Alexander Beer

German architect

Alexander (Alex) Beer (10 September 1873 – 8 May 1944) was a German architect.

All of Beer's works were seriously damaged during the era of Nazi Germany. The most dramatic vandalism was the torching of the Prinzregentenstrasse synagogue, Berlin Wilmersdorf, during the so called Kristallnacht raids of 9–10 November 1938. Before he was deported, the Nazis even forced Beer to change the remains of the torched synagogue into a granary. Today, a memorial plaque at Prinzregentenstr. 69–70 commemorates the destroyed synagogue. Since 2000, also some other buildings by Alexander Beer have been restored, mostly with private funding. The initially Jewish home for the elderly (Jüdisches Altersheim) in Berlin Schmargendorf (at Berkaer Str. 31–35) with its large inner courtyard was seized by the SS in 1941 and immediately repurposed as a counter intelligence command center, all remaining inhabitants and staff were deported and murdered. Between 1945 and 1954, the building was used as British antitank barracks and also as an officer's casino. A major renovation took place between 1954 and 1956. After this, the former Jewish community retirement home belonged to the Wilmersdorf Hospital. After the latter's closure in 1982, the Berkaer Str. site was reallocated to the city hospital center Max Bürger Krankenhaus, which was later renamed to Max Bürger Zentrum MBZ. In close administrative relation to the larger geriatric hospital site Max Bürger Krankenhaus at Sophie Charlotte Str. (Berlin Charlottenburg), the Berkaer Str. building by Alexander Beer served as a geriatric hospital until the early 2000s. Following Berlin's extensive hospital environment reorganisations which went into planning stage in 1998, the historically preserved site then also became part of Berlin's communal Vivantes chain (owned by the federal state of Berlin) and was again thoroughly modernized between 2009 and 2011. Today it serves as a geriatric nursing facility, now named Vivantes Hauptstadtpflege Haus Wilmersdorf (Vivantes Capital City Care, Wilmersdorf site).

Beer married Alice Fanny Davidsohn on 8 August 1924. She died of cancer on 5 November 1941. On 17 March 1943, Beer was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he died on 8 May 1944, most probably due to starvation. His daughter, Beate Hammett (née Beer, born 9 May 1929) was saved by a 1939 children transport to the UK and now lives in Sydney, Australia.