Stadtwiki Baden‑Baden
Architect

Anton Klein

The local master builder who raised the Friedrichsturm

The architect's name, chiselled into the façade of the Friedrichsturm
The architect’s name, chiselled into the façade of the Friedrichsturm

Anton Klein was an architect in Baden-Baden in the closing decades of the 19th century. In 1890 and 1891 he built the Friedrichsturm on the Badener Höhe and the Villa Kann on Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße. An architectural photography project documenting the Villa Kann names him as the town’s master builder.[1]

Friedrichsturm

The observation tower on the Badener Höhe was one of the first projects of the Baden-Baden section of the Schwarzwaldverein (Black Forest Association), founded in 1884. Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden laid the foundation stone on 9 June 1890 and inaugurated the finished tower on 5 October 1891. Klein built it 30 metres tall in red sandstone, with sloping buttresses and two viewing platforms, one above the other. His name is chiselled into the tower’s façade to this day.

Villa Kann

For the rentier Ludwig Kann, Klein built the Villa Kann in those same years of 1890 and 1891, a castle-like house made entirely of local stone. A six-storey main tower with battlements, steep roofs and an imitation wall-walk gave the building the look of a knight’s castle. Fire gutted the main tower in 1953, and it lost its original appearance.

Villa Sirius

Two decades later, Klein took charge of construction for the Villa Sirius, built between 1910 and 1912 for the industrialist Max Fremery. The plans came from the Berlin architect Fritz Klingholz. Choosing an outside architect for a project of this kind was unusual at the time, and Klein was the local expert who oversaw the work on site.

Sources

  • Lecture Burgen, Schlösser und Paläste - zur Wohnkultur des Großbürgertums im 19. Jahrhundert by Michaela Markert on 19 September 2012 at the regulars’ table (Stammtisch) of the association Stadtbild Baden-Baden e.V.
  • Article Friedrichsturm auf der Badner Höhe verbindet die Generationen in the Acher-und-Bühler-Bote, 9 September 2003
  • Inscription chiselled into the façade of the Friedrichsturm, Badener Höhe, seen on 3 November 2015

References

  1. ↑ Villa Kann in Baden-Baden von Anton Klein, Stadtbaumeister, DV Architekturfotografie, accessed 11 July 2026 (Archived)
Automatically translated on 11. July 2026