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Architect
Benjamin Eckel, last edited on 01.08.2022
Name:
Ludmilla Herzenstein
Life Dates:
1906 – 1994
Country:
Field of expertise:
Architectural design, urban planning
Employers:
Allgemeine Häuserbau AG Berlin
City of Berlin
Education:
Technical College Berlin-Charlottenburg
Awards:
Schinkel Plaque (1962)
Medal of Honour of the Women’s League in bronze (1962)
Medal of Honour of the National Front (1963)
GDR Medal of Merit (1965)
Ludmilla Herzenstein was born in 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia, the daughter of a civil engineer and a linguist, and grew up in Berlin. In 1926 she studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule Berlin-Charlottenburg. After a position as a working student with the architect Alexander Klein, she worked for the Allgemeine Häuserbau AG Berlin and took over the construction management for the housing estate Onkel Toms Hütte (designed by Bruno Taut). In 1933 she graduated with a diploma from Heinrich Tessnow. She then worked in various offices in Berlin, Hamburg and other cities.
Finally, in 1945, she was a consultant for statistics in the planning office of the city of Berlin. Under Hans Scharoun, she worked in the planning collective for the development of a building plan for Berlin and designed the arcade houses (Laubenganghäuser) in the Friedrichshain housing estate together with him. She then remained active in East Berlin and took over the construction of the aforementioned arcade houses. Until 1958, she was in charge of the department for housing planning in East Berlin, then as head of urban planning in the Berlin district of Weißensee. In this district, she was then city district architect from 1964 to 1971.
During her active period until 1971, she received several awards, including the Schinkel Plaque in 1962, the Bronze Medal of Honour of the Women’s League (1962) and the Medal of Honour of the National Front (1963), as well as the GDR Medal of Merit in 1965.
She died in 1994 in Berlin at the age of 88.
In addition to supervising construction in the Onkel Toms Hütte housing estate and her design for the Laubenganghäuser with Scharoun, she also designed the Milchhäuschen, a park restaurant in Berlin-Weißensee, which was realised from 1966 to 1968.
Besides the designing of new buildings and supervising the construction of some projects, her work also includes the renovation of old buildings. She also gave several lectures at the architecture faculty of the HAK in Weißensee (Kunsthochschule Weißensee). In addition, she wrote a number of articles, which mainly deal with her activities in Berlin.
She was also active as an author beyond architecture and urban planning and wrote the children’s book “Das neugierige Entlein” (The Curious Duckling) in 1945, which was published in 1952.
Herzenstein, Ludmilla: Bevölkerungsentwicklung als Faktor der Stadtplanung, in: Bauplanung und Bautechnik, Heft 7, Berlin 1948.
Herzenstein, Ludmilla: Bevölkerungsentwicklung als Grundlage der städtebaulichen Planung, in: Neue Bauwelt, Heft 19, Berlin 1948.
Herzenstein, Ludmilla: Einiges aus der städtebaulichen Praxis, in: Deutsche Architektur 11/1960, Berlin 1960.
Herzenstein, Ludmilla: Komplexe Instandsetzung im Stadtbezirk Berlin-Weißensee, in: Architektur der DDR, 8/1962, Berlin 1962.
Bauer, Isabel: Ludmilla Herzenstein, in: Barth, Holger et al.: Vom Baukünstler zum Komplexprojektanten. Architekten in der DDR. Dokumentation eines IRS-Sammlungsbestandes biografischer Daten, Erkner 2000, p. 110-111.
Dörhöfer, Kerstin: Pionierinnen in der Architektur. Eine Baugeschichte der Moderne, Tübingen 2004.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludmilla_Herzenstein (last accessed on 01.08.2022)
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