Gellhorn, Alfred

Gellhorn was Jewish. After his time at school he was apprenticed in Silesia and then studied architecture at the Munich, Berlin and Stuttgart Technical Universities, between 1903 and 1908. After a traineeship in a public building office he passed his second examination and left the public service sector in the rank of Regierungsbaumeister (Governmental Master Builder). His Ph.D. thesis in engineering on “Graveyard Architecture in Silesia” was published in 1918.
Gellhorn first took up work in Breslau and then in Halle/Saale where he shared an office with Martrin Knauthe between 1922 and 1926. Gellhorn also occupied himself with garden landscaping and interior design about which he published articles in trade journals. In 1927 Gellhorn moved to Berlin where he jointly worked as a free-lancer alongside Max Dungert, Paula Marie Cathal and finally with Hans Wolff Grohmann.
Even though Gellhorn had converted to Protestantism in 1916 he still had to flee Germany as a result of growing antisemitism in 1933. He travelled to Great Britain, Columbia and Argentina. He was neither abroad nor after his brief return to Germany in 1954 ever able to design or build large structure again. Gellhorn was a member of the Association of German Architects (BDA), of the German Werkbund, of the Imperial College of Artists and of the “Porza” Companionship.