Robert Soebert

Robert Soebert, born in Berchem on 19 July 1894 and died in Borgerhout on 16 August 1964, worked as an architect for only about ten years. Trained as an architectural draughtsman before the First World War, he set up as an architect in Berchem after his marriage in 1919, and in 1924 headed the technical department of the firm "Algemeen Bouwbedrijf". In Antwerp he designed in 1924, for Suzanne Klecker, the Art Deco apartment building at Uitbreidingstraat 566, of which only half the design was built, then in 1925 the neighbouring building at nos. 562-564 for the diamond merchant Willem De Vries, and in 1930 the house of the furniture maker Oscar Hacke at Lodewijk Gerritslaan 44. His main work is the Volkshuis (socialist people's house) in Sint-Niklaas, designed in June 1925 and opened on 27 February 1926, noted for its façade sculpture, including two crouching male figures symbolising labour, the wrought iron of its entrance doors and the stained glass of its café hall. The pavilion of the Chevalier Marin brewery at the 1930 Antwerp World's Fair is among his last works. In 1933 he became director of the Kinox cinema in Antwerp, and later manager of the Cineac newsreel cinemas in Antwerp and Brussels.

Translated from the French original.