Thomas Wechs was a German architect. His son, also named Thomas Wechs (1929–2012), was likewise an architect.
Wechs began with a carpentry apprenticeship under his father and then attended the building school in Augsburg. He studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich from 1913–1914 and 1918–1921 under Theodor Fischer and Friedrich von Thiersch, alongside classmates Georg Werner and Robert Vorhoelzer. During World War I he was seriously wounded, an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in war memorials.
After his studies he worked for the construction department of the Augsburg postal directorate, contributing to numerous buildings of the Bavarian postal architectural school. In 1922 he became an independent architect. Between 1928 and 1930 he designed the Schuberthof in Augsburg, the first modern residential block in Bavaria, intended to provide many affordable apartments.
Wechs resisted pressure to join the Nazi Party, which prevented him from becoming a professor in Munich. In 1939 he was drafted again for military service and was held as a prisoner of war by the United States until July 1945. After the war he rebuilt his bomb-destroyed office. A close personal connection with the newly appointed Augsburg bishop Joseph Freundorfer after 1949 helped him establish his reputation, especially in ecclesiastical architecture.
Wechs largely worked in the Bavarian region of Swabia. Light and space were central to his designs, and he viewed urban planning as a way to bring beauty to streets and public spaces, advocating cities oriented to pedestrians rather than automobiles. He saw himself more as an artist than a technician.
Throughout his career Wechs designed numerous buildings, including war memorial chapels, post offices, residential projects, cultural buildings, and many Roman Catholic churches and parish churches across southern Germany from the 1920s through the 1960s. His work also includes the Rosenaustadion in Augsburg and several church reconstructions after World War II.
Wechs was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit on 7 December 1964 and the Papal Order of St. Sylvester in 1968. A regional architecture prize for Swabia, the Thomas Wechs Prize, has been named in his honor and is awarded by the Augsburg-Swabia circle of the Association of German Architects (BDA) since 2000.
Sources
Buildings
Augsburg, Germany
Schuberthof