Freidrich C. Krichauff mixes the art of world-class philately with Adelaide architecture, skilled photography
Friedrich Krichauff's international fame as a philatelist meant a letter from India in 1897 was addressed to him simply as "Stamp collector". Two of Krichauff's photographic images – Below left: The 1886 Adelaide jubilee international exhibition where he won a prize for his photos. At right: An image from the Adelaide Town Hall balcony (about 1880) looking towards Victoria Square with the supreme courts building in the distance.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Wikipedia
Friedrich Charles Krichauff bequeathed his internationally-honoured stamp collections to the Art Gallery of South Australia that he’d helped design as a North Terrace, Adelaide, government building – and left his stamp in another art: as a highly-regarded amateur photographer.
He was born in 1861 at Bugle Ranges to Friedrich Eduard Heirich Wulf Krichauff, a South Australian parliamentarian, and Dorothea Sophia Arivolina Fischer.
Friedrich Charles Krichauff achieved most acclaim as a philatelist, specialising in the postage stamps of New Zealand and Australian states, particularly South Australia. His name was placed on the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, an international honour from the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, in 1932. Krichauff was elected a fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London in 1941. He contributed to The Postage Stamps of South Australia, published by Philatelic Society of South Australia and edited by N.R. James.
Krichauff was a founding member in 1885 of the South Australian Amateur Photographic Society. In 1886, he won a bronze medal at the London Colonial and India Exhibition and in 1887 he was awarded the first order of merit for photographic work shown at the Adelaide jubilee international exhibition. Several albums of his photographs were gained by the State Library of South Australia and valuable collections of his stamps were bequeathed to the art gallery.
As an architect, Krichauff is only officially linked to the rotunda in Adelaide eastern suburb Hazelwood Park but his contribution is much deeper and wider. Showing an early flair for drawing, and perhaps introduced by his father (public works commissioner in 1870), Krichauff at 17 joined the South Australian government architect's department, run by E. John Woods, within the public works commission, in 1878.
When Woods left in 1886, Krichauff rose, by 1890, to chief draughtman (for the next 30 years) under C.E. Owen Smyth. Since the exceptionally able administrator Owen Smyth was less an architect, Krichauff, as his right-hand man, can be credited with detailed design, drawing and specifying many South Australian public buildings over a long productive period.
In 1898, Krichauff worked up Owen Smyth's concept of the art gallery on North Terrace, Adelaide, where a design for ground-glass skylights was devised with stained glass artist and decorator E.F. Troy.
The endless development and redevelopment of the state’s hospitals saw Owen Smyth send him with the Royal Adelaide Hospital chairman to Melbourne to inspect the latest advances in pathology laboratories. During 43 years’ service to the later works and buildings department, Krichauff had a key say in plans for many state government schools, hospitals, homes, post offices, courthouses, police stations, and extensive works for the commonwealth government.
Krichauff went into private architectual practice in 1920, with his first job an honorary one to build a pavilion in Hazelwood Park as a World War I memorial. Among his work for the German community, especially in the Barossa Valley, was a sketch design prepared by Eric Dancker in 1925 for legal chambers in Tanunda. In the same town for the same client’s son, Reginald Leo Heuzenroeder, he later designed a house that, again, displayed all the professional skills. Both buildings were constructed by local master builder Bernhard Freytag (1863-1962).
