Hugo Häring (1882–1958 · architect)

Häring was born in 1882 in Biberach, Swabia in southwestern Germany. He studied at the technical universities in Stuttgart and Dresden. In 1903, he completed his studies under Theodor Fischer, the first chairman of the craftsmen's association Deutscher Werkbund. Häring then worked as a freelance architect in Hamburg and East Prussia. During the First World War, he was employed as an interpreter. In 1921 he moved to Berlin, where he shared a study with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In 1923-24, the pair founded the Ring of Ten in Berlin, which would later become the architectural association The Ring and extend beyond the German capital. In 1926, Häring was appointed secretary of The Ring, which by now had 27 members. While Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe stood for a technical-industrial style of architecture, Häring, like his colleague Hans Scharoun, represented "organic architecture". His main works include the residential buildings on the Onkel-Toms-Hütte estate in Berlin-Zehlendorf (1926-27) and his rows of flats in Siemensstadt (1929-30). Häring was one of the few leading architects who did not flee Germany during the Nazi era, opting to run a private school for design beginning in 1935. After the school was bombed during the war, he returned to his home town of Biberach in 1944. From 1947 to 1950, Häring served on the staff of Berlin’s Institute for Construction at the Academy of Sciences, headed by Hans Scharoun. Häring died in Göppingen in 1958.