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# Fritz Schumacher: The Man Who Built Modern Hamburg
- URL: https://alsterrunde.com/fritz-schumacher-the-man-who-built-modern-hamburg/
- Published: 2026-10-19T05:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T05:00:00.000Z
- Description: How one architect’s ideas from a hundred years ago still shape the way we live, walk and cycle through Hamburg today.
- Author: Mert Bulan
- Tags: People, Architecture

Since I started writing about Hamburg in this newsletter, one name has kept coming up. When I wrote about [the Stadtpark](https://alsterrunde.com/hamburgs-stadtpark-a-park-built-to-be-used/) and the facilities it was built with, about [the Klinker bricks](https://alsterrunde.com/fifty-shades-of-klinker-the-bricks-that-shaped-hamburg/) that give the city its face, and about [the Fuhle](https://alsterrunde.com/fuhle-life-along-hamburgs-most-numbered-street/), which became the centre of Barmbek after one of Hamburg’s largest urban development projects, I kept running into the same person: Fritz Schumacher.

At some point, it became almost impossible to write about Hamburg without mentioning him, so I decided to look into who he was and give him an article of his own. While researching, I realised that the work he did around a century ago still touches the daily lives of almost everyone in Hamburg. And not only today: his ideas are still shaping how the city will grow in the future.

### Fritz Schumacher (1869-1947)

Schumacher was born in Bremen in 1869 into a merchant family and spent much of his childhood in Bogotá and New York, where his father served as a diplomat. He studied architecture and became a professor in Dresden, where one of his first major buildings was [the crematorium](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urnenhain%5FTolkewitz?ref=alsterrunde.com) in Dresden-Tolkewitz; decades later, one of his last works in Hamburg would be a crematorium too.

He came to Hamburg in 1909 as Baudirektor (Director of Building). Apart from a few years in Cologne in the early 1920s, where he planned the conversion of the city’s old fortification ring, he stayed in Hamburg for the rest of his career. From 1923, as Oberbaudirektor (Chief Director of Building), he was the de facto master planner of the city-state.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_1083-1.png)

This navy blue plaque can be found on many of Schumacher's buildings.

In May 1933, the new Nazi regime forced him into retirement without explanation. He spent his remaining years writing, including his memoir [Stufen des Lebens](https://fritzschumacher.de/gesellschaft/literaturverzeichnis/fritz-schumacher-stufen-des-lebens-erinnerungen-eines-baumeisters-2/?ref=alsterrunde.com) (Stages of Life, 1935), and died in Hamburg in 1947.

### The Federplan: growing along axes

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/b-federplan-2.webp)

Fritz Schumacher's feather plan from 1919\. ©**BSW / BUKEA*

In 1919 Schumacher drew the Federplan ("feather plan"), a model in which Hamburg would grow outward along its main transport lines rather than spreading evenly in rings. Building would follow the rapid-transit and road corridors like the quills of a feather, while the wedges between them stayed free as green space.

Why build a city like this? The first reason was getting around. Hamburg was growing fast, and in Schumacher's time most people did not own a car. They travelled by train, so it made sense to put new homes close to the stations of the rapid-transit lines running out of the city. That way, people could live further out and still reach the centre quickly. To this day, rail lines form the backbone of Hamburg's growth axes.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/28ksula7lu8a1-1.png)

Hamburg U- and S-Bahn lines

The second reason was green space. When a city keeps spreading outward in rings, the countryside moves further and further away, and the fields that once lay at its edge end up buried inside it. By building only along the axes, the land between them could stay open. Schumacher wanted these green wedges to give people parks, playgrounds, sports grounds and Kleingärten (allotment gardens) close to their homes, and to link the city with the countryside around it. Along the valleys of the Alster and the Wandse, this green was meant to reach almost all the way into the city centre.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/b-landschaftsachsen-uebersichtsplan-2.webp)

Green Network **©BUKEA / Studio Käfig*

This explains something I’ve kept stumbling into since moving to Hamburg. The first time, I was cycling along Kollaustraße when another cyclist turned into a small path; curious, I followed and somehow ended up in the Niendorfer Gehege. Since then, almost every random walk or ride ends the same way: a small path, a canal beside it, and eventually a lake or a park. Until I read about the Federplan, I thought this was luck. Now I know it was planned.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_0579.webp)

Niendorfer Gehege, 2018

After the Second World War, Hamburg kept planning along these axes. The green wedges between them grew into what the city today calls the Grünes Netz (Green Network): long strips of connected parks, river valleys, fields and woods that run from the edge of the city towards the centre, linked by two green rings.

