Paul Bonatz
Encyclopedia
Paul Bonatz was a German
architect
, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university
in that city
during part of World War II
and from 1954 until his death.
Bonatz was born in Solgne
, Alsace-Lorraine
, then German Empire
. In 1900, he finished his studies of architecture at the Technical University of Munich
. He tended to favor a radically simplified neo-Romanesque style, as in his 1927 Stuttgart Railway Station or his 1936 Basel Art Museum (Kunstmuseum Basel
). He did not consider himself a stylist. Bonatz had trained under Theodor Fischer
; unlike Fischer, Bonatz, did not join the Nazi
party. He did accept the position of architectural expert and advsior to Fritz Todt
, the general inspector for German road building. This job gave him huge commissions related to Third Reich infrastructure, including two major bridges for the Autobahn and many other bridges, and the huge railway station planned for Munich
.
The government tried to make good use of Bonatz' talents and name, but found him politically unreliable. He disliked Paul Troost
's renovation of the Königsplatz in Munich
and said so. This was a political mistake, since Troost was (according to Albert Speer
) Hitler's architectural mentor and personal friend. Because of his vocal opinions, Bonatz was investigated twice by the police, who accused him of aiding Jews
and being openly critical of Adolf Hitler
.
Bonatz belongs in the category of architects who were approved by the National Socialists
because they advocated conservative, historically-minded, nationalistic architectural styles, figures like Theodor Fischer
, Heinrich Tessenow
and German Bestelmeyer
. As the Nazis attacked avant-garde modern architecture as bolshevism, they held up these conservative figures as cultural heroes. Friedrich Tamms expresseed the party's official approval in Kunst im Dritten Reich, and Nazi architectural mouthpiece Paul Schultze-Naumburg
expressed the volkisch school's approval, calling the Stuttgart Railway Station a stark Romanesque building of stone, "a modern technical building in the best sense of the word."
Despite continuing approval and commissions, Bonatz fled to Turkey
in 1943 because of a disagreement with Hitler over his plans for the Munich Railway Station. Bonatz built many projects in Ankara
from 1943 through 1956, including a residential area with over 400 units and reconfigured the Ankara Exhibition Hall into the Ankara Opera House
, before returning to Germany in 1954 to participate in the reconstruction of Stuttgart
and Düsseldorf
. He was a professor at the University of Stuttgart
from 1954 until his death in 1956. His most famous building in Stuttgart is the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (Railway Station), built 1913-1927. The library building of the University of Tübingen was designed by him as well (built 1910-1912). Bonatz was also involved in the final stages of the architectural design of the Sofia University
Faculty of Biology building in Sofia
, Bulgaria
. The brick edifice was constructed in 1924-30 and was mostly designed by the Bulgarian architect Georgi Ovcharov, who worked the project out at Bonatz's office in Stuttgart.
On November 25, 2009, Bonatz' Stuttgart train station complex was nominated by the UNESCO to be possibly included into their list of World Cultural Heritage.http://stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/2290433_0_7998_-denkmalschuetzer-appell-bonatzbau-soll-weltkulturerbe-werden.html (German)
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university
University of Stuttgart
The University of Stuttgart is a university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized in 10 faculties....
in that city
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
during part of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and from 1954 until his death.
Solgne
Solgne is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France....
, Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
, then German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. In 1900, he finished his studies of architecture at the Technical University of Munich
Technical University of Munich
The Technische Universität München is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan...
. He tended to favor a radically simplified neo-Romanesque style, as in his 1927 Stuttgart Railway Station or his 1936 Basel Art Museum (Kunstmuseum Basel
Kunstmuseum Basel
The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the largest and most significant public art collection in Switzerland, and is listed as a heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, which made it the first municipally owned museum...
). He did not consider himself a stylist. Bonatz had trained under Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer was a German architect and teacher.Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Werkbund , as well as member of the German version of the Garden city movement...
