Tradition and New Building

Abstract

A leading spirit in the traditionally orientated school of architecture centred on the Technische Hochschule in Stuttgart, Paul Schmitthenner was highly influential both as a practicing architect and as an educator in the 1920s. He was resolutely opposed to the modernism of Internationales Bauen and led the polemics against the 1927 Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, promoted by the Deutscher Werkbund and organised by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as spokesman for the Berlin-centered group of modernist designers, The Ring. As the text translated here indicates, Schmitthenner nurtured great hopes for cultural and architectural renewal under National Socialism, which proved misplaced.

Keywords:

• Paul Schmitthenner
• traditional architecture
• Technische Hochschule Stuttgart
• Weissenhofsiedlung
• Dammerstock-Siedlung
• Neue Sachlichkeit
• National Socialism
• Kampfbund für Deutsche Kultur

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul Schmitthenner

Translated from German by Richard George Elliott

Originally published as “Tradition und Neues Bauen,” in Deutsche Kulturwacht, 2, no. 17 (July 29, 1933): 11–12.