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 ...

Education

Littmann was educated in the

Chemnitz University of Technology Chemnitz University of Technology () is a public university in Chemnitz, Germany. With around 8,300 students, it is the third largest university in Saxony. It was founded in 1836 as ''Königliche Gewerbschule'' (Royal Mercantile College) and ...

and the

Dresden University of Technology TU Dresden (for , abbreviated as TUD), also as the Dresden University of Technology, is a public research university in Dresden, Germany. It is the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, the largest university in Saxony a ...

. In 1885, he moved to Munich where he met Friedrich Thiersch 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. Early life, education and early career Gabriel Seidl was born in 1848 in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria. H ...

and where - after two study trips to Italy and Paris - he established himself as a free architect.

Career

In 1891, he joined the contracting business of his father-in-law Jakob Heilmann, 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. In February 1905, two department stores opened their doors in Munich, both designed by Littmann, who at that time had already achieved the status of a prominent architect in the city. The Kaufhaus Oberpollinger and the Warenhaus Hermann Tietz were both prominently positioned in central Munich near the

München Hauptbahnhof München Hauptbahnhof or Munich Central Station is the main railway station in the city of Munich, Germany. It is one of the three stations with long-distance services in Munich, the others being Munich East station (''München Ost'') and Munich- ...

(Munich Central Train Station). Littmann designed both department stores so that the exteriors were historicist, while the interiors provided

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

s with a modern shopping environment. Littmann arranged both department stores around an atrium with a glass and iron

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. Littmann also insisted on state of the art building techniques, such as

reinforcing steel Rebar (short for reinforcement bar or reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or steel reinforcement, is a tension device added to concrete to form ''reinforced concrete'' and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid ...

, and

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

. Littmann hired renowned Munich artists to help with the design of the two department stores, including Heinrich Düll, Georg Pezold, and Julius Seidl.

Defamation

Even during his lifetime, Littmann was listed in the

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a multi-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, Jewish holida ...

. His pedigree doesn't give any clue on his often referenced Jewish descent; rather, he is descended from a Protestant family in Oschatz (

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

), 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

Publications

* 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.

References

External links

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