Anker, Alfons

Alfons Anker came from an old established Jewish Berlin family. After studies at the Technical University in Charlottenburg, he went into business on his own. He designed several residential buildings and was intensely involved in rationalizing the building process. In 1924 he formed a joint office with the much younger Luckhardt brothers. For ten years, their firm successfully engaged in building residential and commercial buildings. After the National Socialist takeover, the Luckhardt brothers joined the NSDAP [Nazi party] and the partnership was abruptly dissolved in 1934. Anker was banned from practicing architecture and made unsuccessful efforts to immigrate to England. In 1939, with great difficulty, he was able to immigrate to his daughter’s family in Stockholm, where he was unable to work as an architect. He published, pursued scholarly interests in hospital construction and was named an honorary senator by the Technical University Berlin shortly before his death in 1958.