Abstract

Based on his unpublished memoirs, this essay describes the university and practical training of Fritz Beblo (1872–1947), who was in charge of the Building department of Strasbourg from 1903 to 1918. Beblo was a student of the architecture teacher Carl Schäfer in Karlsruhe, who was the starting point of a wide-ranging network of architects: the Schäfer students formed a sworn fraternity and supported each other in their professional advancement. Thus, out of loyalty to his teacher and his fraternity, Beblo only hired employees who had studied under Schäfer. In this way, he simultaneously guaranteed a uniform artistic understanding in his team and was able to let his employees work on the individual building projects independently. In this way, a considerable body of high-quality buildings in regionalist-reductionist forms was created, which became exemplary for public and private architecture in Alsace until the interwar period.

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