Roland Weber (3 March 1909 – 14 October 1997) was a German landscape architect.

Life

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Weber was born in Düsseldorf as the son of the self-employed engineer Karl Weber and his wife Agnes. Until 1926, he attended a Realgymnasium in Cologne, but left without graduating for financial reasons, instead completing a gardener's apprenticeship at the Jürgl wholesale nursery in Sürth [de] from 1927, where he was already making small planting drafts. From 1931, he studied at the Königliche Gärtnerlehranstalt am Wildpark bei Potsdam [de] in Berlin-Dahlem, among others with the influential perennial gardener Karl Foerster. In 1933, he graduated as a garden technician. Weber then worked again at the Jürgl nursery, now as head of the planning department.

His first commission as a freelance garden architect was the landscape garden of the Haus Christiansen on the Elbchaussee in Altona an der Elbe in 1934 (arch. Rudolf Lodders [de]).[1]

In 1936 he founded his own office in Rodenkirchen. During the Second World War, Weber was drafted for military service, which he performed as a medic in Russia, among other places.

After the war, Weber moved with his office to Düsseldorf, where he created numerous public and private gardens.

Weber was intensively involved with the garden art of other cultures. In 1978, for example, he travelled to southern Spain to study Moorish architecture and garden art such as the gardens of the Generalife in the Alhambra. He also travelled to countries on other continents, such as Morocco, Iran, Thailand and Japan.

Weber lived alone and in seclusion; he died in 1997 at the age of 88 from the late effects of a fire accident in his own house. His grave is in the Linnep cemetery in Ratingen-Breitscheid. The architect Helmut Hentrich, who was a friend of his, created his gravestone. His office continues as WKM Landschaftsarchitekten Weber Klein Maas.[2]

Gardens

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Haus Weber, architect Helmut Hentrich

Exhibitions

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  • Exhibition together with the architect Hans Junghanns in the Düsseldorf City Museum, November 1983 to January 1984.
  • Exhibition "Roland Weber – Die Kunst des Gartens" im Schloss Benrath (Düsseldorf), July/August 2004

References

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  1. ^ Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst und Städtebau. Volume 18, 1934.
  2. ^ Website of WKM Landschaftsarchitekten Weber Klein Maas.
  3. ^ Die Kunst und das schöne Heim. 54. Jahrgang, Bruckmann, Munich 1956
  4. ^ a b Der Baumeister 6/1950
  5. ^ Institut für Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege – Denkmalliste
  6. ^ Straße der Gartenkunst, retrieved 6 September 2021
  7. ^ Die Kunst und das schöne Heim. 58. Jahrgang, Bruckmann, Munich 1960
  8. ^ Institut für Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege – Denkmalliste
  9. ^ HÄUSER Heft 2/1981
  10. ^ Institut für Denkmalschutz und Denkmalpflege – Denkmalliste

Further reading

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  • Weber, Roland (1983). Gärten, Parks, Gartenhöfe (in German). Stuttgart: G. Hatje. ISBN 3-7757-0184-2. OCLC 11037087.
  • Weber, Roland (1999). Roland Weber : die Kunst des Gartens ; Landschaftsgärten, Parks und Gartenhöfe (in German). Ostfildern-Ruit Germany: Hatje Cantz. ISBN 3-7757-0840-5. OCLC 50065080.
  • Poßegger, Iris (2007). Der Gartenarchitekt Roland Weber (1909 - 1997) (in German). Düsseldorf: Grupello. ISBN 978-3-89978-075-8. OCLC 180729376. (in the same time, dissertation for the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, 2004).
  • "Was wir von Roland Weber lernen können". Garten + Landschaft (in German). 4 March 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2021.