### Stadtpark: a park built to be used

The Stadtpark is one of the best places to see Schumacher's ideas about green space. He designed it together with the engineer Ferdinand Sperber, and it opened in 1914 on 149 hectares, close to the districts where the working class lived.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_0920.jpeg)

Unlike most big city parks, it was not built to be looked at. It was planned around what people would do in it: grilling, swimming in the lake, playing football, running or just lying on the lawn. More than 100 years later, it is still used the same way. I'm not going into the details here, since I already wrote about them in [Hamburg's Stadtpark: A Park Built to Be Used](https://alsterrunde.com/hamburgs-stadtpark-a-park-built-to-be-used/).

### Homes for working families

Dulsberg, in the east of the city, is the best example of Schumacher’s housing reform. He planned it in 1918 and 1919 as a new district for working-class families

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2441.jpeg)

Dulsberg

At the time, many of these families lived in so-called Mietskasernen (rental barracks): five- or six-storey buildings with rear wings and narrow, dark courtyards. Schumacher had long criticised them, and in Dulsberg he got the chance to do it differently. He lowered the buildings to three or four storeys and used narrow blocks, so there was no room for rear wings. Klinker was compulsory.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2436.jpeg)

Dulsberg

In the middle of the district, he placed a long park: the Grünzug Dulsberg. It is about 50 metres wide and more than a kilometre long, with playgrounds, paddling pools, gardens and sports fields. The pattern is simple: main road, housing block, green strip, housing block, main road. Today the park is a protected garden monument. When I visited, it was really nice to see this long green strip with the perfectly structured blocks lined up along it, and green right at the centre of the district.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2429-1.webp)

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2427.webp)

Dulsberg

Schumacher made the plan, but different architects designed the blocks, like the houses with rounded balconies by the brothers Paul and Hermann Frank on Oberschlesische Straße. Because almost everything was built in red Klinker, the district still looks like one piece.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2434.jpeg)

Houses with rounded balconies by the brothers Paul and Hermann Frank

In 1943, Dulsberg was almost completely destroyed in the bombing raids of [Operation Gomorrha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing%5Fof%5FHamburg%5Fin%5FWorld%5FWar%5FII?ref=alsterrunde.com). Many outer walls survived, so after the war it was rebuilt following Schumacher’s original plans.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2475.webp)

Jarrestadt

A few years after Dulsberg, the same idea was used in the Jarrestadt in Winterhude, right next to the Stadtpark: about 1.800 red Klinker flats built from 1926 around green courtyards and a public green strip. Today it is seen as a model example of 1920s reform housing. Walking through it, what struck me was how some facades look like a solid brick wall, as if the windows and doors were only added afterwards.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2472.webp)

The green strip in Jarrestadt

Further north, Schumacher tried a different model in Langenhorn. Right after the First World War, the settlement now named after him, the Fritz-Schumacher-Siedlung, was built as small brick row houses with large gardens, where families could grow their own food. Of the three, this was the most fascinating to visit. I had never seen a group of houses with such long gardens, so private from the street. Perfectly structured and connected to the school, it looks like something designed in a city-building game.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/Screenshot-2026-10-18-at-17.34.13.webp)

Fritz-Schumacher-Siedlung on Apple Maps

### Klinker: the red brick city

Schumacher made hard-fired red brick, known as Klinker, the common language of Hamburg’s architecture. Brick was already becoming popular in Hamburg around 1905; Schumacher took up that trend and used it for every kind of public building.

Klinker is fired at very high temperatures, which makes it dense, water-resistant and frost-proof, ideal for Hamburg’s damp maritime climate. For Schumacher, though, the material was more than practical. He saw brick as an everyday language that could give the whole city a shared look and a sense of community. This is probably one of the reasons why I enjoy walking or cycling around the city.

His brick buildings are rarely plain. He worked with sculptors, ceramicists and painters on more than a hundred public buildings, adding patterned brickwork, glazed terracotta and ceramic reliefs. He is often mentioned alongside Fritz Höger, the architect of the Chilehaus, as a leading figure of North German brick architecture. Through building regulations, he also pushed private developers toward brick, which is why whole 1920s districts look so consistent today.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_1082.jpeg)

Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums

One detail I keep noticing is his clocks. Many of his buildings, from schools to the Seemannshöft pilot station, have a clock set right into the brick, with golden numerals and hands, and the gold against the red Klinker looks incredible.

### Other significant works in Hamburg

Schumacher's office designed buildings for almost every public purpose: schools, parks, museums, police stations, baths and administrative buildings. Two groups stand out: his schools and his bridges.

#### Schools

Schools were Schumacher's most important building type, which he saw as the cultural centres of the new housing districts. Between 1926 and 1931 alone, Hamburg built 24 new schools, almost all to his designs, in a programme that continued even through the Great Depression.

These schools were surprisingly modern: flat-roofed Klinker buildings with roof terraces for outdoor lessons, assembly halls with cinema equipment and even dental clinics. Each one also received artwork by Hamburg artists, though the Nazis later painted over or destroyed 11 of the 24 murals.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_1935.jpeg)

Grundschule Genslerstraße

One detail surprised me at these schools: separate entrances marked Mädchen and Knaben. To save money, many were built as double schools, with a girls’ school and a boys’ school sharing one building, each with its own entrance. I had never heard Knaben before. A German friend explained that it sounds so old-fashioned that everyone just says Junge today.

