Friedrich Wilhelm Schmeer
Schmeer arrived in Brno in 1898 and was certified as a builder. His began his construction and entrepreneurial activities in 1904, and first cooperated with architect Vladimir Fischer around 1905. In 1908–1914, his construction company built dozens of apartment buildings in Brno, almost all of them according to plans by Fischer. At the time, it was customary for builders or construction companies to draft a building’s technical solutions and floor plans, with architects hired to design the facades. The final form was thus the result of a collaboration effort between the two. Schmeer built compact blocks of houses or developed entire newly laid out streets and sold some of the buildings while keeping others in his possession, which he rented out. His eclectic buildings, some of them inspired by various historical styles, others by floral, anthropomorphic or geometric Art Nouveau, combine a great variety of forms, arranged in an overall highly decorative manner. In the 1920s Schmeer worked for the Mining and Metallurgical Company, which moved from Vienna to Brno in 1922, where it built several buildings based on designs by Viennese architect Karl Lehrmann. With the great economic crisis of the 1930s, when the trend of declining orders that had begun in 1914 reached its lowest point, Schmeer was forced to close his business in May 1933.
Pavla Cenková
Buildner
Friedrich Wilhelm Schmeer
Date of birth
23. 6. 1875 Most
Deceased
8. 3. 1941 Brno
Literature
Petra Hlaváčková,
Brno Vídni, Vídeň Brnu,
Brno 2008, p. 293–306
Aleš Filip,
Jana Osolsobě,
Brno v minulosti a dnes,
Brno 2009, p. 231–258
Pavel Zatloukal,
Brněnská architektura 1815–1915. Průvodce,
Brno 2006
Sources
MZA, fond C 11 Krajský soud civilní v Brně, firemní agenda, inv. č. 5716, sign. A I 168, kart. 35, Fritz Schmeer stavitel, 1908–1949
