Vladimír Weingärtner

Date of birth: 28. 7. 1892 Praha-Smíchov

Death date: 21. 1. 1943 Plzeň

Biography

Vladimír Weingärtner, born in Prague on the 28th of July 1892, was a son of the civil engineer Vilém Weingärtner, who worked as a bridge builder for the Pilsen-based building company Müller & Kapsa and played his part in the designs of the Masaryk Bridge on Jateční Avenue and the Franz Joseph I. Bridge (Wilson Bridge today) on Americká Avenue. Vladimír studied at the Czech Technical School in Prague (Czech Technical University today) in the years 1911–1915. During the war, he was deployed on the Italian Front with the Gebirgsjäger troops, where he contracted a serious illness from which he never fully recovered. After his studies, he married Emille Kuhn and fathered two sons. The older one, Vladimír (born in 1924), continued the family tradition and became a transport engineer (he took part e.g. in the construction of the Prague Ruzyně Airport), while the younger one, Vratislav, (born in 1930) worked for the Czechoslovak Automobile Transportation Company. In the winter of 1930–1931, the Weingärtner family moved from the apartment at no. 15 Kollárova Street (C2–333) into a new family terrace house at no. 34 Čermákova Street in the Bezovka villa neighbourhood (C4–1857). This triple house was constructed by the Pilsen builders Tomáš Dobrý and Antonín Kurel to the design of Vladimír Weingärtner Sr. His son Vratislav owns this house to the present day.

In the years 1921–1943, Weingärtner worked as a professor at the Secondary Technical School of Civil Engineering on Chodské Square in Pilsen. At this time, he also created designs of many buildings for the West Bohemian metropolis and its surroundings. Although his authorship cannot be evidenced by the surviving planning documentation, it has been confirmed by his contemporaries and descendants. Today we can only guess whether it was Weingärtner’s professor position that prevented him from making designs officially, or whether it was easier for him to create under someone else’s auspices. Despite the relatively small set of “verified” realisations, Weingärtner was beyond a doubt a significant personality in the Pilsen of the First Czechoslovak Republic, connected with the building development of the city of the time. His footprint is most visible in the Bezovka villa neighbourhood – besides the aforementioned triple house, a family six-house (C4–1763) was also built to his design on Čermákova Street. And the design of the apartment house of Antonín and Alžběta Kurel at no. 19 Bendova Street dates back to the year 1927.

Vladimír Weingärtner also took part in Pilsen school buildings – he is the author of the design of workshops in the State Czechoslovak Technical Schools (the Secondary Technical School of Mechanical Engineering and Secondary Vocational School of Professor Švejcar today) on Majerova Street and co-author of the project for the Dr. Matouš Mandl School (Masaryk Grammar School today) on Petákova Street (C1–1530, 1932–1935). He led the last final year class as a form teacher in the building study programme at the Secondary Technical School of Civil Engineering in the year 1938, afterwards the onset of illness prevented him from working. Vladimír Weingärtner died in the year 1943.

 

LR

Selection of other works

probably 1923
unrealised design of facades of a set of houses called U Trojdohody on Americká Street, Pilsen (C1–13)

1926–1927
workshops in the State Czechoslovak Technical Schools on Majerova Street, Pilsen (Secondary Technical School of Mechanical Engineering and Secondary Vocational School of Professor Švejcar Pilsen today)

before 1927
design of the Savings Bank Club house in Šťáhlavy near Pilsen
1928
Design of an apartment building with shops on Wilsonova (Americká) Avenue, Pilsen

1920s and 1930s
Design of a semi-detached house and a family house on Žižkova Street
Design of family houses on U Svépomoci Street, Pilsen
Design of two family houses on Družstevní Street, Pilsen