Max Littmann (3 January 1862 – 20 September 1931) was a German

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Littmann was educated in the Gewerbeakademie Chemnitz and the

Technische Hochschule Dresden TU Dresden (for german: Technische Universität Dresden, abbreviated as TUD and often wrongly translated as "Dresden University of Technology") is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, th ...

. In 1885, he moved to Munich where he met

Friedrich Thiersch Friedrich Wilhelm Thiersch (17 June 178425 February 1860), was a German classical scholar and educationist. Biography He was born at Kirchscheidungen (now a part of Laucha an der Unstrut, Saxony-Anhalt). In 1809 he became professor at the ...

and

Gabriel von Seidl Gabriel von Seidl (9 December 1848 – 27 April 1913) was a German architect and a representative of the historicist style of architecture. Life and work Gabriel Seidl was born in Munich, Bavaria in 1848. He was the first son of the wealthy b ...

and where - after two study trips to Italy and Paris - he established himself as a free architect. In 1891, he joined the contracting business of his father-in-law

Jakob Heilmann Jakob Heilmann (21 August 1846 in Geiselbach, Aschaffenburg County (Lower Franconia) – 15 February 1927 in Munich) was a German contractor. Son of a glazier, Heilmann attended the construction school in Munich and graduated with the exam as a ...

, thus transforming it into the Heilmann & Littmann general partnership (later becoming a limited partnership), taking charge of the planning department. Littmann excelled in the erection of magnificent buildings, e. g. theaters, department stores and spas and was the perfect supplement to Heilmann, who had specialized in living house construction. Even during his lifetime, Littmann was listed in the

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langu ...

. His pedigree doesn't give any clue on the often referred Jewish descent, rather he is descended from a Protestant family in

Oschatz Oschatz () is a town in the district Nordsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. It is located 60 km east of Leipzig and 60 km west of Dresden. Geography Site and climate Oschatz lies in the Saxon Lowland and is located on the river Dölln ...

(

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

), which can be traced back for centuries.

Buildings (selection)

* 1896-1897 Hofbräuhaus in Munich * 1898-1900 Kurhaus (spa building) in Bad Reichenhall * 1900-1901

Prinzregententheater The Prinzregententheater, or, as it was called in its first decades, the Prinz-Regenten-Theater, in English the Prince Regent Theatre, is a concert hall and opera house on Prinzregentenplatz in the Bavarian capital of Munich, Germany. Building ...

in Munich * 1904-1905 Kurtheater in Bad Kissingen * 1905-1906 Schillertheater in Berlin * 1906-1907 Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar * 1907-1908 Münchner Künstler-Theater in Munich * 1909–1912 Königlich Württembergisches Hoftheater in Stuttgart (opera house) * 1910-1913 Regentenbau (concert hall) and Wandelhalle (spa building) in Bad Kissingen * 1926-1927 Kurhausbad (spa building) in Bad Kissingen

Bibliography

* Breuer, Judith: Die

Alte Oper Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destr ...

in Stuttgart im Kontext der Theaterarchitektur von Max Littmann und der Dekorationsmalerei von Julius Mössel. Eine Ausstellung der Württembergischen Staatstheater im Kleinen Haus (Oberes Foyer) vom 5. Mai bis 11. Juni 1984. Stuttgart 1984. * Littmann, Max: Das Charlottenburger Schiller-Theater. München: Bruckmann a. 1906 * Littmann, Max: Das Münchner Künstlertheater. München: Werner 1908. * Littmann, Max: Das Großherzogliche Hoftheater in Weimar. Denkschrift zur Feier der Eröffnung. München: Werner 1908. * Littmann, Max: Die Königlichen Hoftheater in Stuttgart. Darmstadt: Koch 1912. * Lux, Joseph August: Das Stadttheater in Posen, erbaut von Max Littmann. Eine Denkschrift. München: Werner 1910. * Oelwein, Cornelia: ''Max Littmann (1862–1931). Architekt, Baukünstler, Unternehmer.''

Michael Imhof Verlag Michael Imhof Verlag is a German publishing company in Petersberg, Hesse. They are known especially for publishing books with a local interest, on art, on history, politics, religion, nature, and culture Culture () is an umbrella term which ...

, Petersberg 2013, . * Schaul, Bernd-Peter: Der Architekt Max Littmann. Sein Beitrag zur Reform des Theaterbaus um 1900. Tübingen: Masch. Diss. 1978. * Schaul, Bernd-Peter: Das

in München und die Reform des Theaterbaus um 1900. Max Littmann als Theaterarchitekt. Arbeitshefte des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege, Bd. 37. 168 S., 174 Abbildungen. München Lipp 1987. * Wegener, Wilhelm: Die Reformation der Schaubühne: eine technisch-dramaturgische Interpretation der Theaterbauten des Münchner Architekten Max Littmann und ihre Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der deutschen Schaubühne. München 1956 (Diss München 1957). * Weiss-Vossenkuhl, Dorothea: Das Opernhaus in Stuttgart von Max Littmann (1910–1912). Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 1983. * * Wolf, Georg Jacob: Max Littmann 1862–1931. Das Lebenswerk eines deutschen Architekten. 68 S., 116 Tafeln. München, Knorr & Hirth 1931. * Wolf, Georg Jacob: Ingenieur J. Heilmann und das Baugeschäft Heilmann und Littmann. Ein Rückblick auf vierzig Jahre Arbeit. 25 S., 64 Tafeln. München 1911. * Wolf, Georg Jacob: Das staatlich-städtische Kurmittelhaus Bad Reichenhall erbaut von Architekt Max Littmann, München. Eine Denkschrift. München: Bruckmann 1928.

External links

*
Theatres built by Max Littmann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Littmann, Max 1862 births 1931 deaths 19th-century German architects TU Dresden alumni 20th-century German architects