Adolf Falke

One of the ten preserved futurist "Falke-Uhren" in Hanover, here at Lister Platz

After attending a village school near Gifhorn, Falke contracted polio at the age of eight, which resulted in a shortened leg as a lifelong disability. However, the cantor of the village school supported him and enabled Falke to attend the Leibnizschule Hannover. After his Abitur in 1910, Falke studied architecture at the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Universität Hannover[1] and at the Technical University of Munich from 1910 to 1914.[3] In Hanover, he became a member of the Bauhütte zum Weißen Blatt. Because of his walking disability, he was not drafted as a soldier during World War I,[2] but was able to work as an employee in the construction office of the Keksfabrik Bahlsen with the sculptor and architect Bernhard Hoetger on the plans for Bahlsen's TET-Stadt.[1]

From 1919, Falke ran his own architectural practice and was appointed as a member of the Bund Deutscher Architekten in 1920.[1] In his office, Falke taught the later architect Hans Klüppelberg how to draw, from which a lifelong friendship developed.[4] The later Stadtbaurat Rudolf Hillebrecht also wanted to design in a "modern" way and therefore, after his studies, initially worked for Falke from 15 August 1933 to 15 February 1934,[5] from which a paternal-friendship relationship developed.[2]

In 1926, Falke won the competition for a so-called "standard clock": according to his futurism type design, the city of Hanover placed around 20 "Falke-Uhr" in the city.[2] Even today, of the listed buildings[6] "Reklameuhren", ten copies are exposed in various locations in Hanover.[7]

Around 1930, Falke was decisively involved in the construction of the housing estate Liststadt in Hanover. This is acknowledged on a city plaque. During the Third Reich, however, Falke was Berufsverbot by the Reich Chamber of Culture in 1937, as he was married to the Jewish Therese Danziger.[2] Nevertheless, he was able to continue working secretly, and was rewarded for this with publicly invisible commissions from former clients and friends.[2]

As early as September 1945, Falke was commissioned by the British military government to prepare an association of architects. After a good year, the Bund Deutscher Architekten (Association of German Architects), which had been brought into line by the Nazis in 1934, was re-founded in Lower Saxony on 1 November 1946, and Falke held its chair until 1956. In addition, Falke was a member of the Expert Advisory Board ("Baupflege-Beirat") of the city of Hanover.[8] The former councillor Falke fulfilled his former pupil Rudolf Hillebrecht's wish for a letter of recommendation for the British military authorities and thereby played a decisive role in Hillebrecht's further career.[2]

During the reconstruction of the Café Kröpcke as a provisional building for the Export Messe 1947, Falke was one of the participants in a limited architectural competition, which was finally won in 1948 by the design of Dieter Oesterlen.[9]

Falke worked until the last year of his life. He died at age 70 and was buried at the Stadtfriedhof Nackenberg.[8]

• In 1999, the city of Hanover honoured Falke by naming a newly created street in Kirchrode as Adolf-Falke-Weg.[8]

Falke not only designed commercial buildings, but also furniture, lamps and jewellery. In addition, he created stage designs[8] for the Kestnergesellschaft and the Schauspiel Hannover.[2] The following are known of his works:

• until 1919: Involvement in the planned "Bahlsen" project. TET-Stadt with Bernhard Hoetger.[1]
• 1922/1923: Warehouse for Ferdinand Sichel in Hanover.[3]
• 1926: Garage for Daimler-Benz in Hanover.[3]
• 1926: Interior design of a sales shop for the Bahlsen compagny on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin.[8]
• 1926: siegreicher Wettbewerbsentwurf für eine Normal- bzw. Reklameuhr in Hannover (Typenentwurf der so genannten „Falke-Uhren“).[7]
• 1929: Housing group at the Karl-Peters-Platz in Hanover.[3]
• 1929–1931: Residential development of the Liststadt in Hanover,[3] between the Podbielskistraße and the Defreggerstraße.[10] on the site of the TET City formerly planned there.; with artists' studios, which then for example Grethe Jürgens used.[8]

From 1948 onwards, Falke built various commercial buildings in the centre of Hanover, including:

• Commercial building for Hans Westermann KG in the Karmarschstraße.[8]
• 1949: Reconstruction[11] of the Head office of the Sachse & Heinzelmann bookshop, Georgstraße/Windmühlenstraße[12]
• Commercial building Knoop.[8]

Connecting tract of the Grundschule Meterstraße in Hannover Südstadt

• Commercial building for the Villa Heutelbeck fashion house.[8]
• 1951: Falke's own home in the Schopenhauerstraße in Hanover.[2]
• 1951: Commercial building for the I. G. von der Linde lingerie and fashion business.[8]
• 1952: jüdisches Altersheim in Hanover.[8]
• 1953: Buchhandlung Schmorl & von Seefeld in Hannover, Bahnhofstraße 14.[13]
• 1957: Commercial building for the Hannoversche Presse.[8]
• 1957: Design of a synagogue for Hanover.[8]
• 1958: Draft for the Grundschule Meterstraße in Hanover (together with Rudolf Klein, Ausführung 1959–1960).[8]

• Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, vol. 36, p. 404
• Alexander Dorner: Otto Falke. In 100 Jahre Bauen in Hannover. Zur Jahrhundertfeier der Technischen Hochschule. Edler & Krische, Hannover 1931, p. 44.
• Friedrich Lindau: Hannover. Wiederaufbau und Zerstörung. Die Stadt im Umgang mit ihrer bauhistorischen Identität. 2nd edition, Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hanover 2001, ISBN 3-87706-607-0, pp. 322f.
• Friedrich Lindau: Adolf Falke. In Planen und Bauen der fünfziger Jahre in Hannover. Schlütersche, Hanover 1998, ISBN 3-87706-530-9.
• Helmut Knocke: Falke, Adolf. In Dirk Böttcher, Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon. Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 pp. 174–188, online on Google Books
• Helmut Knocke: Falke, Adolf. In Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (ed.) among others: Stadtlexikon Hannover. Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart. Schlütersche, Hanover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9, p. 174.
• Adolf Falke. In Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (ed.): Timeline of Hanover, vol. 2: Vom Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bis in die Gegenwart. (in collaboration with Dieter Brosius, Carl-Hans Hauptmeyer, Siegfried Müller and Helmut Plath) Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Hanover 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0.