Requiem for Putti

Abstract

The following translation is a chapter from a longer book that bemoans the loss of historical architecture through the demolition that swept through German cities in the aftermath of World War II. The text and the numerous photographs—the latter often juxtaposed before and after images—focus on architectural details such as ornamentation of facades, the loss of urban spaces such as corridor streets and squares, and the removal of trees that were once essential parts of urban neighborhoods.

The translated section is Wolf Jobst Siedler’s introduction to the photographic survey illustrating the devastating consequences of removing the rich ornamentation of the facades of historical buildings that had survived the destruction of World War II. Siedler’s argument is not driven by nostalgia and sentimentality but by the quality of life in contemporary German cities. His arguments are often aesthetic ones that open up wider historical, cultural, and political discourses, somewhat comparable to Rudolf Borchardt’s approach to the Italian villa but without the latter’s nationalist overtones.

Keywords:

• Wolf Jobst Siedler
• urban reconstruction
• post-World War II reconstruction
• preservation of architecture
• curator of monuments
• monuments

Notes

1 Translator’s note: the period of rapid industrial and commercial expansion that took off in Germany in the later nineteenth century is called the Gründerzeit. A Gründerhaus was an urban apartment house built in this period, often characterized by decorative excess.

2 Translator’s note: the preservationists lost this particular battle, and Braunschweig Palace was demolished in 1960.

3 Translator’s note: the Berlin Room—Berliner Zimmer—is a large room that doubles as a corridor, linking the front, street facing section of an apartment with the rooms in the side wing. Despite its generous dimensions, it only has one window, set in the corner of the room on the darker, courtyard side.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wolf Jobst Siedler

Translated from German by Iain Boyd Whyte

Originally published as a chapter in Die gemordete Stadt: Abgesang auf Putte und Straße, Platz und Baum [The Murdered City: A Farewell to Putti, Streets, Squares, and Trees”] (Munich & Berlin: F. A. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung 1964 and 1978), 13–14.

Elisabeth Niggemeyer

Translated from German by Iain Boyd Whyte

Originally published as a chapter in Die gemordete Stadt: Abgesang auf Putte und Straße, Platz und Baum [The Murdered City: A Farewell to Putti, Streets, Squares, and Trees”] (Munich & Berlin: F. A. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung 1964 and 1978), 13–14.

Gina Angreß

Translated from German by Iain Boyd Whyte

Originally published as a chapter in Die gemordete Stadt: Abgesang auf Putte und Straße, Platz und Baum [The Murdered City: A Farewell to Putti, Streets, Squares, and Trees”] (Munich & Berlin: F. A. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung 1964 and 1978), 13–14.