; unlike Fischer, Bonatz, did not join the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
party. He did accept the position of architectural expert and advsior to Fritz Todt
Fritz Todt
Fritz Todt was a German engineer and senior Nazi figure, the founder of Organisation Todt. He died in a plane crash during World War II.- Life :Todt was born in Pforzheim to a father who owned a small factory...
, the general inspector for German road building. This job gave him huge commissions related to Third Reich infrastructure, including two major bridges for the Autobahn and many other bridges, and the huge railway station planned for Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
The government tried to make good use of Bonatz' talents and name, but found him politically unreliable. He disliked Paul Troost
Paul Troost
Paul Ludwig Troost , born in Elberfeld, was a German architect. An extremely tall, spare-looking, reserved Westphalian with a close-shaven head, Troost belonged to a school of architects, Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius who, even before 1914, reacted sharply against the highly ornamental...
's renovation of the Königsplatz in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and said so. This was a political mistake, since Troost was (according to Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
) Hitler's architectural mentor and personal friend. Because of his vocal opinions, Bonatz was investigated twice by the police, who accused him of aiding Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and being openly critical of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.
National Socialist German Workers Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party , commonly known in English as the Nazi Party, was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945. Its predecessor, the German Workers' Party , existed from 1919 to 1920...
because they advocated conservative, historically-minded, nationalistic architectural styles, figures like Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer was a German architect and teacher.Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Werkbund , as well as member of the German version of the Garden city movement...
, Heinrich Tessenow
Heinrich Tessenow
Heinrich Tessenow was a German architect, professor, and urban planner active in the Weimar era.-Biography:...
and German Bestelmeyer
German Bestelmeyer
German Bestelmeyer was a German architect, university lecturer, and proponent of Nazi architecture.-Life:...
. As the Nazis attacked avant-garde modern architecture as bolshevism, they held up these conservative figures as cultural heroes. Friedrich Tamms expresseed the party's official approval in Kunst im Dritten Reich, and Nazi architectural mouthpiece Paul Schultze-Naumburg
Paul Schultze-Naumburg
Paul Schultze-Naumburg was a Nazi architect and one of Nazi Germany's most vocal political critics of modern architecture...
expressed the volkisch school's approval, calling the Stuttgart Railway Station a stark Romanesque building of stone, "a modern technical building in the best sense of the word."
Despite continuing approval and commissions, Bonatz fled to Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
in 1943 because of a disagreement with Hitler over his plans for the Munich Railway Station. Bonatz built many projects in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
from 1943 through 1956, including a residential area with over 400 units and reconfigured the Ankara Exhibition Hall into the Ankara Opera House
Ankara Opera House
Ankara Opera House of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet is the largest of the three venues for opera and ballet in Ankara, Turkey, the other two being Leyla Gencer Sahnesi in Ostim and Operet Sahnesi in Sıhhiye....
, before returning to Germany in 1954 to participate in the reconstruction of Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
and Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. He was a professor at the University of Stuttgart
University of Stuttgart
The University of Stuttgart is a university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized in 10 faculties....
from 1954 until his death in 1956. His most famous building in Stuttgart is the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof (Railway Station), built 1913-1927. The library building of the University of Tübingen was designed by him as well (built 1910-1912). Bonatz was also involved in the final stages of the architectural design of the Sofia University
Sofia University
The St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia or Sofia University is the oldest higher education institution in Bulgaria, founded on 1 October 1888...
Faculty of Biology building in Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
. The brick edifice was constructed in 1924-30 and was mostly designed by the Bulgarian architect Georgi Ovcharov, who worked the project out at Bonatz's office in Stuttgart.
On November 25, 2009, Bonatz' Stuttgart train station complex was nominated by the UNESCO to be possibly included into their list of World Cultural Heritage.http://stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/page/2290433_0_7998_-denkmalschuetzer-appell-bonatzbau-soll-weltkulturerbe-werden.html (German)