Friedrich 'Fritz' Ruhemann, later Rick Ruhemann (1891 - 1982)
Friedrich Abraham Ruhemann was born on the 8 May 1891 in Berlin. He studied first at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin and then the one in Munich. Intending to specialise in theatre design, in 1912 he was apprenticed to the stage manager of the Munich Artists’ Theatre, and was subsequently stage manager and scenic designer at the Theater am Nollendorf Platz in Berlin. After the First World War he was employed as assistant to various leading German architects, including Peter Behrens and Bruno Paul. From 1920 Ruhemann worked independently, designing numerous residential buildings and villas in Berlin and surroundings, shops, banks, hotels and factories, as well as a house in Italy. He also designed interiors, furniture, exhibition stands and had experience in commercial art, lettering and publicity, having been employed by the Ullstein Verlag publishing group as an artistic director.
2 South Parade, Bedford Park, Turnham Green, London (1938)
Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections
Being of Jewish ancestry, Ruhemann left Berlin with his family in 1935, relocating first to Prague and then to London, assisted by his brother Helmut, who had left Germany in 1933 and was working as Art Restorer at the National Gallery. He soon established a practice with British architect Michael Dugdale, and together they designed the house at 2 South Parade, Bedford Park, London. After the outbreak of the war Ruhemann volunteered for the Pioneer Corps but was turned down for medical reasons. He was instead briefly interned as an enemy alien. His partnership with Dugdale lasted until 1941, when Ruhemann submitted a RIBA Application for Employment. During the war he worked as a draughtsman in an engineering office and was involved in air raid shelter construction. His post-war professional output was fairly limited and includes the restoration and modernisation of two manor houses and the design of shops for Marks & Spencer. In the 1950s he also worked as a timber rot consultant and became a specialist in timber conservation. Ruhemann was a member of the Architectural Association and an active member of The Circle, an association of refugee architects and engineers founded in London in 1943. In 1950 he was elected a RIBA Fellow. He died in London in November 1982.
Bibliographical References and online sources
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Architekt Fritz Ruhemann, Berlin (Schellin Verlag, 1931)
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Charlotte Benton, A Different World : Émigré Architects in Britain 1928-1958 (RIBA Heinz Gallery, 1995)
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Myra Warhaftig, Deutsche jüdische Architekten vor und nach 1933. Das Lexikon. (Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2005)
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https://www.testifyingtothetruth.co.uk/viewer/metadata/105582/1/
RIBA Collections References
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2 South Parade, Bedford Park, Turnham Green:
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AP27/55-AP27/61
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AP941/152-AP941/157
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DWN7493-DWN7500
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RIBA Refugee Committee Papers