Two good examples are the Lichtwarkschule in Winterhude and the Walddörferschule in Volksdorf, a campus-like school set in woodland. None of his schools were completely destroyed in 1943, and almost all are still used as schools today.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/WK211.jpeg)

Lichtwarkschule, Today: Heinrich-Hertz-Schule

#### Bridges

Hamburg has almost 2.500 bridges, more than any other city in Europe, and Schumacher’s office built many of them. Along the Alster, he created a kind of standard model: a low arch, covered in Klinker.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/WK255.jpeg)

Krugkoppelbrücke

One of the best known is the Krugkoppelbrücke at the northern end of the Outer Alster, between Harvestehude and Winterhude, which got its current form in 1928\. Like several of his Alster bridges, it is now a protected historic monument. It is also my favourite bridge in Hamburg, because I think it has the best view in the city.

#### Other works

The Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte (Museum of Hamburg History) stands on the old city ramparts. Schumacher designed it, and it opened in 1922\. More than 300 parts saved from older Hamburg buildings were built into it, so the building tells the city’s history before you even go inside.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/WK166.jpeg)

Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte

Out on the Elbe, at the entrance to the port in Waltershof, stands the Seemannshöft pilot station, built in 1914 to his design. With its dark brick and tall signal tower, it marks the way into Hamburg, and the harbour pilots still work there today.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/WK157.jpeg)

Lotsenhaus Seemannshöft

The New Crematorium at Ohlsdorf Cemetery, one of the world’s largest park cemeteries, is the crematorium I mentioned at the start. Its 16-metre-high ceremonial hall is now called the Fritz-Schumacher-Halle, and there is even a café called Fritz next to it, which I think is a nice touch.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_0846-2.jpeg)

Neue Krematorium Ohlsdorf

At the UKE hospital in Eppendorf, the old pathology institute, now called the Fritz-Schumacher-Haus, is also his work. Today it houses the hospital’s Medical History Museum, and it is also where you can see a statue of Schumacher himself, shown at work.

### Legacy

Many of Schumacher’s buildings are still used today as schools, museums, parks and homes, and many are protected as historic monuments. The Fritz Schumacher Prize, awarded by the Hamburg Senate since 1961, and the [Fritz-Schumacher-Gesellschaft](https://fritzschumacher.de/?ref=alsterrunde.com), founded in 1994, keep his name alive in the city’s architecture.

While researching this article, I came across *Fritz Schumacher: Bauten und Planungen in Hamburg* (Buildings and Plans in Hamburg) by Manfred F. Fischer, a city guide of more than 100 pages about his works. It came out in the year I was born and has long been out of print, but I was so happy to find out it exists that I immediately ordered a second-hand copy from an antique bookshop. 

I had already added the locations of his buildings that are still standing to my [Franzbrötchen](https://franzbroetchen.app/?ref=alsterrunde.com) app, together with photos I took myself, and with the brochure I hope to improve that section so more people can discover Schumacher’s work in today’s city.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/fritz-iphone-duo.webp)

You can check the works of Fritz Schumacher on the [Franzbrötchen](https://franzbroetchen.app/?ref=alsterrunde.com) app.

Cycling around Hamburg to photograph his buildings, I also noticed that some of them were under renovation, like the Ida-Ehre-Schule in Eimsbüttel and the Holthusenbad in Eppendorf. It’s nice to see them being made future-proof, so they can keep being used for another century.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/WK158.jpeg)

Holthusenbad in Eppendorf

His ideas are also part of Hamburg's future. [The Masterplan Magistralen 2040+](https://www.hamburg.de/politik-und-verwaltung/behoerden/behoerde-fuer-stadtentwicklung-und-wohnen/themen/stadtentwicklung/magistralen/warum-ein-masterplan-magistralen--934756?ref=alsterrunde.com) wants the city to grow along its big arterial roads, the Magistralen, instead of on green fields at the edge. These roads are the quills of Schumacher's feather. Over the coming decades, they are meant to get new homes, more trees and more room for buses, bikes and people on foot.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/Masterplan-Magistralen.jpeg)

Masterplan Magistralen

Schumacher is buried at Ohlsdorf Cemetery, in the Althamburgischer Gedächtnisfriedhof (Old Hamburg Memorial Cemetery), a section for people who shaped the city. When I visited, the whole area felt very special. His grave lies close to the statue of Christ, and whether or not that means anything, standing in front of his gravestone I felt that the city gives him the respect he deserves. So the next time you walk through Ohlsdorf, don’t forget to pay your respects to the man who shaped so much of the city.

![](https://cdn.synaps.media/alsterrunde/content/images/2026/10/IMG_2490.webp)

Ohlsdorf Cemetery

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