Werner Düttmann Change this

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Werner Düttmann was a German architect and painter. He began his studies at the Technical University in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1939. His teacher after war was Hans Scharoun. Since 1951 he worked as an architect in the design office of the Berlin building administration. In 1953 he was appointed to the government board, but also worked as a freelance architect. In the period 1956-1960 he was a freelance architect in Berlin. He was appointed to the Senate Building Directorate of West Berlin for the position in the city planning in 1960. From 1966 to 1970 Düttmann served as a full professor at the Technical University. Werner Düttmann is one of the most important representatives of post-war modernity .

Artist, Collector, Architect

The architect and urban planner Werner Düttmann (1921 to 1983) was undoubtedly one of the most formative personalities of post-war modernism in West Berlin. He was not only a freelance architect and urban planner, but parallel to that he was also Senate Building Director (1960 to 1966), professor at the Technical University (1966 to 1970) and President of the Academy of Arts (1971 to 1983). His diverse oeuvre - which of course also emerged from the overlapping of his positions - is impressive: the catalog raisonné ranges from single-family houses to large estates, from subway stations to church buildings, from squares to commercial buildings and up to the slightly brutalist main canteen of the TU Berlin built projects, all of which were created in West Berlin. With the Brücke-Museum in Dahlem, the Akademie der Künste and the “Volksbibliothek” in the Hansa-Viertel, he also managed to build three houses that are among the most beautiful in Berlin. Düttmann would have turned 100 on March 6, 2021. Therefore, an exhibition can currently be seen everywhere in West Berlin - despite Corona - whose center and organizer is the Brücke Museum.

His life's work ranges from single-family homes to large estates, from underground stations to church buildings. Düttmann would have been 100 years old in 2021. On this occasion, 34 of his built projects can currently be seen in an exhibition. The organizer is the Brücke Museum. This is thanks to a large team led by the initiator Lisa Marei Schmidt, who has been director of the Brücke Museum since 2017. When she took up the position, the 50th birthday of the Düttmann building was imminent. With the exhibition “An artist's museum for Berlin”, Schmidt made the house a very special gift in 2018. Namely a largely original restoration of the initial installation. During the research, the idea arose to make Düttmann the topic himself: "I wondered why this person is so little known, even though he was so formative for the city."

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