Biography
Hilda Döring was an architect who mainly worked in Wels. She realised numerous projects there, but is still one of the relatively unexplored female architects. Her extensive estate is held in the Wels City Archive and the Graz University of Technology Archive since 1997.
Hilda Kuras was born on 11 October 1910 in Bad Radkersburg, Styria, the daughter of the doctor Josef Kuras and Franziska Kuras (née Benko). After attending primary and secondary school, Kuras studied in the textile department at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Graz for four years from 1925. After graduating, she decided to move to Vienna and enrolled at the Kunstgewerbeschule there in October 1929. In the academic year 1929/30, she attended various courses, including Oskar Strnad’s class Architecture III. During her studies in Vienna, she lived at Laimgrubengasse 25/3 in the 6th district. In 1932, she received her diploma with the following overall judgement from Strnad: “Excellent, remarkable talent for interior design and house building. Imaginative and full of ideas. Excellent, very personal taste for form and colour. Very talented in drawing“. After successfully completing the Kunstgewerbeschule, Kuras found employment with the architect Lois Welzenbacher. He first worked as an independent architect in Innsbruck and later in Munich. It is not yet known which buildings Kuras was working on. After 4 years as an employee, Kuras completed her A-levels at the Bundesrealschule (secondary school) in Vienna and enrolled at the Technische Hochschule Graz. She completed her architectural studies in 1938 after passing her second state examination on 11 July. This marked the beginning of her professional career as an architect. In October of the same year, Hilda Kuras began working at the Luftwaffenbauamt (Air Force Construction Office) in Berlin and Vienna.
There she was responsible for preliminary and construction design drawings and later as a clerk for building construction planning. In December 1939, Kuras married First Lieutenant Kurt Döring, who tragically died in the war just a few months after the wedding.
In 1941, Hilda Döring decided to move to Wels, where she found a job at the building construction office for the remainder of the war years. Due to her membership of the NSDAP, she was dismissed after the war and spent the next two years working in Leo Keller’s architecture office in Wels. In a decision issued by the district administration of Wels on 26 September 1947, Döring was classified as a person of lesser offense and it was now possible for her to take the civil engineering examination. She passed this in April 1948 at the Styrian Provincial Government and was authorised to work as an architect the following year. From then on, Döring worked as a freelance architect. Her office was located at Heimstättenring 48 in Wels.
In the course of her professional career, the architect created numerous buildings, schools, kindergartens and outdoor swimming pools. One example of this is the Lichtenegg kindergarten in Wels, which was planned and furnished by Döring in 1951. The simple, traditional building with a rectangular floor plan and a tiled hipped roof was the eighth kindergarten to be opened by the city of Wels.
On 11 October 1976, Hilda Döring announced her resignation as an architect. The architect died in Wels on 19 December 1996 at the age of 86.
Works (selection)
1941 Conversion of the city theatre, Wels
1941 Conversion of a grain storehouse into a Punch and Judy theatre, Freiung 15, Wels (today: Ateliertheater Kornspeicher)
1950 Design for the Volksfest portal, Wels
1951 Kindergarten Lichtenegg Schulstraße 7, Wels
1953 Restaurant „Gasthaus zur Vogelweide”, Wels
1956 Thalheim community centre, Wels
1956 Wels outdoor swimming pool
1963 Business adaptation – jeweller Denk, Wels
Sources
AT-OeSTA Austrian State Archives, Archiv der Republik, Hilda Döring-Kuras
OBERÖSTERREICH: Der achte Kindergarten in Wels. in: Salzburger Nachrichten, 05.03.1952.
University of Applied Arts vienna. Art Collection and Archive. Students Database – University archive. Hilda Kuras (1929/30). URL: https://kunstsammlungundarchiv.at/universitaetsarchiv/schueler-innen-datenbank/ (retrieved 15.01.2024)
Image:
© City archive Wels, estate of Hilda Döring
Text: Miriam Thöni
February 2024