Käthe Menzel-Jordan

On 10 September 2016, Menzel-Jordan celebrated a service for her 100th birthday in the Erfurt Michaeliskirche together with many companions and guests at the invitation of the Erfurt Church District of the Evangelical Church of Central Germany. As of 7 September 2021, she is a semisupercentenarian.

At the age of 80, Menzel-Jordan ventured into her last project, the general renovation of the family-owned house at Michaelisstrasse 19/20 in Erfurt's old town. During the development work, archaeological investigations revealed the house was the oldest documented residential building in Erfurt's old town and was built in the late 13th century.

Menzel-Jordan decided to expand her professional knowledge by studying at the Dresden University of Technology. Her dissertation, submitted in 1955, dealt with the approximately 50 watermills that have existed in Erfurt since the Middle Ages.

During the 1930s, she studied architecture and art history in Dresden. The young architect was surprised by the outbreak of World War II; she decided to take advantage of another training opportunity and dealt with business administration and technical administration. She survived the air raids on Dresden by chance, as she was on home leave during this time. When she returned, her Dresden apartment with all her belongings and the dissertation that had already started had been destroyed.

Käthe Menzel-Jordan (née Hertel; born 7 September 1916) is a German architect and preservationist. As of 2021, she is the oldest member of the Thuringian Chamber of Architects and lives in Erfurt.

Käthe Menzel-Jordan was born on 7 September 1916 in Erfurt. Her grandfather Reinhold Schreiber owned a construction business on Michaelisstrasse in Erfurt and was a very busy building contractor in the last quarter of the 19th century. Menzel-Jordan therefore decided to work professionally in the construction industry.