In a tour of the exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, we will introduce Werner Düttmann as an architect and urban planner, artist and art collector. An important role is played by the Brücke-Museum itself as a venue designed for the art of Die Brücke. Selected works from the Expressionist collection will be presented. You will also gain an overview of Düttmann’s entire architectural oeuvre in Berlin, with a particular focus on 27 buildings and squares and their relevant themes such as single-family homes, community buildings, urban planning and social housing.

The two political systems of the Cold War stood side by side in a divided Germany. Both West Berlin and the capital of the young GDR—East Berlin—wanted to define their own identities through this direct juxtaposition. In the battle between socialist and liberal-democratic systems, the reconstruction of Berlin took on a highly politicised character. When the redevelopment of Stalinallee became East Berlin’s flagship project of socialist classicism, West Berlin responded with an international building exhibition in the Hansaviertel, Interbau 57, which was to become a showcase of post-war modernism. The most renowned architects of the time were invited to realise their architectural visions in the Hansaviertel, including Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Egon Eiermann, Oscar Niemeyer and Werner Düttmann, who, in addition to the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts), also designed the Hansabücherei (Hansa Library).

In a tour of the exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, we will introduce Werner Düttmann as an architect and urban planner, artist and art collector. An important role is played by the Brücke-Museum itself as a venue designed for the art of Die Brücke. Selected works from the Expressionist collection will be presented. You will also gain an overview of Düttmann’s entire architectural oeuvre in Berlin, with a particular focus on 27 buildings and squares and their relevant themes such as single-family homes, community buildings, urban planning and social housing.

During the years in which Werner Düttmann was Senatsbaudirekor (Senate Building Director) of West Berlin (1960–66), two billion marks were spent each year on state-financed construction projects. About half of this sum went to housing construction, which allowed around 20,000 new housing units to be built annually, including in Kreuzberg between Mehringplatz and Kottbusser Tor. Under Düttmann’s direction, dense, urban neighbourhoods of social housing were created, which would become the focus of the urban renewal debate at the Internationale Bauausstellung ’87 (International Building Exhibition ’87; IBA) two decades later, and are now considered socially deprived areas.

With Lisa Marei Schmidt (Curator & Director, Brücke-Museum)

In a tour of the exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, we will introduce Werner Düttmann as an architect and urban planner, artist and art collector. An important role is played by the Brücke-Museum itself as a venue designed for the art of Die Brücke. Selected works from the Expressionist collection will be presented. You will also gain an overview of Düttmann’s entire architectural oeuvre in Berlin, with a particular focus on 27 buildings and squares and their relevant themes such as single-family homes, community buildings, urban planning and social housing.

In a tour of the exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, we will introduce Werner Düttmann as an architect and urban planner, artist and art collector. An important role is played by the Brücke-Museum itself as a venue designed for the art of Die Brücke. Selected works from the Expressionist collection will be presented. You will also gain an overview of Düttmann’s entire architectural oeuvre in Berlin, with a particular focus on 27 buildings and squares and their relevant themes such as single-family homes, community buildings, urban planning and social housing.

During the years in which Werner Düttmann was Senatsbaudirekor (Senate Building Director) of West Berlin (1960–66), two billion marks were spent each year on state-financed construction projects. About half of this sum went to housing construction, which allowed around 20,000 new housing units to be built annually, including in Kreuzberg between Mehringplatz and Kottbusser Tor. Under Düttmann’s direction, dense, urban neighbourhoods of social housing were created, which would become the focus of the urban renewal debate at the Internationale Bauausstellung ’87 (International Building Exhibition ’87; IBA) two decades later, and are now considered socially deprived areas.

With the construction of the Wall in 1961, which was intended to separate the Eastern and Western sectors, Berlin also became a divided city in terms of urban space. The area around Kurfürstendamm became the centre of walled-in West Berlin and was considered a “symbol of the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle)”. City West thus developed into a new commercial centre around the Zoologischer Garten railway station, with prestigious new buildings that were also to be seen as a symbol of political power vis-à-vis the GDR.

In a tour of the exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, we will introduce Werner Düttmann as an architect and urban planner, artist and art collector. An important role is played by the Brücke-Museum itself as a venue designed for the art of Die Brücke. Selected works from the Expressionist collection will be presented. You will also gain an overview of Düttmann’s entire architectural oeuvre in Berlin, with a particular focus on 27 buildings and squares and their relevant themes such as single-family homes, community buildings, urban planning and social housing.

With the construction of the Wall in 1961, which was intended to separate the Eastern and Western sectors, Berlin also became a divided city in terms of urban space. The area around Kurfürstendamm became the centre of walled-in West Berlin and was considered a “symbol of the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle)”. City West thus developed into a new commercial centre around the Zoologischer Garten railway station, with prestigious new buildings that were also to be seen as a symbol of political power vis-à-vis the GDR.

In a tour of the exhibition Werner Düttmann. Building. Berlin, we will introduce Werner Düttmann as an architect and urban planner, artist and art collector. An important role is played by the Brücke-Museum itself as a venue designed for the art of Die Brücke. Selected works from the Expressionist collection will be presented. You will also gain an overview of Düttmann’s entire architectural oeuvre in Berlin, with a particular focus on 27 buildings and squares and their relevant themes such as single-family homes, community buildings, urban planning and social housing.