Ernst Zinsser in Hannover

Hartmut Möller, a graduate engineer, developed a particular soft spot for the architecture of this outstanding master builder some time ago and has been studying his work with growing enthusiasm. As a chronicler of the current situation, he has taken contemporary photos of the buildings over the past months. During the process, contacts were established with various current owners or users, who, in the knowledge of the architectural quality, also allowed rare insights into the inner life of these architectural gems. The exhibition, which was created as part of ArchitekturZeit 2016, is intended as a tribute to a planner who decisively shaped Hannover’s cityscape in the 1950s and thus also deserves appropriate recognition today. It focuses on seven buildings and shows them in general views, facade details and interior images with special characteristics.

The supplementary accompanying publication, in the form of a catalog, also comprehensively covers the complete surviving – in some cases heavily remodeled – inventory of Zinsser’s local oeuvre. Out of consideration for privacy, documentation of the apartment buildings and row houses has been omitted. Multi-family houses and commercial buildings, which are in current use, are exceptions. The unbelievable abundance thereby shows Ernst Zinsser’s drive and virtuosity in the most diverse building tasks in the smallest space, as it is probably rarely to be found.