put out to tender. This building made Höger internationally known.
A house like a ship
The shape of Lake Chilehause in Hamburg strikingly reflects the shape of a ship.The striking architecture in the form of a huge passenger ship with 2,800 windows still makes the Chilehaus a well-known attraction in Hamburg today. Completed in 1924, it is located in the Kontorhaus district in the old town and close to the free port. Numerous building plans have survived, which suggest a difficult development process. The Chilehaus was a sign of the upswing after the First World War and, alongside the Hamburger Michel, became the prominent landmark of the Hanseatic city. It has been a listed building since 1983. The name Chilehaus is explained by the client Sloman:The shipowner had made his fortune trading saltpetre in Chile.
A skyscraper for Hanover
A dome made of patinated copper crowns the Anzeiger high-rise in Hanover.Between 1927 and 1928, Höger built the so-called “Anzeiger-Hochhaus” in Hanover for the publisher August Madsack. This building also became a landmark. With ten floors, it was one of the early skyscrapers in Germany and resembles the Chilehaus in many elements. However, it is spanned by a green roof dome reminiscent of the New Town Hall in Hanover. Höger was also allowed to build a house for Madsack - and in 1933 the family tomb. A multi-storey residential building from 1928 stands unchanged on Stephansplatz in Südstadt.
Courting for the favor of the "Fuhrer"
Höger was now also building in the capital Berlin - and was striving for even greater success. As early as 1931 he wrote to Adolf Hitler and asked for an interview. Nothing came of it, but when Hitler came to power in 1933, Höger hoped to capitalize on it. But although the master builder agreed with Hitler in many areas, was a member of the NSDAP - and also expressed himself accordingly - his design did not meet Hitler's taste. He had also made quite a few enemies through rough dealings with colleagues and there were repeated allegations of plagiarism against him. Höger did not become Hitler's state architect as he had hoped, but was active on many committees of the Nazi state.
A bomb destroys the documents
In 1943, during the Second World War, a bomb destroyed almost all of Höger's plans and construction documents. In addition to his office and archive, the master builder also lost his home in Hamburg-Harvestehude. After 1945, now 68 years old, he was no longer able to repeat his earlier successes. Fritz Höger died on June 21, 1949 in Bad Segeberg.