Fischer, Theodor

Fischer, Theodor (1862–1938). German architect and teacher, a founding member of the Werkbund (1907). His architecture often drew on vernacular forms, as in the housing at Gmindersdorf, near Reutlingen (1903–8), and he insisted that the local landscapes and indigenous architectural character should be respected and enhanced. In this his ideas were related to those of Sitte, and wholly repudiated by the Modern Movement. He carried out expansion plans for several German cities, including Mannheim (1916) and Augsburg (1926), and designed workers' housing for various sites, including Weberstrasse, Stuttgart (1904–6), Langensalza (1907–8), and Neu-Westend, Munich (1909–10). He influenced Bonatz, Bruno Taut, Mendelsohn, and Oud. In his Für die deutsche Baukunst (For German Architecture—1917) he advocated the study of construction and crafts, and denounced the excessive emphasis on mathematics, natural sciences, draughtsmanship, and ‘design’ in architectural education as it failed to inculcate any understanding of the handling of volumes. He was closely associated with Heimatstil (Regional Style), a South German and Swiss Arts-and-Crafts movement which reacted against the cosmopolitan arrogance of International Modernism.

Bibliography

T. Fischer (1903, 1917);
Karlinger (1932);
Nerdinger (ed.) (1988);
Pfister (1968)