Viktor Axmann was a Croatian 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...

. He spent most of his life in Osijek, but he died in 1946 in a communist labor camp

Labor camp

A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...

 in Valpovo.

He finished the Higher Technical School in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany

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...

. Afterwards he specialized in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, where he got in touch with contemporary ideas of urban architecture of Josef Hoffman, Otto Wagner

Otto Wagner

Otto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...

 and Camillo Sitte

Camillo Sitte

Camillo Sitte was a noted Austrian architect, painter and city planning theoretician with great influence and authority of the development of urban construction planning and regulation in Europe.- Life :...

. In 1905, he became a construction entrepreneur in Osijek, where he built numerous secession-style buildings. His most important work of that period is the Urania Cinema (built in 1912), for which he received a prestigious award at the 1st International Cinema Exhibition in Vienna. After 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...

 he gradually abandoned the secession in favor of modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

. In that period, he built numerous architecturally important buildings in Osijek, such as the Apprentices' Dormitory , Workers' Insurance Office (Ispostava ureda za osiguranje radnika, also 1923), two pavilions of the Osijek Hospital (Osječka bolnica, 1925), House of Falcons (Sokolski dom, 1928), Boarding School (Đački dom, 1929), the palace of the County Office of Workers' Insurance (Okružni ured za osiguranje radnika, 1936, co-projected with D. Špiller and J. Kastl) and Office of the Matches' Factory "Drava" Pension Fund (Dom mirovinske zaklade tvornice žigica "Drava", 1940).

Axmann was also involved in urban planning

Urban planning

Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....

. He tried to add modern ideas of spatial planning to organize Osijek metropolitan area. In that spirit, he created a series of plans. In 1906, he projected new streets in the heart of Osijek. Under Wagner's influence, in 1908, he projected Osijek main square and farmers' market

Farmers' market

A farmers' market consists of individual vendors—mostly farmers—who set up booths, tables or stands, outdoors or indoors, to sell produce, meat products, fruits and sometimes prepared foods and beverages...

. The same year he attended the 8th International Congress of Architects in Vienna. Aside from Axmann, the Club of Croatian Architects sent his representativesto the congress. However, Axmann's application to join the club had been denied two years before. In 1910, he projected the Sakuntala Park. Aside from urban planning and architecture, Axmann also wrote about urban problems of Osijek in the Gazette of the Croatia Society of Engineers and Architects.

Sources

• Ambruš, Viktor: Osijek na prijelazu u 20. stoljeće (Transition of Osijek into the 20th century). Peristil, № 31/32, DPU, Zagreb
  Zagreb
  Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
  
  , 1988/89
• Ambruš, Viktor: Razvoj grada Osijeka na prijelazu iz 19. stoljeća u 20. stoljeće (The evolution of the city of Osijek during the period between 19th and 20th century). Secesija slobodnog i kraljevskog grada Osijeka, HAZU, Osijek, 2001
• Ivanković M., Grgur: Secesijska arhitektura u Slavoniji i sjevernoj Hrvatskoj (Secession architecture in Slavonia and northern Croatia). Secesija u Hrvatskoj (exhibition in Museum for Arts and Crafts of Zagreb), 2003