Hans Schwippert is associated with the FRG’s new beginnings in architecture and planning. His design of the German “Bundeshaus” in Bonn 1948/49 is irrevocably fixed in our memory; its light-flooded glass architecture, the circular layout of seats in the plenary, and its austere, modest interior mean that it symbolises the changed politics of a new era like no other building. Schwippert shaped the spirit of reconstruction in many respects: as long-term president of the Deutscher Werkbund, as author of the exhibition concept for the German pavilion of the World Exhibition in Brussels 1958, as director of the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, and with his high-rise building in Berlin’s Hansa District for the INTERBAU exhibition in 1957.  In more than 700 pages, this publication includes a lavishly illustrated catalogue section that represents more than documentation of that era: it provides an introduction to all of Schwippert’s buildings, exhibitions and furnishing programmes. The comprehensive anthology also comments on his theoretical texts.
With contributions by:
Gerda Breuer, Leif Hallerbach, Jennifer von Massow, Pia Mingels, Adam C. Oellers, Christopher Oestereich, Paul Sigel und Sandra Wagner-Conzelmann