Paul Schmitthenner

Paul Schmitthenner (15 December 1884 – 11 November 1972) was a German architect, city planner and Professor at the University of Stuttgart.

Early life and education

Paul Schmitthenner was born in Lauterburg, Elsass-Lothringen. He studied at the technical universities of Karlsruhe and Munich and later became a Professor at the University of Stuttgart, where he formed together with Paul Bonatz the architectural style of the Stuttgart School.

Architecture

His belief that the traditional methods and styles in architecture revealed best the German character led to his appointment as expert group leader for fine arts in the Kampfbund. He believed that Schönheit ruht in Ordnung (German: "Beauty lies in (geometric) order"). Schmitthenner was in open opposition to modern architects like Walter Gropius. For him, Goethe's cottage at Weimar was still the ideal type of the German residential building. However, despite official approval, his enthusiasm did not bring many large commissions.

He had to leave his chair at the University after war without a pension and worked as an architect till the end of his life. In Stuttgart he built the "Königin-Olga-Bau" for the Dresdner Bank in 1950.

Works

• Baugestaltung. Das Deutsche Wohnhaus (1932)
• Die 25 Einfamilienhäuser der Holzsiedlung am Kochenhof (1933; with Otto Graf, H. Reiher, Erich K. Hengerer and Fritz Kreß)
• Die Baukunst im Neuen Reich (1934)
• Das sanfte Gesetz in der Kunst, in Sonderheit in der Baukunst (1943)

See also

• Nazi architecture