Günter Behnisch

Günter Behnisch (12 June 1922 – 12 July 2010) was a German architect, born in Lockwitz, near Dresden. During the Second World War he became one of Germany's youngest submarine commanders. Subsequently, Behnisch became one of the most prominent architects representing deconstructivism. His prominent projects included the Olympic Park in Munich and the new West German parliament in Bonn.
Early life
Behnisch was born the second of three children, in Lockwitz near Dresden. He attended a number of schools, due to the fact his Social Democrat father was arrested, sacked and redeployed to Chemnitz by the new Nazi government.
In 1939, Behnisch volunteered to join the navy (Kriegsmarine), aged 17, which was a less onerous alternative to compulsory labour service, or army conscription. He eventually became a U-boat 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 he surrendered his submarine to the British and became a prisoner of war in Featherstone Castle in Northumberland.
Behnisch initially trained as a bricklayer then, in 1947 enrolled to study architecture at the Technical University in Stuttgart. 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 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 in Munich. The area in known as Olympiapark (Olympic Park) and it includes the Olympiastadion (Olympic Stadium). The stadium's tensile structure was developed in cooperation with architect and engineer Frei Otto. One of Behnisch's most notable buildings was the new parliament in the West German capital, Bonn. 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 in Munich, Germany
1984–87: Central library of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Eichstätt, Germany
1984–90: Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt, Germany
1985–87: HYSOLAR-Building der University of Stuttgart, Germany
1987–92: Plenary Complex of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in Bonn, Germany
1993–2005: Academy of Arts Building in central Berlin, a six-story glass expansion of the reconstructed Hotel Adlon
1997: State Clearing Bank – Landesgirokasse in Stuttgart, Germany
1998: Control tower at Nuremberg Airport, Germany
1998–2002: North German State Clearing Bank in Hanover, Germany
1999: Museum der Phantasie, Bernried am Starnberger See, Germany
2003: Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
2005: Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in Toronto, Canada
References
Bibliography
External links
Official site
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