Alfred Messel was a German architect at the turning point to the 20th century, creating a new style for buildings which bridged the transition from historicism to modernism.
10 Facts About Alfred Messel
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Alfred Messel's best known works, the Wertheim department stores and the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, reflect a new concept of self-confident metropolitan architecture.
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Alfred Messel was the third son of the german jewish banker Simon Alfred Messel and his wife Emilie.
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In 1872, Alfred Messel graduated from the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium in Darmstadt with an Abitur, after which he served in the military as a one-year volunteer in the First Grand Ducal Hessian Royal Guard Infantry Regiment.
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In 1879, Alfred Messel became a member of the Berlin Architects Society and, in 1881, he won the prestigious Schinkel Prize for his plans for an exhibition building on the Tempelhofer Feld, a military parade ground in southern Berlin.
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Alfred Messel was busy with the second extension of the Wertheim store on Leipziger Platz in the period 1903 to 1906.
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Alfred Messel died on 24 March 1909 and was buried in the Alter St-Matthaus-Kirchhof in Berlin-Schoneberg.
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Between 1896 and 1906, Alfred Messel's executed the Wertheim Department store on Leipziger Platz.
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Already during construction, the nighttime electric lighting and steel scaffolding caused a sensation, and when the store opened on 15 November 15 1897, the result was traffic chaos on Leipziger Strasse as well as the beginning of Alfred Messel's rise to become one of the most prominent German architects of his time.
10.
Alfred Messel had long been interesting in the design plan for the Museum Island and since 1907 had been developing plans for the Pergamon Museum.