By Lynnette Widder

West German architecture underwent a phase of intense productivity from 1949 to 1964. In the immediate post war years, architects confronted Nazi legacies in building culture amidst drastic privation that hampered construction. As industrial production recovered and a middle-class nation emerged, so too did a new architecture influenced by the American International Style model, especially as Bauhaus masters returned to Germany from the United States as advisers. But there was much more at stake than style. Construction details and other technical documents reveal that this was a moment when architectural practice aspired to calibrate social, material, and political norms through design. At the centre of all these transformations were Hans Schwippert and Sep Ruf, two architects who shared political, religious, and professional allegiances. Photographs, drawings, and a broad range of unpublished documents introduce these two architects to an English-language audience.