Erhard Brielmaier

Erhard Brielmaier (January 7, 1841 – August 29, 1917) was a renowned and prominent architect within United States and Canada from late 19th century through the 20th century. Erhard Brielmaier designed and built more churches and hospitals than any other architect.

Brielmaier was born at Neufra near Rottweil, Wuerttemberg. His mother immigrated to America with Brielmaier and his siblings in 1850 to join their father (a carpenter) who had settled in White Oak, Ohio, (now a suburb of Cincinnati. On November 27, 1860, Brielmaier married Theresia (née Haag) and they had 13 children. In 1873, the clan moved to Milwaukee, where Brielmaier worked his way from carpenter, sculpturer and altar-builder to that of an architect with a national reputation.

Brielmaier's sons (Bernard Anselm, Joseph Mary, and Leo Anthony) received special training in architecture, and together with them he formed the organization of Erhard Brielmaier & Sons Co., Architects, which constructed over a thousand Catholic Churches, schools and hospitals throughout the United States and Canada. Brielmaier had architecture offices in Chicago and Milwaukee in the late 19th century and 20th century. Where Louis Sullivan at the time concentrated on business commercial architecture buildings and Frank Lloyd Wright was designing houses, Erhard Brielmaier and Sons focused on the architecture of churches, hospitals (such as the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota) and schools and university buildings (such as the architecture at Marquette University).

In the Milwaukee area there are about thirty designated historical buildings status given to this architect and his sons. One of the most notable is Basilica of St. Josaphat within Milwaukee based on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was designed with conservation in mind by using the materials from the dismantled Federal Building in Chicago. You can still view the Chicago Federal Building's postal emblems on the brass ornaments upon the entrance doors. At the time St. Josaphat's would boast of having the fifth largest cupola in the world. St. Josaphat church would later be conferred the dignity of basilica.

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