Josef Franke

Infobox Architect


caption=Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche in Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf
name=Josef Franke
nationality=German
birth_date=birth date|1876|3|12|mf=y
birth_place=Bochum, Germany
death_date=death date and age|1944|1|16|1876|3|12|mf=y
death_place=Gelsenkirchen, Germany
practice_name=
significant_buildings=
significant_projects=
awards=|

Josef Franke (born March 12, 1876, Bochum, Germany, died January 16, 1944, Gelsenkirchen, Germany) was a German Expressionist architect. He created a number of sacred and secular buildings, in the Ruhrgebiet, particularly in Gelsenkirchen. He is noted for his work of the 1920s in the brick-expressionist style.

Life

After leaving school, Franke studied at the Höxter Baugewerkschule (English:building trade school) and then at the Technical university of Charlottenburg as a guest student. After completing his training he worked first with the council structural engineering office in Cologne, and later in the architect's office of Max and Carl Anton Meckel in Freiburg im Breisgau. In 1904 he set up on his own in Gelsenkirchen. Frankes second house, completed in 1909 is located in Gelsenkirchen in the Robert-Koch-Straße. In recent years, Frankes work in Gelsenkirchen has been rediscovered and re-evaluated by exhibitions and publications. His daughter is the Interior designer and Artist Margarete Franke.

Architectural style

Many of Frankes buildings were designed in the Brick-expressionist style, which was common in Germany in the 1920s.Frankes work is characteristised by the use of reddish brown brick and whose setting to the eye and design elements Facade. The play with the angular Rauen stone lends a special charm, which is expressed in a carefully balanced total composition and its details to the buildings. The use of rhythmic surface planes and the triangle is characteristic.

Buildings (Selected)

*House for the painter Andreas Wilhelm Ballin, 1925, Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke
*Blumendelle housing scheme, 1926, Gelsenkirchen-Schalke
*"Ring-Eck" house and offices , 1928, Gelsenkirchen-Mitte
*"Heilig-Kreuz" - Catholic parish church , 1929, Gelsenkirchen-Ückendorf
*"Aloysianum" girls' high school, today "Ricarda Huch Gymnasium", 1930, Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke
*Tram Depot for the Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Straßenbahnen AG, 1927, Gelsenkirchen-Mitte

Further reading

*Architektur-Kolloquium Bochum (Hrsg.): "Josef Franke - 163 Entwürfe für das 20. Jahrhundert", Essen: Klartext-Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3-88474-776-2
*"Backstein-Expressionismus", Broschüre der Stadt Gelsenkirchen ( [http://www.gelsenkirchen.de/Touristik/Tourist_Info/Bestellung.asp Kann kostenlos bestellt werden] )

External links

*
* [http://www.kmkbuecholdt.de/historisches/personen/Franke1.htm Architektur-Kolloquium Bochum]
* [http://www.ruhr-bauten.de/bochum-jfranke.html Bauten von Josef Franke in Bochum]