Archive

Werner Düttmann
Building. Berlin.

17. April to 
29. August 2021

Portrait of the architect Werner Düttmann before a party, undated, in the background: Pablo Picasso, Françoise, lithography, 1946, photo: Ingeborg Lommatzsch © Ingeborg Lommatzsch / Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021

Installation view Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, 2021, Photo: Silke Briel © Brücke-Museum

Brücke-Museum, around 1967, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Werner-Düttmann-Archiv, Nr. 33 F. 33/2.

Installation view Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, 2021, Photo: Silke Briel © Brücke-Museum

Mehringplatz, high-rise buildings on Lindenstraße, Dia, 1972, Dia, Stadtmuseum Berlin, Inv.-Nr. SM 2014-1925,70 Foto: Rolf Goetze © Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin – Archiv Rolf Goetze

Akademie der Künste, 2008 Foto: Florian Bolk © Florian Bolk

Installation view Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, 2021, Photo: Silke Briel © Brücke-Museum

Werner Düttmann, sketch of the Ostpreußenbridge, around 1958, photo of a drawing, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Werner-Düttmann-Archiv, Nr. 15 F. 11/5 © Katharina Merz, Hans Düttmann

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The Berlin architect and urban planner Werner Düttmann would have turned a hundred years old on 6 March 2021. This anniversary is celebrated with the large-scale exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin. 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. He left his mark on the public face and structure of this city — from Reinickendorf to Dahlem, from Neukölln to Spandau. The spectrum of his works includes residential and cultural buildings, public squares, community and traffic structures.

Very much in the spirit of Düttmann’s extremely communicative personality, this project is conceived like a network. 28 of his extant buildings and squares in Berlin will be actively integrated into the exhibition and experienced at no charge in situ as ‘actual-size’ objects. In addition to the Akademie der Künste in Hansa district and the Hansa Library, these include, among others, the traffic tower on Kurfürstendamm and the Ernst-Reuter-Platz, the St. Agnes Church (now the KÖNIG GALERIE) in Kreuzberg and St. Martin’s Church in the Märkisches Viertel, the architect’s residential buildings in the latter district, and the subway stations Blaschkoallee, Parchimer Allee, and Britz-Süd on the U7 line. The exhibition is accompanied by the the extensive project website (www.wernerduettmann.de), where in-depth information on the buildings can be found, but also video portraits and audio tracks as well as curated architect tours that encourage city walks.

The presentation at Brücke-Museum offers a chronological overview of all of his Berlin buildings and thus provides inspiration actively to discover the buildings and urban space. It also presents Düttmann’s little-known artistic origins as well as parts of his eclectic collection of art. Last but not least, the presentation addresses and honours the Brücke-Museum itself as a building and as an exemplary space for art. To that end, one exhibition space is being restored to its historical state and selected masterpieces from the collection will be shown in their original hanging. In addition to the Brücke Museum, interior displays are planned in the foyer of the Akademie der Künste, the Hansabücherei (Hansa Library), KÖNIG GALERIE in St. Agnes and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HWK).

 

Project website: www.wernerduettmann.de

 

Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin is conceived and organized by the Brücke-Museum. Cooperation partners are the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, the Landesdenkmalamt (Monument Authority) Berlin, and the Technische Universität Berlin.

The exhibition is supported by LOTTO-Stiftung Berlin and Hauptstadtkulturfonds.


 

The publication is supported by Wüstenrot Stiftung and Landesdenkmalamt Berlin.

 

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Publications

2020–2022

Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin.

Catalogue
Edited by Lisa Marei Schmidt and Kerstin Wittmann-Englert
With contributions by Franziska Achatzi, Elke Beyer, Arno Brandlhuber, Adrian von Buttlar, Thorsten Dame, Jose Dávila, Gabi Dolff-Bonekämper, Hans Düttmann, Martina Düttmann, Marte Eknæs, Niklas Fanelsa, Werner Heegewaldt, Nele Hertling, Alexander Hoff, Alexander Hosch, Hartwig Klappert, Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik, Niklas Maak, Van Bo Le-Mentzel, Anh-Linh Ngo, Christoph Rauhut, Anri Sala, Lisa Marei Schmidt, Dorothea Schöne, Katrina Schulz, Frank Seehausen, Thomas Steigenberger, Niloufar Tajeri, David Wagner, Kerstin Wittmann-Englert, Hanns Zischler

Wasmuth & Zohlen Verlag, Berlin
372 pages
368 images
German / English
ISBN 978-3-8030-2215-8
€ 39,90 Museum edition

2020–2022

Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin.

Staff

Lisa Marei Schmidt, Curator
Katrina Schulz, Academic Researcher
Franziska Zahl, Project Manager
Daniela Bystron, Curator of Outreach
Franziska Achatzi, Curatorial Assistant
Anna Budniewski, Outreach Programme Assistant
Irene Bretscher and Corinna Wolfien, Press an Communication
Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik, Exhibition Architecture
Stan Hema, Print and Project-Website
K.I. Büro für Kunstvermittlung, Art Mediation
Poligonal Büro für Stadtvermittlung, Urban Communication