Anton Hoffmann was an important designer and builder in Prussian-time Bydgoszcz during the entire second half of the 19th century. He witnessed the transformation of Bydgoszcz, creating numerous residential buildings throughout the city. His activity became, in a sense, an indicator of Bydgoszcz building traditions, bridging old neo classicist masters and their successors, inspired by Historicism and Art Nouveau.
Life
Anton's family
Anton Hoffmann came from Greater Poland. He was born at the beginning of the 1820s in Chodzież (then Kolmar in Posen). He was the first-born son of Anton Hoffmann, a translator, and Johanna née Braun. His year of birth raises doubts, but one assumes Anton's most reliable date of birth is May 24, 1823. He spent the first several years of his life in his hometown of Chodzież, probably graduating from elementary school here. Then, between 1835 and 1837, the Hoffmanns moved to Łobżenica, but after a few years they moved to Bydgoszcz. In December 1846 they certainly lived in the city, in a rented house or, most likely, their own, marked Nr. 377, at today's Father Ignacy Skorupka street. The exact date of their arrival in the city is known by the registration book where is recorded the birth of Anton's five younger siblings (i.e. between 1840 and 1846).
Beginnings
Anton was registered as involved in masonry when settling in Bydgoszcz: it seems likely he began his apprenticeship in Łobżenica, knowing the basics of profession while arriving in Bromberg at age 23, where he worked as an independent (his first own designs date back to 1847). However, he was getting educated under the direction of mason masters (Hermann Donner, Emst Koch, Johann Wilhelm Krause, Friedrich Meyer, Gottlieb Meyer, Carl Schultz and Wilhelm Adolph Sieg). Anton received his Masonry Master's diploma between 1855 and 1857. On May 8, 1866, Anton Hoffmann married Michalina Święcicka née Woytalewicz, widow of a Bydgoszcz shoemaker, in the parish church of Saints Marcin and Mikołaj in Bydgoszcz. Michalina from the first marriage had eight children, the younger still living with her. Among them was seven-year-old Józef Stanisław (1859–1913), whom Hoffmann educated as a builder. Ha was to become one of the most famous Bydgoszcz architect, i.e. Józef Święcicki. In 1881–1882, Anton and Józef set up a common design studio.
Architect career
Unlike most construction masters at the time, Anton never built his own home nor lived in a property he owned: he rented the apartments in which he lived and worked. With the help of address books, one can consequently work out the different houses he lived in with his family: 52 Feldstrasse (today's Jackowskiego Street) in 1855 ; 12 Bahnhofstrasse (29 Dworcowa Street) in 1858;
38 Friedrichstrasse (4 Długa street), in 1864; 12 Neue Pfarrstrasse (6 Jezuicka street), from 1866 to 1876;
11 Wilhelmstrasse (16 Focha street) from 1877 to 1880 and in 1892;
3 Bahnhofstrasse (7 Dworcowa Street) between 1881 and 1884;
25 Gammstrasse (10 Doktora Emila Warmińskiego street), from 1885 to 1891; 4 and 28 Königstrasse (9 and 51 Kościuszki street) in the 1880s; 9 Brenkenhoff Straße (35 Bocianowo street) in the late 1880s;
151/152 Danzigerstrasse (34/36 Gdańska street), from 1893 to 1895;
36 Danzigerstrasse (59 Gdańska street) in 1896; 41 Danzigerstrasse (69 Gdańska street) between 1897 and 1900;
47 Rinkauerstrasse (46 Pomorska Street) in 1901–1902; 38 Danzigerstrasse (63 Gdańska street) in 1903;
6 Schulstrasse (86 Bielicka street) from 1904 to 1908.
Unlike his colleagues, he was not involved in lucrative and relatively popular real estate: many of his contemporaries purchased plots of land, invested in buildings, and then sold them for profit. Once retired, Anton moved to a rental flat located on the outskirts of the Bielsko Nowe commune. Here he spent the four last years of his life as a rentier. He died on Friday evening, February 14, 1908, and was buried four days later at the Nowofary Cemetery in Bydgoszcz.