Fick, Roderich (1886-1955)

Fick, Roderich

ARCHITECT (GERMANY)

BORN 16 Nov 1886, Würzburg, Bayern - DIED 13 Jul 1955, München, Bayern
GRAVE LOCATION Herrsching am Ammersee, Bayern: Friedhof, Mitterweg (near the chapel )

Roderich Fick was the son of the physician A.E.G. Fick. In 1887 the family moved to Zürich where his father became a private teacher at the University. He grew up in Zürich and studied architecture in Zürich, Munich and Dresden. In 1911 he participated in an expedition to Greenland and in 1914 he left for the German colony Cameroon where he worked as an engineer.

From 1916 to 1919 he was interned in Spain and only in 1919 he was able to return to his parents. On 27 Dec 1919 he married Marie Günther from Dresden and they settled in Herrsching, Bavaria. Together with Rudolf Menzel, whom he had met in Spain, he started working as an architect. He built a home in Herrsching for the sculptor Ernesto de Fiori and designed the new cemetery in Herrsching. Larger commissions followed and in 1933 he was building new parts of Munich in Laim and Friedenheim.

After a building near the Braunen Haus in Munich attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler. To his surprise Hitler provided him with further commissions in Munich and also for buildings at the Obersalzberg near Berchtesgaden. In 1936 he became a professor at the Technischen Hochschule in Munich. In 1937 he joined the NSDAP. In 1948 he claimed that he felt forced to it because it would have been unpolite to work at the Obersalzburg without joining Hitler's party. He executed several works at the Obersalzberg, among them the Villa Bormann and the Hotel Platterhof.

Difficulties with Martin Bormann led to his dismissal from his post in Berchtesgaden, but he continued his career in Linz, where he worked directly for Hitler, and held on to his professorship.

In 1946 his conduct in the nazi era was investigated. He was forced to pay a huge fine and support the rebuilding of Munich. In 1948 his case was reinvestigated and it was concluded that he had never enriched himself. All he had to do way pay a much smaller fine and he was free to work again.

In 1938 Marie had died and in 1948 he married his former student Catharina Büscher, who was 28 years his junior. They worked together until he retired in 1954. He died the following year in Munich. His wife continued her work as an architect until the late 1970s. Their daughter Friederike Orth (b.1950) became a musician.

Images

The grave of Roderich Fick at the cemetery in Herrsching, Bavaria.
Picture by Androom (26 Aug 2003)