Günter Behnisch (12 June 1922 – 12 July 2010) was a German
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, born in
Lockwitz, near
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he became one of Germany's youngest submarine commanders. Subsequently, Behnisch became one of the most prominent architects representing
deconstructivism
Deconstructivism is a movement of postmodern architecture which appeared in the 1980s. It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building, commonly characterised by an absence of obvious harmony, continuity, or symmetry. ...
. His prominent projects included the
Olympic Park
An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...
in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and the new
West German
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
.
Early life
Behnisch was born the second of three children, in Lockwitz near Dresden.
[David Childs]
''Günter Behnisch: The architect behind Munich's groundbreaking Olympic Stadium''
in The Independent (London)
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was published ...
, 7 August 2010, retrieved 1 March 2012 He attended a number of schools, due to the fact his
Social Democrat
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
father was arrested, sacked and redeployed to
Chemnitz
Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...
by the new
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government.
In 1939, Behnisch volunteered to join the navy (''
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
''), aged 17, which was a less onerous alternative to compulsory labour service, or army conscription.
He eventually became a
U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...
officer and served aboard . In October 1944, he became one of the youngest U-boat commanders, when he commissioned . At the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he surrendered his submarine to the British and became a
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
in
Featherstone Castle
Featherstone Castle, a Grade I listed building, is a large Gothic style country mansion situated on the bank of the River South Tyne about southwest of the town of Haltwhistle in Northumberland, England.
Medieval origins
In the 11th century t ...
in Northumberland.
Behnisch initially trained as a bricklayer
then, in 1947 enrolled to study architecture at the
Technical University in Stuttgart.
[Thorsten Dörting]
''Obituary of the Architect Günter Behnisch''
in Spiegel online international
''Der Spiegel (online)'' is a German news website. Before the renaming in January 2020, the website's name was ''Spiegel Online'' (short ''SPON'').
It was founded in 1994 as the online offshoot of the German news magazine, ''Der Spiegel'', wit ...
, 13 July 2010, retrieved 9 August 2010 From 1967 to 1987 he was a professor for architectural/building design and industrial building technology at the
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.
Architectural career
He established his own architecture practice in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
in 1952, which in 1966 became Behnisch & Partner.
In 1967, the architecture firm of Günther Behnisch was selected to developed a comprehensive master plan for the sports and recreation area of the
1972 Summer Olympics
The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
in Munich. The area in known as
Olympiapark
The Olympiapark (English: Olympic Park) in Munich, Germany, is an Olympic Park which was constructed for the 1972 Summer Olympics. Located in the Oberwiesenfeld neighborhood of Munich, the Park continues to serve as a venue for cultural, social, ...
(Olympic Park) and it includes the
Olympiastadion
Olympiastadion is the German, Finnish and Swedish word for Olympic Stadium and may refer to:
* Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics (though mostly referred as simply ''Stockholms Stadion'')
* Olympiastadion (Berlin), the ...
(Olympic Stadium). The stadium's
tensile structure
A tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending. The term ''tensile'' should not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Tensile ...
was developed in cooperation with architect and engineer
Frei Otto
Frei Paul Otto (; 31 May 1925 – 9 March 2015) was a German architect and structural engineer noted for his use of lightweight structures, in particular tensile and membrane structures, including the roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich for ...
. One of Behnisch's most notable buildings was the new parliament in the West German capital,
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
. Although he won the architectural design competition in 1973, the construction only began in 1987, and was completed in 1992.
His son Stefan Behnisch established a separate firm,
Behnisch Architekten in 1989.
Main works (selection)
* 1967–72:
Olympic Park
An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...
in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, Germany
* 1984–87: Central library of the
Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
The Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) is a Roman Catholic research university in Eichstätt and Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany.
Compared to other German universities it is a rather small institution with 4,800 students in 2019; n ...
,
Eichstätt
Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese ...
, Germany
* 1984–90:
Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt
The Museum für Kommunikation is a museum of the history of communication in Frankfurt, Germany. It opened on 31 January 1958 under the name ''Bundespostmuseum'' (National Postal Museum) and is the oldest museum on Frankfurt's Museumsufer (Museu ...
, Germany
* 1985–87: HYSOLAR-Building der
University of Stuttgart
The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany wit ...
, Germany
* 1987–92:
Plenary Complex of the German Parliament (
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
) in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, Germany
* 1993–2005:
Academy of Arts Building in
central Berlin, a six-story glass expansion of the reconstructed
Hotel Adlon
The Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin is a luxury hotel in Berlin, Germany. It is on Unter den Linden, the main boulevard in the central Mitte district, at the corner with Pariser Platz, directly opposite the Brandenburg Gate.
The original Hotel Adlon ...
* 1997: State Clearing Bank – Landesgirokasse in Stuttgart, Germany
* 1998: Control tower at
Nuremberg Airport
Nuremberg Airport , german: link=no, Albrecht Dürer Flughafen Nürnberg, is the international airport of the Franconian metropolitan area of Nuremberg and the second-busiest airport in Bavaria after Munich Airport. With about 4.1 million pass ...
, Germany
* 1998–2002:
North German State Clearing Bank in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, Germany
* 1999:
Museum der Phantasie
The Museum der Phantasie (aka. Buchheim-Museum) is a museum in Bernried am Starnberger See. Named after Lothar-Günther Buchheim, whose art collection it holds, it was opened to the public on 23 May 2001. Buchheim is also the author of the best-s ...
,
Bernried am Starnberger See
Bernried am Starnberger See is a municipality in the Weilheim-Schongau district, in Bavaria, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Euro ...
, Germany
* 2003:
Genzyme
Genzyme was an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since its acquisition in 2011, Genzyme (also known as Genzyme Transgenics Corp or GTC Biotherapeutics) has been a fully owned subsidiary of Sanofi. In 2010, Genzyme ...
Center in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
, USA
* 2005: Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Official site*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Behnisch, Gunter
1922 births
2010 deaths
20th-century German architects
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Architecture educators
U-boat commanders (Kriegsmarine)
Architects from Munich
Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt
German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United Kingdom