(b Stuttgart, 9 June 1858; d Stuttgart, 10 Sept 1911). German architect, sculptor and painter. He received his formative training while working for Paul Wallot from 1883 on the construction of the Reichstag building (1884–94) in Berlin. After leaving Wallot’s practice he worked mainly in Berlin, designing private houses and commercial buildings. Examples of his domestic work were Haus Lutz (1892–3) in Berlin-Steglitz, and the richly decorated Haus Staudt (1898–1900) in the Tiergartenstrasse, Berlin. His foremost commercial designs were two department stores in Berlin, Kaufhaus Tiedemann (1899) at Kronenstrasse 13, and Kaufhaus Mohrenstrasse (1900–01). In both stores, Rieth developed themes first introduced by Alfred Messel in his Wertheim department store in Berlin, consisting of high arcades with thin mullions framing the almost continuous glass front. The planning of Rieth’s stores was functional, increasing the sales floors to the maximum extent possible. Rieth was not only an architect but also a sculptor, painter and designer. From 1897 to 1910 he was a teacher at the school attached to the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. While working on the Reichstag building he became part of a group of architects around Wallot that developed a monumental style of architecture. Prominent exponents of the school were Bruno Schmitz and Wilhelm Kreis. This monumental style found its outlet in the public buildings boom of the late 19th century and the early 20th. Wallot’s students revived the fantastic architectural drawing style of the 18th-century Baroque and Rieth became a leading exponent of this manner. His architectural fantasies, using large scales, contrasts of richly decorated and plain surfaces, and daring perspectives, were published from 1891.

• Rieth, Otto
  • Amberg, Adolf
  • Wallot, Paul