Alexander Beer (10 September 1873 – 8 May 1944) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

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Beer was born in Hammerstein (Czarne)

Czarne

Czarne is a town in Człuchów County of Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. Population: 6,053 .-History:The town was founded on the territories that were formerly part of the Kingdom of Poland. They were acquired by the Monastic State of the Teutonic Order in 1308. Konrad von Jungingen...

, West Prussia

West Prussia

West Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773–1824 and 1878–1919/20 which was created out of the earlier Polish province of Royal Prussia...

. He studied in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

. His first employment was in Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

, where he restored and refurbished government buildings for the state of Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

. Being a Jew, he could not find promotion in this position and finally left his post to take on that of a Regierungsbaumeister (Architect in Chief), offered by the Jewish Community in Berlin. Among his works created during this employment are:

• A large Jewish orphanage in Berlin-Pankow (1913);
• An orthodox synagogue in Berlin-Kreuzberg (1913-16);
• A memorial for 395 fallen Berlin Jewish soldiers of World War I
  World War I
  World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
  
   in the Jewish Cemetery, Berlin-Weissensee (1924-27);
• A Girls’ School in Berlin-Mitte;
• A liberal synagogue in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (1928-30). This, together with a Residence for Seniors in Berlin-Schmargendorf (1930-31), was widely regarded as his most important achievement.

Other, lesser commissions included the reconstruction, refurbishment and maintenance of various buildings owned by the Berlin Jewish Community.

All of Beer's works were seriously damaged during the era of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. The most dramatic vandalism was the torching of the Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, on the Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...

of 9–10 November 1938. Since 2000, some of the buildings have been restored, mostly with private funding.

Beer married Alice Fanny Davidsohn on 8 August 1924. She died of cancer on 5 November 1941. On 17 March 1943, Beer was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp

Theresienstadt concentration camp

Theresienstadt concentration camp was a Nazi German ghetto during World War II. It was established by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city of Terezín , located in what is now the Czech Republic.-History:The fortress of Terezín was constructed between the years 1780 and 1790 by the orders...

, where he died. His daughter, Beate (born 9 May 1929) survived and now lives in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

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