Ernst Gustav Kühnert facts for kids

Ernst Gustav Kühnert (born January 21, 1885, in Tallinn, Estonia – died September 14, 1961, in Lübeck, Germany) was an important Baltic German architect and art historian. He was known for his work in Estonia, especially for helping to rebuild and design buildings in Tallinn.

Early Life and Education

Ernst Gustav Kühnert began his studies in 1902 at the Riga Technical University. He studied there until 1905. Later, from 1906 to 1908, he continued his education at the Techniche Hochschule Dresden in Germany. These universities helped him learn the skills he needed to become an architect.

Working as an Architect

After finishing his studies, Kühnert started his career. From 1910 to 1912, he worked at a private architecture office in Kiel, a city in Germany. He then moved back to Tallinn, Estonia. He worked there as an architect for many years, from 1912 to 1914 and again from 1918 to 1944. In 1945, after World War II, he moved to Lübeck, Germany, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Architectural Style and Projects

Kühnert was most active as an architect during the 1920s. One of his most important jobs was to help rebuild and fix many buildings in the historic Tallinn Old Town. These buildings had been damaged or needed updates.

His designs often mixed different styles:

• Heimat style: This style used traditional local building methods and materials.
• Art nouveau: This style featured decorative, flowing lines and natural shapes.
• Estonian traditional architecture: He often included elements from classic Estonian buildings.

Many of the buildings Kühnert designed were smaller homes. In the 1930s, his work started to show the influence of functionalism. This style focused on making buildings practical and useful, with clean lines and simple forms.

Kühnert also helped plan entire neighborhoods. He drew the general plans for two "garden cities" near Tallinn:

• Merivälja (planned from 1924 to 1925)
• Nõmme (planned from 1926 to 1927)

He worked on both of these projects with another architect named Robert Natus.

Images for kids

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  A heimat style building (with Jacques Rosenbaum) on Süda street in Tallinn. The building is from 1913.

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  Pikk street 4/6/8 in Tallinn, built in 1920.

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  Süda street 2 in Tallinn, built in 1932.