Architect Werner Düttmann: Building Berlin

Walking around Berlin today, you could witness his creative mind and influence at the U-Bahn stations, churches, libraries and museums – public venues, which turn the city into an extended living room. Floor-to-ceiling windows, reduced forms and fluid transitions between the inside and the outside characterize Düttmann’s designs. He created architecture that breathes – it may lack decorative elements but still feels adorned. With his notable UdK (University of Arts) building, the St. Agnes church and the Hansa library, Düttmann translated the dynamics of the city into openly flowing spatial sequences.

These buildings are among 28 different sites and locations taking center stage at Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin exhibition opening on April 17^th at the Brücke Museum. The “life size” exhibition tells the story of the buildings and its creator through city walks, video portraits of their residents, films, projections, and Düttmann’s own art collection.

As an architect, head of the Senate Building Department (1960–66), professor at the Technische Universität of Berlin (1966–70), and president of the Akademie der Künste (1971–83), Düttmann was one of the central figures in the life and culture of West Berlin during his lifetime. In his various functions, he left his mark on the public face and structure of this city — from Reinickendorf to Dahlem, from Neukölln to Spandau. To this day, Werner Düttmann is one of the most important representatives of the post-war Modernism and Brutalism movements. 

Emerging in the late 1940s, Brutalism (referring to Le Corbusier and his preference for béton brut, French for “exposed, reinforced concrete”) gave form to the functionalist aspirations of early Modernism while being symptomatic of the moral seriousness that infused a post-war Europe. More than an aesthetic position, it was a movement where architectural ambitions were intimately bound to ideas of social emancipation: this new style of Modernism argued that a democratic society could be created through rationally designed buildings.

In this context of functionality, low cost and innovative aesthetics made concrete widely employed in new structures because of its economic and technical qualities and its incredible plasticity and ability to give shape to the most diverse forms.

Numerous buildings, some of which were erected during this period, are now the focus of controversial discussions: while they are not necessarily aesthetically beautiful for most people due to their, shall we say, brutal appearance, they exert a special fascination for experts and remain the monuments to their time. Unfortunately, most of these projects are crumbling and in need of restoration, while some are subject to demolition. We recently signed a petition to save the Mouse Bunker, undoubtedly the most monumental Brutalist structure in Berlin.