Hubert Ritter

Hubert Ritter studied at the Technical University of Munich until 1909, where he began his professional career before joining the municipal building authority in Cologne in 1913, where he served as a city planner and architect until 1924.

During his years in Cologne, Ritter developed his dissertation The Cologne Traffic Problems, intending to apply its ideas directly to urban planning practice. However, the project was blocked by Cologne’s mayor, Konrad Adenauer. Disappointed by this decision, Ritter applied for positions as city building councillor in both Nuremberg and Leipzig, despite already holding a secure post in Cologne. Leipzig responded first, and he moved there on 1 November 1924; his family joined him the following year.

Ritter’s first major task in Leipzig was the preparation of a comprehensive general development plan for the city. In the years that followed, he became a member of the Reichsforschungsgesellschaft für Wirtschaftlichkeit im Bau- und Wohnungswesen (Reich Research Society for Economic Efficiency in Building and Housing), which focused on questions of social and economic housing construction. Among the members was Walter Gropius, with whom Ritter represented the steel construction group. His involvement in this committee strongly influenced his commitment to modernist public architecture and communal housing projects in Leipzig. The group also planned and built a housing estate in Berlin.

In November 1930, the SPD, KPD and NSDAP jointly demanded that the position of Leipzig’s city architect be publicly advertised. This was followed by a smear campaign against Ritter, which ultimately resulted in his not being re-elected. As a consequence, the active promotion of modernist housing construction by the Leipzig city administration came to an end.

Because Ritter had already worked on the site of the university hospital while preparing the city’s development plan, he was able to continue working in hospital construction from 1931 onwards. His first major project in this field was the completion of the new St Elisabeth Hospital building in Leipzig.

After 1936, Ritter was effectively banned from practising, partly due to the influence of the Saxon Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann. Through the help of a friend, however, he was still able to obtain commissions. In 1940, he prepared a general development plan for German-occupied Kraków, followed in 1941 by a similar plan for Luxembourg.

After the Second World War, Ritter hoped to contribute to the reconstruction of Leipzig, particularly through the rebuilding of destroyed hospitals. The city authorities, however, showed little interest in employing him. Only the Soviet Military Administration commissioned him to design Soviet military hospitals. Other proposals, including plans for a hotel at Leipzig Central Station, were rejected for political reasons. Consequently, in 1952 he moved to Munich to live near his children. There, he joined the architectural office of his son Hans Ritter and continued designing hospital buildings throughout West Germany.

Sources

• Wikipedia Hubert Ritter
• Leonhardt: Moderne in Leipzig : Architektur und Städtebau 1918 bis 1933, 2019