Jacques Rosenbaum

Jacques Rosenbaum (full name: Jacques Gustav-Adolf Rosenbaum-Ehrenbush) (1 July 1878 in Haapsalu, Estonia – 6 January 1944 in Berlin, Germany) was an Estonian architect of Baltic German descent.

Rosenbaum came from a Baltic German bourgeois family and possibly had Jewish ancestors. His father was a lawyer and his paternal grandfather was also an architect. Rosenbaum grew up in Haapsalu and Tallinn. In 1897, he married Adrienne Kerkovius. The couple had five children. In 1896 Rosenbaum began his studies in chemistry and architecture at Riga Polytechnic Institute in Riga. He graduated from university in 1904.

After finishing his studies in 1904, Rosenbaum became town architect of Tartu. In 1907, he left the position and moved to Tallinn.

Rosenbaum's most productive and arguably most creative time as an architect was during the years 1907-1919, when he worked in Tallinn in a style which can broadly be described as Art Nouveau. His first projects of this time (including a project for a rebuilding of the house of the Blackheads), which were not executed, were historicist in style, drawing much inspiration from German Renaissance architecture.

In 1908, Rosenbaum completed a project for one Reinhold Reichmann on the corner of the two streets Pikk and Hobuspea in old town, Tallinn. In this, the first building by Rosenbaum that was actually built, his eclectic style and love of ornamentation is already apparent. The building is not easily classified aesthetically into either of the then-popular architectural styles. It shows influences of Art Nouveau, German neo-Renaissance and neo-Mannerism, all of which is expressed in the wealth of ornamentation. Among the details, a comical sculpture of an old man gazing across the street through his pince-nez has given rise to plenty of local stories. This and the other ornamentation was executed by the renowned Riga-based sculptor August Volz.

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