Richard Döcker (13 June 1894, Weilheim an der Teck - 9 November 1968, Stuttgart) 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 ...

and professor associated with the functionalist style in architecture.

Biography

Döcker studied architecture from 1912 to 1918 at the

University of Stuttgart The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wi ...

, graduating with honors. From 1914 to 1917 he was a volunteer in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. In 1921 he passed his

Staatsexamen The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists (i.e., lawyers, judges, p ...

in Stuttgart, and from 1922 to 1924 he was an assistant for

Paul Bonatz Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II, and from 1954 until his death. He worked in many style ...

at the University of Stuttgart, where he received his doctorate, on the architecture of homes. In 1926, he joined '' Der Ring'', an artist's society, and in 1927 was appointed as construction manager of the

Weissenhof Estate The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, effici ...

in Stuttgart, a modern architectural project supervised by

Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd ...

. He became a member of the

Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (English: "German Association of Craftsmen"; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The Werkbund became an important element in the development of modern arch ...

in 1928, and in that same year collaborated on the

Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. From 1939 to 1941, he studied biology at the University of Stuttgart, and until 1944 performed military duty in Saarbrücken. He was appointed general construction director of Stuttgart, a position he gave up the next year after disagreements with the city's lord mayor, Arnulf Klett. He was elected regional president of the newly reformed

Bund Deutscher Architekten The Association of German Architects (German: ''Bund Deutscher Architekten'', BDA) is an association of architects founded in 1903 in Germany. It publishes the bimonthly magazine ''der architekt''. The BDA has over 5,000 members. In 1995, it fo ...

. From 1947 to 1960 he was professor of city planning and reconstruction at the University of Stuttgart and chair of the architecture department; in 1957 he became a member of the

Akademie der Künste The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

in Berlin. He also taught at the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

, in 1958. He retired as emeritus in 1960.

Bibliography

* Friederike Mehlau-Wiebking: ''Richard Döcker. Ein Architekt im Aufbruch zur Moderne.'' Vieweg, Braunschweig, Wiesbaden 1989, . * Dieter Kimpel, Dietrich Worbs (eds.): ''Richard Döcker 1894–1968. Ein Kolloquium zum 100. Geburtstag.'' Stuttgart 1996, .

External links

* * * https://web.archive.org/web/20110930174957/http://www.weissenhof.ckom.de/03_architekten/index.php?kategorie=0&id=4 {{DEFAULTSORT:Docker, Richard 1894 births 1968 deaths 20th-century German architects People from Esslingen (district) University of Stuttgart alumni