Exhibition of Ella and Oskar Oehler

The Museum of Art Olomouc, the Architecture Center, and the Municipal House Association Brno invite you to the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, December 18, 2007, at 6 PM.
Architecture Gallery Brno, Starobrněnská 16/18
The exhibition will last until January 30, 2008

Curator and concept author: Jakub Potůček, Pavel Zatloukal
Installation: Exhibit Department of the Museum of Art Olomouc

Publication
Editors | Vladimír Šlapeta, Petr Pelčák, Ivan Wahla
Editing | Pavel Zatloukal
Texts | Andrea Jakubcová, Petr Pelčák, Jakub Potůček, Vladimír Šlapeta, Pavel Zatloukal

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Elly Oehlerová-Olárová (1905-1953)
Oskar Oehler-Olár (1904-1973)

Architectural Work
Oskar Oehler was born on January 8, 1904, in a Czech-German family in Přerov. His father, Ing. Franz Oehler (1856-1914), who studied architecture at the Brno Technical University (1872-1877), worked as a builder here until his death in the trenches of World War I. His mother, Ludmila Koblihová (1870-1932), came from a family of carpenters but was also a musician and a lover of folklore. Oskar was the youngest of four siblings. He completed elementary school in Přerov in 1914, the German secondary school in Olomouc in 1921, and studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the German Technical University in Brno from 1921 to 1926. The financially disadvantaged student earned extra money during the holidays as a bricklayer and concrete worker, thus gaining practical experience in the construction trade. For similar existential reasons, he likely interrupted his studies for a long time after the first state exam. On June 1, 1926, he successfully completed only the first state final examination with very good results. In the final phase of his studies, he had to seek employment.
The first of his employers was most likely the Brno architect Jindřich Kumpošt. Oehler was employed with him from 1925-1926 and then again from 1927-1928. In the first quarter of 1928, he practiced at the design office of architect Michal Maxmilián Scheer in Žilina. From 1926-1927, he worked as an architectural designer for Bohuslav Fuchs. In the following two years (1928-1929), he transitioned as the chief architect to Ostrava with Karel Kotas. He spent his last years of practice in Prague, where he worked as chief designer for Josef Fuchs until 1931. The loss of employment with Josef Fuchs due to the economic crisis was resolved by continuing his studies, this time at the Prague German Technical University (1931-1933), and a year later, by establishing his own design office in Prague and simultaneously getting married (1932).
He married his classmate from the Brno German Faculty of Architecture, Elly Sonnenscheinová. She was born on June 6, 1905, into a Jewish family of the Ostrava builder Ing. Viktor Sonnenschein (1873-1942), a graduate of the German Industrial School in Brno (1892), who later became a site manager for architect Felix Neumann in Moravian Ostrava. From 1934 to 1940, he was the chairman of the Jewish Religious Community in Ostrava. There are no detailed records available for his mother, Antonie Buchsbaum. Elly's only sibling who survived the Holocaust, sister Olah Buchsbaum (sometimes referred to as Bukspann), lived in Tel Aviv since 1922. In 1932, the Oehler couple had a daughter, Renata.
At the end of 1938, the Oehlers decided to emigrate to Australia; the plan failed, and they were interned in Munich and Berlin. After their release, they went to Elly's parents in Ostrava. In the summer of 1944, they were interned in concentration camps, and twelve-year-old Renata hid in Prague until the end of the war.
After the war, they first restored their design office in Ostrava. They changed their surname to Olárová. In 1949, they moved to Prague, where Elly worked with her husband at Stavoprojekt from 1951 to 1953 and where she died on April 22, 1953.
Oskar completed his university studies at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University (1948-1949). He then started working at Stavoprojekt as a three-group worker. He briefly collaborated in Jiří Kroha's studio. From 1951 until his retirement in 1964, he was employed at the Prague Metallurgical Project, first as a chief specialist and in the last years as a chief architect. In 1966, he left the Communist Party and was subsequently expelled from the Architects' Association. He left for Austria in 1971 to join Renata, who had immediately emigrated after the August occupation of Czechoslovakia. He died on May 26, 1973, in Vienna.


The exhibition and accompanying publication document the works of the Oehler-Olárov couple:

Odeon Cinema in Ostrava, 1930
TBC Sanatorium of the Central Social Insurance in Vyšné Hágy, 1932
Villa of Antonín and Marie Markov in Prague, 1932
Villa of Ladislav Říhovský in Teplice nad Bečvou, 1933-34
Castle of Václav Diviš Vysoký Hrádek, 1935-36
Villa of Josef and Blažena Kefurt in Prague, 1935-36
Pavilion of the Central Moravian Power Plants in Přerov, 1936
Operational pavilion of the Kazeto factory of Karel Zejda in Přerov, 1936
Administrative building of the Kazeto factory of Karel Zejda in Přerov, 1936-37
Hotel Bílý kříž in Staré Hamry, 1936-37
Hotel Continental in Plzeň, 1937
Apartment in Prague, 1937
Villa of František Wawerka in Lipník nad Bečvou, 1937
Apartment building of Karel Zejda in Přerov, 1937-38
Administrative building of the power plant in Přerov, 1937-38
Administrative building of the Philipp Kneisel factory in Všetuly, 1940-41
Publishing House Rodina in Prague, 1940
Renovation of the center of Moravian Ostrava, 1945
Residential settlement of employees of the wire factory of the Mining and Metallurgical Company in Bohumín, 1946
Mining settlement in Ostrava, 1946
Synagogue in Ostrava, 1947
Spa boiler house and residential building in Teplice nad Bečvou, 1947
Spa colonnade in Teplice nad Bečvou, 1947-49
Administrative building of the nitrogen plant of the Ostrava Chemical Works in Ostrava, 1947
Janáček Concert Hall in Ostrava, 1949
Gravity dam and drinking water treatment plant in Klíčava, 1949-55
Budovatelů Square in Prague, 1949
Residential building for employees of the Metallurgical Project in Prague, 1954-55
Residential building for employees of the Metallurgical Project in Prague, 1954-56
Black metallurgy plant in Ejpovice, 1953-56
Metallurgical plant for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at World Exhibition EXPO '58 in Brussels, 1957-58
Bridge in Žďákov, 1958-67
(New) Directorate of the Vítkovice Ironworks Klement Gottwald in Ostrava, 1961-65