Günter Behnisch

Behnisch was born the second of three children, in Lockwitz near Dresden.[1] He attended a number of schools, due to the fact his Social Democrat father was arrested, sacked and redeployed to Chemnitz by the new Nazi government.[1]

In 1939, Behnisch volunteered to join the navy (Kriegsmarine), aged 17, which was a less onerous alternative to compulsory labour service, or army conscription.[1] He eventually became a U-boat officer and served aboard U-952. In October 1944, he became one of the youngest U-boat commanders, when he commissioned U-2337.[2] At the end of the Second World War he surrendered his submarine to the British and became a prisoner of war in Featherstone Castle in Northumberland.[1]

Behnisch initially trained as a bricklayer[1] then, in 1947 enrolled to study architecture at the Technical University in Stuttgart.[3] From 1967 to 1987 he was a professor for architectural/building design and industrial building technology at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.[4]

Plenary chamber of the German Bundestag in Bonn

One of his most notable buildings was the new parliament in the West German capital, Bonn. Although he won the architectural design competition in 1973, the construction only began in 1987, and was completed in 1992.[3]

He established his own architecture practice in Stuttgart in 1952, which in 1966 became Behnisch & Partner.

His son Stefan Behnisch established a separate firm, Behnisch Architekten in 1989.

Olympic Park in Munich (1972)

• 1972 Olympic Park in Munich, Germany[5]
• 1992 Plenary Complex of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in Bonn, Germany[6]
• 1993-2005 Academy of Arts Building in central Berlin, a six-story glass expansion of the reconstructed Hotel Adlon[7][8]
• 1997 State Clearing Bank – Landesgirokasse in Stuttgart, Germany[9]
• 1998 Control tower at Nuremberg Airport, Germany[10]
• 2002 North German State Clearing Bank in Hanover, Germany[11]
• 2003 Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA[12]
• 2005 Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in Toronto, Canada[13]

• Busch, Rainer; Röll, Hans-Joachim (1999). German U-boat commanders of World War II : a biographical dictionary. Translated by Brooks, Geoffrey. London, Annapolis, Md: Greenhill Books, Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-186-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Günter Behnisch.

• Official site
• Günter Behnisch at archINFORM